The South African Railways Class of 1976 is a branch line diesel-electric locomotive. Between September 1976 and June 1978, the South African Railways placed one hundred Class General Motors Electro-Motive Division type GT18MC diesel-electric locomotives in branch line service. In 1977, one more Class locomotive was built for Columbus Stainless in Middelburg, Transvaal.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 GT18MC diesel-electric locomotive was designed by

General Motors Electro-Motive Division Progress Rail Locomotives, doing business as Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD), is an American manufacturer of diesel-electric locomotives, locomotive products and diesel engines for the rail industry. The company is owned by Caterpillar through its su ...

(GM-EMD) and built in two batches for the South African Railways (SAR) by

General Motors South Africa General Motors South Africa (Pty) Ltd , or GMSA, was a wholly owned subsidiary of American automobile manufacturer General Motors. It manufactured and distributed automobiles under the Chevrolet, Opel and Isuzu brands. The deal with Isuzu was ...

(GMSA) in

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Sou ...

. Fifty were delivered between September 1976 and May 1977, numbered in the range from to , and another fifty between May 1977 and June 1978, numbered in the range from to .EMD Exports - South African Railways GT18MC
/ref> In addition, another single Class GT18MC locomotive was built new in 1977 for Columbus Stainless, a large

stainless steel Stainless steel is an alloy of iron that is resistant to rusting and corrosion. It contains at least 11% chromium and may contain elements such as carbon, other nonmetals and metals to obtain other desired properties. Stainless steel's corros ...

plant which was established in

Middelburg Middelburg may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Europe * Middelburg, Zeeland, the capital city of the province of Zeeland, southwestern Netherlands ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Middelburg, a former Catholic diocese with its see in the Zeeland ...

, Transvaal in 1965.

Distinguishing features

Of the GM-EMD Class 35 locomotives, the Class and are visually indistinguishable from each other.

Service

The Class 35 family is South Africa’s standard branch line diesel-electric locomotive. The GM-EMD Class were designed for light rail conditions and they work on most branch lines in the central, eastern, northern and northeastern parts of the country.A number of them also saw service in Richards Bay working the Golela line.

Works numbers

The Class builder’s works numbers are listed in the table.

Liveries

The Class 35-600 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 them began to be repainted in the Spoornet orange livery with a yellow and blue chevron pattern on the buffer beams. Several later received the Spoornet maroon livery. In the late 1990s many were repainted in the Spoornet blue livery with outline numbers on the long hood sides. After 2008 in the

Transnet Freight Rail Transnet Freight Rail is a South African rail transport company, formerly known as Spoornet. It was part of the South African Railways and Harbours Administration, a state-controlled organisation that employed hundreds of thousands of people ...

(TFR) and

Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) is a South African state-owned enterprise responsible for most passenger rail services in the country. History In 1910, as a consequence of the formation of the Union of South Africa, all railwa ...

(PRASA) era, many were repainted in the TFR red, green and yellow livery and at least one was repainted in the PRASA blue 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

File:Class 35-600 35-671.jpg, Overhead view of no. 35-671 at Mason's Mill, Pietermaritzburg, 8 November 2011 File:SAR Class 35-600 35-622.JPG, No. 35-622 in Spoornet maroon livery, Koedoespoort, Pretoria, 30 September 2009 File:SAR Class 35-600 35-631.JPG, No. 35-631 in Spoornet blue with outline numbers, Capital Park, 1 October 2009 File:Class 35-600 35-662.jpg, No. 35-662 in Transnet Freight Rail livery, Capital Park, 26 September 2015 File:Class 35-600 35-672.jpg, No. 35-672 in PRASA's backdrop blue livery, Bloemfontein, 18 September 2015

References

{{EMD diesels 3450 C-C locomotives Co′Co′ locomotives Co+Co locomotives Electro-Motive Division locomotives GMSA locomotives Cape gauge railway locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1976 1976 in South Africa