Ex Companhia Do Assucar De Angola
Originally 500mm gauge converted to 600mm gauge
Following on from our last report in June this year, O&K 12140 completed a successful steam test on Friday 21st August.
This locomotive is one of a number of O&K locomotives delivered to this sugar estate in Tentativa, north of Luanda. It was dispatched from Germany in April 1930 and is of the 30hp design. The locomotive was discovered at the estate in Angola during a visit in 2003 by Sandstone Heritage Trust personnel and purchased along with three other locomotives. This is the last locomotive to be restored from the four. The Companhia Do Assucar De Angola was unique among sugar estates in Angola in that it used a 500mm gauge rail system. However, most O&K locos are able to be re-gauged to 600mm if required. The locomotive was shipped to South Africa and the chassis has been given an extensive restoration by Sandstone and converted to 600mm gauge by Lukas Nel and his team in Bloemfontein. The boiler has had a totally rebuilt firebox, with new tubes and tube plates fitted at Keith Steven’s workshop in Howick. The locomotive has now been fitted with a newly fabricated cab, smokebox and all the internal steam pipes have been remade.
12140 in May 2015. Photo by Lukas Nel
Below are two short video clips of 12140 in steam.
O&K 12140 in steam and moving for the first time in nearly 50 years. Photos by Lukas Nel