South African Class 15 4-8-2

The South African Railways Class 15 4-8-2 of 1914 was a steam locomotive. In 1914 the railways placed ten Class 15 locomotives with a 4-8-2 Mountain wheel arrangement in service. D.A. Hendrie, the railways' chief mechanical engineer, began the design in 1913 as a mixed traffic locomotive for the Orange Free State, where gradients and curves were less severe than on the coastal sections, with larger 57 inch coupled wheels than the related Classes 12 and 14. The ten locomotives were built by the North British Locomotive Company and delivered in February and March 1914, numbered 1561 to 1570. Early trouble with water treatment led to their steel fireboxes being replaced with copper ones, and near the end of their lives they were relegated to shunting.