South African Class MC 2-6-6-0

The South African Railways Class MC 2-6-6-0 was a class of ten Mallet articulated compound steam locomotives, ordered from the North British Locomotive Company to strengthen the Mallet fleet on the more difficult sections of the Natal mainline and very similar to the Class MB. They were delivered and placed in service in May 1912, numbered 1607 to 1616, and had Walschaerts valve gear and used saturated steam. They were satisfactory locomotives, although like the earlier Mallet compounds they would have performed better with superheating, and only two of them, numbers 1612 and 1615, were later fitted with new superheated boilers. They worked heavy coal trains between Estcourt and Highlands, and in later years some moved to the Cape Western System as banking locomotives up the Hex River Railpass while others went to the Witwatersrand for general service. The class was withdrawn from service during 1933.