The South African Railways Class 6E1, Series 5 of 1974 was an electric locomotive.
Between 1974 and 1976, the
South African Railways
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 ...
placed one hundred , electric locomotives with a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement in mainline service. One of them was later withdrawn from revenue service for use as an experimental 25 kV AC locomotive.
[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 3 kV DC Class 6E1, Series 5 electric locomotive was designed and built for the
South African Railways
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 ...
(SAR) by
Union Carriage & Wagon
Union Carriage & Wagon (UCW) is a rolling stock manufacturer in South Africa.
History
Union Carriage & Wagon was established in 1957. Initial shareholders were Commonwealth Engineering (51%), Budd Company (25%) and Leyland Motors (12%). By 1965, ...
(UCW) in Nigel, Transvaal, with the electrical equipment being supplied by the
General Electric Company
The General Electric Company (GEC) was a major British industrial conglomerate involved in consumer and defence electronics, communications, and engineering. The company was founded in 1886, was Britain's largest private employer with over 250 ...
(GEC).
One hundred units were delivered between 1974 and 1976, numbered in the range from E1546 to E1645. Like Series 1 to 4, Series 5 units were equipped with four AEI-283AZ axle-hung traction motors. UCW did not allocate builder's numbers to the locomotives it built for the SAR and used the SAR unit numbers for their record keeping.
Characteristics
Orientation
![SAR Class 6E1 Series 5 E1597 ID](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/SAR_Class_6E1_Series_5_E1597_ID.JPG)
These dual cab locomotives had a roof access ladder on one side only, just to the right of the cab access door. The roof access ladder end was marked as the no. 2 end. A corridor along the centre of the locomotive connected the cabs which were identical apart from the fact that the handbrake was located in cab 2. A pantograph hook stick was stowed in a tube mounted below the lower edge of the locomotive body on the roof access ladder side. The units had one square and two rectangular access panels along the lower half of the body on the roof access ladder side, and only square access panel on the opposite side.
Series identifying features
![Class 6E1 E1672 grilles](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Class_6E1_E1672_grilles.jpg)
The Class 6E1 was produced in eleven series over a period of nearly sixteen years. While some Class 6E1 series are visually indistinguishable from their predecessors or successors, some externally visible changes did occur over the years.
The Series 3 to Series 5 locomotives were visually indistinguishable from each other, the only externally visible difference being the narrower stirrup middle step below the side doors of the first fifty Series 3 units, those in the number range from E1296 to E1345.
[E1345 with narrow stirrup](_blank)
(Accessed on 6 June 2017)[E1346 with wide stirrup](_blank)
(Accessed on 6 June 2017)
The Series 6 and 7 locomotives are also visually indistinguishable from each other, but can be distinguished from all the older series by the rainwater beading that had been added above the small grilles on the sides aft of the side doors.
Service
The Class 6E1 family saw service all over both 3 kV DC mainline and branch line networks, the smaller Cape Western mainline between
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
and
Beaufort West
Beaufort West (Afrikaans: ''Beaufort-Wes''; Xhosa: ''eBhofolo'') is a town in the Western Cape province in South Africa. It is the largest town in the arid Great Karoo region, and is known as the "Capital of the Karoo". It forms part of the Beauf ...
and the larger network which covers portions of the
Northern Cape
The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of the Kgalagadi T ...
, the
Free State,
Natal
NATAL or Natal may refer to:
Places
* Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil
* Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa
** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843)
** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ...
,
Gauteng
Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'.
Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...
,
North West
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
and
Mpumalanga
Mpumalanga () is a province of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It ...
.
Reclassification and rebuilding
Test bed for 25 kV AC research
![SAR Class ExpAC E1600 R](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/SAR_Class_ExpAC_E1600_R.JPG)
One of the Series 5 units, no. E1600, was withdrawn from revenue service in 1978, rebuilt as a test-bed for electrification and reclassified to
Class Experimental AC. This was done while the electrification of the four isolated routes was in progress. No. E1600 was never returned to revenue service. The four 25 kV AC routes are:
* From Pyramid South to
and via Rustenburg to Thabazimbi.
* From Ermelo to
Richards Bay
Richards Bay ( af, Richardsbaai) is a town in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It is situated on a 30 square kilometre lagoon of the Mhlatuze River, which makes it one of the country's largest harbours. Richards Bay also has the deepest natural ha ...
.
* From Port Elizabeth to De Aar and from there northward to
Kimberley
Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to:
Places and historical events
Australia
* Kimberley (Western Australia)
** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley
* Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania
* Kimberley, Tasmania a small town
* County of Kimberley, a ...
and southward to
Beaufort West
Beaufort West (Afrikaans: ''Beaufort-Wes''; Xhosa: ''eBhofolo'') is a town in the Western Cape province in South Africa. It is the largest town in the arid Great Karoo region, and is known as the "Capital of the Karoo". It forms part of the Beauf ...
.
* From East London to
Springfontein
Springfontein is a small mixed farming town in the Free State province of South Africa.
History
The town was established in 1904 on the farm Hartleydale, which was part of the farm Springfontein. The name Springfontein, which is Afrikaans for "j ...
.
No. E1600 is set to be preserved for the national collection by the SA Heritage Agency and Transnet Heritage Foundation.(stored Pyramid south 03/2020)
Reclassification to Class 16E
![SAR Class 6E1 Series 5 E1607 16-335A](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/SAR_Class_6E1_Series_5_E1607_16-335A.JPG)
During 1990 and 1991, Spoornet semi-permanently coupled several pairs of otherwise largely unmodified Class 6E1 units, reclassified them to
Class 16E and allocated a single locomotive number to each pair, with the individual units in the pairs inscribed "A" or "B". The aim was to accomplish savings on cab maintenance by coupling the units at their no. 1 ends, abandoning the no. 1 end cabs in terms of maintenance and using only the no. 2 end cabs.
