It was always a joy to see these massive locos in action. Class 25 locos pulled everything from long freights to the luxurious Blue Train. Here is an SAS SAR publicity photo of a class 25 dressed for the best. Other class 25 locos can be seen here.Class 25 locos
Great picture! The class 25 4-8-4 and class 15F 4-8-2 are beautiful, powerful looking machines. I loved the way the crews kept them in perfect condition, with all the piping and cab controls highly polished. They also frequently had various other embellishments The 25C (condensers) were also impressive machines, but were disfigured when the condensing gear was removed, and the tenders rebuilt with a horrible curved top to the tank More, please
Alan, I have heard of the "Condensers" but no one has ever offered an explanation of how they worked. I assume they somehow condensed steam and reclaimed it as water for the tender?
Condensers looked like extended tenders. They recycled water from the exhausted steam. The reason was to get these large locos across the Great Karoo. A semi desert area that trains between Capetown and Johannesburg had to cross. A hot dry area where water is scarce. Resonable sheep farming area though. Somewhat similar to parts of Australia. Check the last picture of these at my link and you can see what they looked like. I have great videos made from movies of these locos in action during their heyday [ 16 February 2001: Message edited by: Robin Matthysen ]
