The South African Railways Class of 1974 is a diesel-electric locomotive.
Between December 1974 and July 1976, the South African Railways placed one hundred Class General Motors Electro-Motive Division type GT26MC diesel-electric locomotives in service.South African Railways Index and Diagrams Electric and Diesel Locomotives, 610mm and 1065mm Gauges, Ref LXD 14/1/100/20, 28 January 1975, as amended
Manufacturer The Class type GT26MC diesel-electric locomotive was designed by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and built for the South African Railways (SAR) by General Motors South Africa (GMSA) in Port Elizabeth. One hundred locomotives were delivered between December 1974 and July 1976, numbered in the range from to .
Distinguishing features
Of the GM-EMD Class 34 family of locomotives, Classes and units are visually indistinguishable from one another, but they can be distinguished from the Class by the thicker fishbelly shaped sills on their left hand sides compared to the straight sill on the left hand side of the Class .Class 34-600 sill (Accessed on 11 June 2017)Class 34-800 sill (Accessed on 11 June 2017)
Rebuilding and modification
Class 39-000 The Class 39-000 type GT26CU-3 diesel-electric locomotives were to be rebuilt from Class , and locomotives. The project commenced in 2005, using suitable frames from wrecked locomotives. Rebuilding was done at the Transwerk shops in Bloemfontein between 2006 and 2008.Information supplied by staff at Transnet Rail Engineering, Bloemfontein and Koedoespoort
It was intended to produce one hundred Class locomotives but in spite of the technical success of the project, rebuilding was halted after completing the first five locomotives due to higher than anticipated cost. It was decided, instead of rebuilding old locomotives, to continue the program by building fifty new Class locomotives from imported and locally produced components. Three Class locomotives, numbers , and , were rebuilt to Class before the rebuilding project was halted.The Class 39 Diesels (Accessed on 11 June 2017)
Traction motor upgrade In 2010, an upgrading project commenced at the Koedoespoort Transnet Rail Engineering shops to upgrade Class locomotives by, amongst other modifications, replacing the GM-EMD D29B with GM-EMD D31 traction motors, thereby improving their performance to the standard of the Class .
Locomotives that are known to have undergone this upgrade are annotated "D31 TM" in the "Leased, rebuilt or sold to" column in the table.
Service
South African Railways In SAR, Spoornet and Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) service, the Class worked on most mainlines and some unelectrified branch lines in the central, eastern, northern and northeastern parts of South Africa.
National Railways of Zimbabwe From at least 1988 until at least 1992, the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) hired type GT26MC Class locomotives from the SAR and later Spoornet. Locomotives which were observed to be working on the NRZ between April 1988 and September 1992 are annotated "NRZ" in the "Leased, rebuilt or sold to" column in the.Spoornet Diesels Leased to ZR 1978-1993. P.F. Bagshawe.
NLPI Ltd. NLPI Limited, abbreviated from New Limpopo Projects Investments, a Mauritius-registered company, specialises in private sector investments by using the build-operate-transfer (BOT) concept. It had three connected railway operations in Zimbabwe and Zambia which formed a rail link between South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway (BBR), commissioned on 1 September 1999, operates the Beit Bridge to Bulawayo line in Zimbabwe. Since February 2004, NLPI Logistics (NLL or LOG) operates between Bulawayo and Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe-Zambia border. Since February 2003, the Railway Systems of Zambia (RSZ) operated on the former Zambian Railways (ZR) from Victoria Falls to Sakania in the Congo.
In Zambia, the RSZ locomotive fleet included former ZR locomotives, but the rest of the locomotive fleet of all three operations consisted of South African GM-EMD Classes , and and GE Classes and locomotives from Spoornet and later TFR. These locomotives were sometimes marked or branded as either BBR or LOG or both, but their status, whether leased or loaned, was unclear since they were still on the TFR roster and still often worked in South Africa as well.
Class locomotives which served with NLPI include the locomotives annotated "NLPI" in the "Leased, rebuilt or sold to" column in the table.
Zambia Railways, the state-owned holding company, resumed control of the Zambian national rail network on 11 September 2012. This followed the Zambian government's decision to revoke the operating concession awarded to RSZ after Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda claimed that RSZ had "blatantly disregarded the provisions of the agreement" and had been "acting in a manner prejudicial to the interests of Zambians".ZRL in charge as RSZ concession revoked. Railway Gazette International, 13 September 2012
Sheltam One of the Class locomotives, no. , was sold to Sheltam, a locomotive hire and repair company based at the Douglas Colliery near Witbank in Mpumalanga which undertakes complete operating contracts and maintenance contracts. By the turn of the millennium, Sheltam locomotives were operating at Randfontein Estates Gold Mine in Gauteng, in Mpumalanga at Douglas and Vandyksdrift Collieries and at SAPPI, Ngodwana. They also operated on Spoornet's Newcastle-Utrecht branch in KwaZulu-Natal and on Kei Rail in the Eastern Cape. Outside South Africa, they operated on the BBR, NLL and RSZ lines through Zimbabwe and Zambia and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.SA Rail, Volume 46, Number 2, April 2008, p3-7, ISSN 1026-3195
Chemin de Fer Congo-Ocean Six Class locomotives were leased to the Congolese railway, the Chemin de Fer Congo-Ocean (CFCO), where they were renumbered in the range from CC801 to CC806.
