SAR Class 25

The SAR Class 25 is a South African Railways steam locomotive of Garratt articulated configuration, introduced in the 1950s and built for hauling heavy freight trains across the arid regions of South Africa's Karoo, where water supply for conventional steam locomotives was a persistent operational challenge. Built with an unusual condensing tender on part of the class, designed to recover and reuse exhaust steam as water rather than venting it, reducing the locomotive's need for frequent watering stops in a water-scarce region, the Class 25 represented one of the most technically sophisticated steam locomotive designs South Africa ever operated. A single preserved Class 25 locomotive, extensively rebuilt and modernized in the 1980s by engineer David Wardale and nicknamed the Red Devil for its striking red livery, became a celebrated demonstration of how far conventional steam locomotive efficiency could still be pushed decades after most railways had abandoned steam traction.