South African Class 3B 4-8-2

The South African Railways Class 3B 4-8-2 of 1912 was a Mountain type steam locomotive of which ten were delivered in 1912 in two batches of five, numbered 1479 to 1488. The Natal Government Railways had ordered them from the North British Locomotive Company on 29 March 1911, and they went straight onto the South African Railways roster because they arrived after the colonial railways were united. Locomotive Superintendent D.A. Hendrie redesigned his Class Hendrie D after the experience of the single experimental American D engine. They worked the upper Natal mainline, then the Eastern Transvaal and Eastern Cape, and ended as shunters in Cape Town until the last were withdrawn from railway service by 1976, most then going to mines.