#0121
Cape Town Railway & Dock 0-4-0T
🇿🇦 South Africa ·built by Hawthorns· from 1859· first locomotive in South Africa
1 photo from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. 0-4-2 Hawthorne Leslie Blackie: Danie van der Merwe from Cape Town, South Africa· CC BY 2.0
what is it?
The Cape Town Railway & Dock 0-4-0T of 1859 was a South African steam locomotive from the pre-Union era in the Cape of Good Hope,and the first locomotive to arrive in South Africa. In September 1859, Messrs. E. & J. Pickering, contractors to the Cape Town Railway and Dock Company for the construction of the Cape Town-Wellington railway line, imported a small 0-4-0 side-tank steam locomotive from England, for use during the construction of the railway.
who runs it
base stats
Bars compare against all trains: 600 km/h (maglev), 1,700 seats; power, weight and number built on a log scale up to 20 MW, 1,000 t and 20,000 built.
fun facts
- First built 167 years ago, in 1859.
- Served for 24 years (1859–1883).
steam locomotive: Burns coal, wood or oil to boil water; the steam drives pistons that turn the wheels.
spec sheet
- built
- 1859
- in service from
- 1859
- retired
- 1883
- status
- preserved
- number built
- 1
- kind
- Steam
- traction
- steam
- origin
- 🇿🇦 South Africa
- builders
- Hawthorns
- designer
- Hawthorns and Company, Leith
- operators
- Cape Government Railways
- top speed
- —
- power
- —
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- wheel arrangement
- 0-4-0
- length
- 7 m
- nicknames
- Blackie
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q16955759, Wikipedia: Cape Town Railway & Dock 0-4-0T (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.