optional tenders. Cape gauge Between 1879 and 1885, the Natal Government Railways (NGR) placed 37 tank locomotives in service. Of these, 18 were built by Kitson and Company and 19 by Stephenson. On the NGR they were designated Class G. When the SAR was established in 1912, the 15 unmodified survivors were designated Class C. The last one was withdrawn from service in the mid-1980s, after more than 105 years in service. In 1880 and 1881, the Cape Government Railways (CGR) placed 18 4th Class tank-and-tender locomotives in mainline service on its Midland System working out of Port Elizabeth and Eastern System working out of East London. Four of these locomotives were still in service when the South African Railways was established in 1912. In 1882 and 1883, the CGR placed 68 tank-and-tender locomotives in mainline service on all three systems. It was an improved version of the 4th Class locomotives of 1880 with larger coupled wheels, built by two manufacturers. Robert Stephenson and Company built 33 with Stephenson valve gear, while Neilson and Company built 35 with Joy valve gear. Of these locomotives, 26 were still in service when the South African Railways was established in 1912. Four tank-and-tender locomotives of the CGR's Experimental 4th Class were supplied by Neilson in 1884, built to the design of J.D. Tilney, Locomotive Superintendent of the Cape Eastern System at the time, to be able to use low-grade local coal. They had Joy valve gear and unusual six-wheeled tenders, with the leading axle mounted in a rigid frame and the other two axles mounted in a bogie. One of the locomotives survived until 1912 and was designated SAR Class 04 as an obsolete locomotive. The first twenty of the CGR 5th Class tender locomotives were delivered from Dübs and Company in 1890. In 1891, the CGR placed a second batch of thirty tender locomotives in mainline service on all three Cape Systems. They were similar to the previous batch of 1890, but differed in respect of the diameter of their coupled wheels, the length of their smokeboxes and their tractive effort. In 1912, when the South African Railways (SAR) was established, the survivors were considered obsolete and designated Class 05. Nevertheless, some of the Class 05 locomotives survived as shunting engines in SAR service for another four decades. They were the last obsolete locomotives to be still in service when they were