[1][2] At the end of the war, these locomotives were staged, but in 1921 they were placed back in service by the South African Railways.

[2][3] Construction of the first 2 ft (610 mm) narrow-gauge railway in Southern Africa began in 1892.

The border was reached in October 1897 and the full line to Umtali was opened to traffic on 4 February 1898.

[2][4] Between 1895 and 1898, the Beira Railway placed 42 Falcon types F2 and F4 tender steam locomotives with a 4-4-0 American type wheel arrangement in service, supplied in six batches by Falcon Engine and Car Works Limited in England and the Glasgow Railway Engineering Company in Scotland.

The Falcon F4 was larger and heavier than the F2, with the running boards stepped down below the cab, a larger tube heating surface in the boiler, single slidebars, straight lipped funnels, Ramsbottom safety valves over the fireboxes, and a tractive effort which was increased from the 3,000 pounds-force (13 kilonewtons) at 75% of boiler pressure of the F2 to 3,987 pounds-force (18 kilonewtons).

They were similar to the previous batches, but had larger three-axle tenders with an increased water capacity.

[4] The construction of the last batch of ten F4 locomotives was subcontracted by Falcon to the Glasgow Railway Engineering Company in Scotland.

The Glasgow locomotives had wasp-waisted safety valves and their engine numbers, also mounted on the sandboxes, were cast oval brass plates.

Since rapid growth in traffic soon overwhelmed the narrow-gauge line, it was widened to Cape gauge by 1900.

They remained in service there until this line was also converted to Cape gauge in 1914 and became the Sinoia branch of the Beira, Mashonaland and Rhodesia Railway.

Several South African Railways (SAR) locomotives from the various narrow-gauge lines were therefore commandeered by the Union Defence Forces (UDF).

[2] In 1921, Lawley numbers NG101 and NG102 were re-commissioned and placed in SAR service on the branchline from Pienaarsrivier to Pankop, off the mainline between Pretoria and Pietersburg.

They performed quite well on this line, since the branch was a light railway with slow speeds and small rolling stock.

NG103, but by this time the Singlewood branch was being regauged to Cape gauge and, by 11 June 1928, it was extended to Zebediela.

[4] Two locomotives have been restored to running condition at the Sandstone Estates near Ficksburg in the Free State.