[1][2][3] The first Type X-17 water tenders were built by the South African Railways (SAR) in its Pietermaritzburg shops in 1938.

[1][2][4][5] During 1938 and 1939, the SAR placed sixteen Class GM Garratt articulated steam locomotives with a 4-8-2+2-8-4 Double Mountain type wheel arrangement in goods train service on the Mafeking line out of Johannesburg.

In spite of initial criticisms and doubts, the unusual arrangement of auxiliary water tenders which had earlier only been seen on the Kitson-Meyer locomotives of the Cape Government Railways and Central South African Railways of 1903 and 1904 respectively, proved to be very effective and was later repeated upon the introduction of the Classes GMA and GO Garratts in 1954.

It rode on SARCAST bogies (similar to North American Bettendorf trucks) with coil springs.

[4] After the end of steam operations in the late 1980s, most of the watering facilities which once existed country-wide have either fallen into disuse or been removed.