The South African Railways Class 7 4-8-0 of 1892 is a steam locomotive from the pre-Union era in the Cape of Good Hope.

In 1892, the Cape Government Railways placed six 7th Class steam locomotives with a 4-8-0 Mastodon type wheel arrangement in service and, until 1893, another 32 were acquired.

The locomotives were renumbered in 1912, when they were assimilated into the South African Railways, but retained their Class 7 classification.

[1][2][3][4] In 1890, Michael Stephens, then Chief Locomotive Superintendent of the Cape Government Railways (CGR), accompanied General Manager C.B.

In Elliot's subsequent report, he stated his conviction that locomotives with eight-coupled wheels should be adopted for the coastal sections of the Midland and Eastern Systems, where fog and the damp atmosphere were detrimental to tractive adhesion at night in the summer months.

They had a capacity of 3 long tons 10 hundredweight (3.6 tonnes) coal and 2,220 imperial gallons (10,100 litres) water.

It continued the attractive appearance of the Cape's locomotives, with a strong construction and sound design.

This was popular amongst crews, who could often be seen riding outside the engine when working in the hotter areas of the country and in South West Africa.

[9] In his report for 1892, Stephens compared the hauling power of the 7th Class to that of older locomotives working between Port Elizabeth and Cradock on the Midland System as 22 to 14.

Their even distribution of weight and flexibility rendered them very easy on the permanent way, while the crews declared them to be the steadiest engines they had yet had on the System, in spite of their height.

Stephens regarded the 7th Class as maximum-power goods-train engines, although he believed that the limit of power on Cape gauge had not yet been reached.

They were equipped with larger type ZE tenders, which rode on two two-axle bogies and had a capacity of 8 long tons (8.1 tonnes) coal and 2,850 imperial gallons (13,000 litres) water.

[3][4][12] In 1915, shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, the German South West Africa colony was occupied by the Union Defence Forces.

[3][4] Most remained there and were only transferred back to South Africa when the Class 32-000 diesel-electric locomotives replaced them in 1961.

The company worked the teak forests which stretched 100 miles (160 kilometres) to the north-west of Livingstone in Zambia, where it built one of the longest logging railways in the world to serve its sawmill at Mulobezi.