Talk:CGR 0-4-0ST 1873

Pioneer, Little Bess & Mliss
The contents of an email from John Middleton on 10 November 2013 clarifies some issues:

From: John Nicholas Middleton To: Kol Andre H Kritzinger Cc: Bruno Martin ; The Lake's ; Leith Paxton Sent: Sunday, November 10, 2013 11:57 PM Subject: Re: CGR 0-4-0ST of 1873

Hi Andre

MW 434 and 442 were ordered by the Crown Agents and the builders record does not mention CGR. Mac Donald & Co were contractors who Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage Railway Co with construction starting in June 1872. It is not known from what date they needed a loco but they did use a small eight ton 0-4-0ST locomotive named MLISS which has not been identified. Crown Agents records show the first two locomotives arrived from the UK in 1873 and are recorded as being named PIONEER and LITTLE BESS. The first train ran as far as Sydenham in October 1873. By 1874 11 miles of railway were complete and it was fully opened in 1875 at which point the Railway (and probably the locos) were taken over by the CGR. These locos were unlikely to have been numbered initially, the M1 and M2 numbers only being applied later, perhaps when CGR took over.

A third (smaller) MW is MW 483 which was delivered to the "Port Elizabeth Railway" through London agents W. Bailey Hawkins & Co in 1874. However the later date suggests that if this loco is MLISS then it would have been used towards the end of the contract. The CGR acquired MW 483 in 1875 and numbered it 14 (see attached photo which came from Leith). If we assume the earlier two as 1 and 2, it suggests the three were not acquired by CGR at the same time.

Cheers

John

Posted here for reference purposes. André Kritzinger (talk) 18:03, 9 December 2013 (UTC)