 They continued to serve well into the SAR era on the Dundee-Hlobane branchline, the Harrismith-Ladysmith section and on the north coast line to Empangeni.In 1915, shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, the German South West Africa colony was occupied by the Union Defence Forces.Since a large part of the territory's railway infrastructure and rolling stock was destroyed or damaged by retreating German forces, an urgent need arose for locomotives for use on the Cape gauge lines in that territory.