Oil Burning 19D's at Voorbaai

[Ian Roberts]

I visited Voorbaai depot for the first time in about 10 years on February 17th.

The atmosphere has definately changed over that time and the ominous "S" has been marked on most of the locos including the two Rhodesian Garratts.

There were three oil burning 19D's looking reasonably complete close to the workshop end of the yard and I was wondering what the original use of these locos was in railway service.

Presumably bunker C burners with heating coils etc in the tender but also capable of burning gas oil or even waste lubricating oil.

Would these oilburners be more suitable for the summer steam services as oil burners do not throw sparks in the way that even the best spark arrested coal burners may do.

I was dissapointed that the George to Mossel Bay trains were diesel hauled and took the power car up to Montague Pass instead.

Ian Roberts
Sugar Land, Texas

[John Ashworth]

Thanks, Ian, for these observations. I believe this is your first post on our forum? Welcome, and may there be many more.

Hopefully some of our members will be able to comment on the use of the oil burners.

[Nathan Berelowitz]

The museum originally did the conversions to avoide the winter fire risk.They were originally burning Bunker C oil and then when over to LA something or other. I think 3 class 25NC excluding Rovos Rail and one 15F and two 19D were done. I heard they were trying a GMAM.

[Dylan Knott]

GMAM 4070 was converted to oil, did a few test trips and then ended up in the museum. It never hauled any trains?!!
19D 2649 was also oil, but converted back to coal.
19D 3334 is under conversion back to coal.
19D 2683 for some odd reason is a coal burner, but fitted with an oil tender.

[Steve Appleton]

When I visited the Welsh Highland Railway about 18 months ago, they were using an oil burning ex-SAR NGG. However, they told me they were planning to convert it back to coal beause of the high cost of the oil. They said that despite the increase in coal prices, coal firing had now become considerably cheaper than oil. Doubtless the same cost comparison applies here in SA too, which probably explains why the oil burners at George are being reconverted to coal.

[Dylan Knott]

Except that down here in Western Cape we cannot run coal burners during summer due to fire risks. Its either oil or nothing.

[Malcolm Wilton-Jones]

On my March 2008 visit photographs I note that 3321 and 3322 (cabside numbers) did not have Vanderbilt (torpedo) tenders but short wheelbase tenders with large box-like structures on top, could these be the tenders refered to? I didn't photograph the tenders of 2749 or 3323 as these two were inside the shed building on the same line as 3321 & 3322. 2649, which was active, definitely had coal in the tender. One 19D which I couldn't identify also had coal (the boiler was NBL 26048 - ex-3328), could this be 3334 which I did not see there?
When were the locos mentioned (2649, 2683 & 3334) converted to oil and back to coal?
Some 19Ds had boilers originally from 24s or 15Fs, are these boilers all the same?
From my photos the locos marked S at that time were 508, 615, 3626, 3632, 3635 & 3693.
Pictures can be seen at [url]D:\Web\Railsing web pages\World trip\South Africa\080306 Voorbaai\index.html[/url]

[Tom Macrery]

I am assuming "S" stands for "Scrap".

[Malcolm Wilton-Jones]

Thanks to reports elsewhere on this forum by Dylan Knott (Outeniqua Choo-Tjoe and Voorbaai) I have found some answers. My unmarked 19D would have been 3334 and the 24 I recorded as 3626 (3626 & 3624 were stamped on a few parts) would have been 3689.
In answer to the above post, I think the S might mean scrap.
Seems I made an error in my URL on my previous post, I will correct it. The South African pages are at http://members.multimania.co.uk/railsin ... africa.htm