South African Class NG3 4-6-2T

By 1906, the Natal Government realised that light railways were essential as feeders to open up fertile districts which were distant from the existing main- and branch lines, particularly when the intervening stretches of country were difficult from an engineering point of view. The second narrow-gauge railway in Natal was constructed from Esperanza at Umzinto on the South Coast via Ixopo to Donnybrook. ==Manufacturer==

Commonly known as the Hawthorn Leslie Side Tanks, the second batch of narrow-gauge locomotives of the Natal Government Railways (NGR) were built to the design of NGR Locomotive Superintendent D.A. Hendrie, based on his earlier design of the Hunslet 4-6-2T locomotives of 1906. An order for six of these locomotives was placed with Hawthorn Leslie and Company. The locomotives were similar in appearance to the earlier Hunslet Side Tank, but with larger water tanks and more ornate boiler-mounted sandboxes. They also had round-top fireboxes, outside plate frames and used Walschaerts valve gear. ==Service==

Natal Government Railways The Hawthorn Leslie Side Tanks were acquired specifically to work the Donnybrook-Esperanza railway. When they were delivered in 1907 in anticipation of the opening of the Donnybrook line the following year, they became part of the Class N on the NGR and were numbered in the range from 4 to 9. In 1912, the NGR narrow-gauge locomotives were included in the SAR's narrow-gauge numbering scheme, but were not classified or renumbered and merely had an "NG" prefix, for narrow gauge, added to their existing engine numbers. In 1915, shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, the German South West Africa colony was occupied by the Union Defence Forces. Since a large part of the territory's railway infrastructure was destroyed or damaged by retreating German forces, an urgent need arose for locomotives for use on the narrow-gauge lines in that territory. In 1917, three of these locomotives, numbers NG4, NG6 and NG9, were transferred to the Defence Department for service in South West Africa. Numbers NG4 and NG9, and possibly all three locomotives, returned to South Africa after the war. A system of grouping narrow-gauge locomotives into classes was only adopted by the SAR in the late 1920s. At that point, the four remaining Hawthorn Leslie Side Tanks, numbers NG4, NG5, NG8 and NG9, were designated on the SAR. ==References==