CGR Railmotor

The Cape Government Railways Railmotor of 1906 was a one-off steam railmotor, a self-contained motor-coach in which the locomotive and the coach formed a single vehicle, with a driver's station at the rear end of the coach for reverse running. It was built in 1905 and delivered to the Cape Government Railways in 1906 as the first steam railmotor to enter service there. The locomotive part, a 0-4-0 side-tank engine, was built by the North British Locomotive Company, while the coach part was built by Metropolitan Amalgamated Railway Carriage and Wagon. The coach seated 20 first class and 16 third class passengers, and the vehicle was the only known steam railcar with a cab forward locomotive, its power unit pivoting like a bogie to negotiate curves and points. It was placed on the Franschhoek branch line and in later years worked a shuttle between Bellville and Salt River. The South African Railways took it onto their roster in 1912 as an unclassified locomotive, and it was withdrawn in 1918; easy reversing without running the locomotive round was offset by the drawback that any locomotive maintenance took the whole vehicle out of service.