Camrail Six more locomotives which were at one time erroneously believed to have also gone to CFCO in the Congo, are now believed to have gone to Camrail in the Republic of Cameroon in about 2002, where they were renumbered in the range from CC2601 to CC2606. The order of their renumbering is not known.
Ferrovia Centro Atlântico Five Class locomotives went to Ferrovia Centro Atlântico (FCA) at Divinipolis in Brazil, where they run on . While they were initially part of Spoornet Traction's leasing scheme, they were later renumbered onto the FCA roster in the number range from 8226 to 8230.
Ferrovia Sul Atlântico Ten Class locomotives went to Ferrovia Sul Atlântico (FSA) at Curitiba in Brazil, where they also run on Metre gauge. While they were also initially part of Spoornet Traction's leasing scheme, they were later renumbered onto the FSA roster in the number range from 8231 to 8240.
Works numbers The builder's works numbers of Class locomotives as well as their known disposal and deployment are listed in the table. +Class 34-600, GM-EMD type GT26MCLoco no.GMSAworks no.Leased, rebuiltor sold toNewno.34-601 101-134-602 101-234-603 101-334-604 101-4FCA822634-605 101-534-606 101-6NRZ34-607 101-734-608 101-834-609 101-934-610 101-1034-611 101-1134-612 101-1234-613 101-1334-614 101-1434-615 101-1534-616 101-1634-617 101-1734-618 101-18FSA823134-619 101-19Camrail34-620 101-20Class 39-00039-00434-621 101-21NRZ34-622 101-2234-623 101-23NLPI34-624 101-2434-625 101-25NRZ34-626 101-2634-627 101-2734-628 101-28FSA823234-629 101-2934-630 101-30FSA823334-631 101-3134-632 101-32FCA822834-633 101-3334-634 101-3434-635 101-35Class 39-00039-00134-636 101-3634-637 101-3734-638 101-3834-639 101-3934-640 101-40Sheltam18/260434-641 101-41NLPI34-642 101-4234-643 101-4334-644 101-44NRZ/Camrail34-645 101-4534-646 101-46FSA823434-647 101-47NLPI/D31 TM34-648 101-48NRZ/NLPI34-649 101-4934-650 101-50NLPI34-651 101-5134-652 101-5234-653 101-5334-654 101-5434-655 101-55Camrail34-656 101-56FSA823534-657 101-57FSA823634-658 101-5834-659 101-59FCA822934-660 101-60NRZ/Camrail34-661 101-61NRZ/Camrail34-662 101-62CFCOCC80434-663 101-63CFCOCC80534-664 101-6434-665 101-6534-666 101-66NLPI34-667 101-6734-668 101-68NRZ/NLPI/D31 TM34-669 101-69FSA823734-670 101-70CFCOCC80634-671 101-71CFCOCC80334-672 101-7234-673 101-73FSA823834-674 101-74NRZ/Class 39-00039-00334-675 101-7534-676 101-76NRZ34-677 101-77FSA823934-678 101-78NLPI34-679 101-7934-680 101-80NRZ/CFCOCC80134-681 101-81NRZ34-682 101-82NRZ/CFCOCC80234-683 101-83FCA822734-684 101-84Camrail34-685 101-8534-686 101-86NRZ/D31 TM34-687 101-8734-688 101-88FCA823034-689 101-8934-690 101-90NRZ34-691 101-91NLPI34-692 101-92FSA824034-693 101-93NLPI34-694 101-94NLPI34-695 101-9534-696 101-96NRZ/NLPI34-697 101-9734-698 101-98NLPI34-699 101-9934-700 101-100
Liveries The Class 34-600 were all delivered in the SAR Gulf Red livery with signal red buffer beams, yellow side stripes on the long hood sides and a yellow V on each end. In the 1990s many of the Class 34-600 units began to be repainted in the Spoornet orange livery with a yellow and blue chevron pattern on the buffer beams. Two known locomotives, numbers and , were painted in Spoornet's orange era Blue Train livery. Some later received the Spoornet Traction maroon livery. After 2008 in the Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) era, some were repainted in the TFR red, green and yellow livery.Soul of A Railway, System 7, Western Transvaal, based in Johannesburg, Part 9. South-Eastwards as far as Volksrust (2nd part) by Les Pivnic. Caption 4. (Accessed on 11 April 2017)
Illustration Depicted below is no. in Spoornet's Blue Train livery, incorrectly numbered as a Class on the cabside. The error was corrected later. Other liveries which were applied to Class locomotives are also illustrated.Class 34-651 livery (Accessed on 11 June 2017)
References