Two known Series 5 locomotives, numbers E1549 and E1607, were part of such Class 16E pairs and became Class 16E numbers and 16-335A respectively.
Rebuilding to Class 18E
![Class 18E 18-698](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Class_18E_18-698.JPG)
Beginning in 2000, Spoornet began a project to rebuild Series 2 to 11 Class 6E1 locomotives to
Class 18E, Series 1 and
Series 2 Series 2 could refer to:
* Apple Watch Series 2, a smart watch by Apple
* Aston Martin Lagonda Series 2, the automobile model
* Aston Martin V8 Series 2, the automobile model
* BMW 2 Series, the automobile model line
* GeForce 2 series, line of nV ...
at the Transnet Rail Engineering (TRE) workshops at Koedoespoort. In the process, the cab at the no. 1 end was stripped of all controls and the driver's front and side windows were blanked off to have a toilet installed, thereby forfeiting the unit's bi-directional ability.
[Information gathered from the rebuild files of individual locomotives at Transnet Rail Engineering’s Koedoespoort shops, or obtained from John Middleton as well as several Transnet employees]
Since the driving cab's noise level had to be below 85 decibels, cab 2 was selected as the Class 18E driving cab primarily based on its lower noise level compared to cab 1, which is closer and more exposed to the compressor's noise and vibration. Another factor was the closer proximity of cab 2 to the low voltage switch panel. The fact that the handbrake was located in cab 2 was not a deciding factor, but was considered an additional benefit.
The known Class 6E1, Series 5 units which were used in this project were all rebuilt to Class 18E, Series 2 locomotives. Their numbers and renumbering details are shown in the table. This list is virtually complete with only seven unknowns remaining:
* The unit number of the Class 6E1 unit that was rebuilt to Class 18E no. 18-851 is not known.
* The status of six units listed as “uncompleted”, of which the existence still need to be confirmed by sighting or photographic evidence. The Class 18E rebuilding program was terminated abruptly in late 2014 with about half a dozen units in various stages of completion on the rebuilding line. Some reports indicated that the incomplete units would be forwarded to
Danskraal or
Durban
Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...
for completion, but it could not be confirmed that this actually took place.
Liveries
The whole series was delivered in the SAR Gulf Red livery with signal red cowcatchers, yellow whiskers and with the number plates on the sides mounted on three-stripe yellow wings. In the 1990s many of the Series 5 units began to be repainted in the Spoornet orange livery with a yellow and blue chevron pattern on the cowcatchers. Several later received the Spoornet maroon livery. In the late 1990s at least one was repainted in the Spoornet blue livery with solid numbers and at least four in the Spoornet blue livery with outline numbers. In the
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 after 2008, at least one was repainted in the Shosholoza Meyl purple livery and one in the PRASA light 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.](_blank)
(Accessed on 11 April 2017)
Illustration
The main picture shows no. E1629 in the
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) Shosholoza Meyl livery. Illustrated below are some of the other liveries in which Series 5 locomotives served.
File:SAR Class 6E1 Series 5 E1592.JPG, No. E1592 in SAR Gulf Red & yellow whiskers livery at Bellville Depot, Cape Town, 21 October 2009
File:SAR Class 6E1 Series 5 E1557.JPG, No. E1557 in Spoornet orange livery at Slypklip near Warrenton, Northern Cape
The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of the Kgalagadi T ...
, 22 September 2006
File:SAR Class 6E1 Series 5 E1640.JPG, No. E1640 in Spoornet lined orange livery at Empangeni
Empangeni is a city in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It is approximately 157 kilometres north of Durban, in hilly countryside, overlooking a flat coastal plain and the major harbour town of Richards Bay 16 kilometres away. The N2 freeway runs east ...
, Kwa-Zulu Natal
KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...
, 14 August 2007
File:SAR Class 6E1 Series 5 E1564.JPG, No. E1564 in the correct Spoornet maroon livery without “SPOORNET” at Beaconsfield
Beaconsfield ( ) is a market town and civil parish within the unitary authority of Buckinghamshire, England, west-northwest of central London and south-southeast of Aylesbury. Three other towns are within : Gerrards Cross, Amersham and High W ...
, 17 September 2009
File:SAR Class 6E1 Series 5 E1558.JPG, No. E1558 in an incorrect Spoornet maroon livery with “SPOORNET” at Orkney
Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...
, 13 October 2009
File:SAR Class 6E1 Series 5 E1629 Blue.JPG, No. E1629 in Spoornet blue livery with solid numbers at Capital Park, Pretoria, Gauteng, 4 May 2006
File:SAR Class 6E1 Series 5 E1577.JPG, No. E1577 in Spoornet blue livery with outline numbers at Kaalfontein, Gauteng, 3 October 2006
File:SAR Class 6E1 Series 5 E1566.JPG, No. E1566 in white primer awaiting rebuilding at Koedoespoort, Pretoria, Gauteng, 2 October 2009
File:E1603.jpg, No. E1603 in 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 ...
blue livery, Durban, 24 November 2014
References
External links
{{Locomotives of South Africa
Bo-Bo locomotives
Cape gauge railway locomotives
2910
Railway locomotives introduced in 1974
Union Carriage & Wagon locomotives