In 1903, the Cape Government Railways placed two Karoo Class steam locomotives with a 4-6-2 Pacific type wheel arrangement in passenger service.

[1][2][3][4] The Karoo Class of the Cape Government Railways (CGR) was the first tender locomotive with a 4-6-2 Pacific type wheel arrangement to be introduced in Africa.

[1][2] Designed by CGR Chief Locomotive Superintendent H.M. Beatty at the Salt River shops in Cape Town, it was acquired to cope with the increasing weight of passenger trains on the one-in-eighty gradients between Beaufort West and De Aar.

[1] Kitson's later used the Karoo design as basis for a batch of Pacific type locomotives which it built for the Midland Railway of Western Australia.

The eccentrics were fitted to the trailing coupled wheel axle, which resulted in exceptionally long valve connecting rods of 7 feet 10+1⁄4 inches (2,394 millimetres).