South African Class 34-800

Between August 1978 and December 1979 the South African Railways placed fifty Class 34-800 EMD GT26MC diesel-electric locomotives in service. In 1979 one more of the same type was placed in service by Iscor in Newcastle, and between April and July 1980 a further eight of these locomotives were delivered to the South African Railways.^[1][2]

Manufacturer

The Class 34-800 type GT26MC diesel-electric locomotive was designed by Electro-Motive Diesel and built for the South African Railways (SAR) and Iscor by General Motors South African (GMSA) in Port Elizabeth. The first fifty were delivered between August 1978 and December 1979 and were numbered 34-801 to 34-850. In 1979 one more of the same type was placed in service by Iscor, numbered 666-0090. Between April and July 1980 a further eight of these locomotives were delivered to the South African Railways, numbered 34-851 to 34-858.^[1][2][3]

Class 34 series

South Africa’s Class 34 locomotive group consists of seven sub-classes, the General Electric (GE) Class 34-000, 34-400, 34-500 (also known as "34-400 ex Iscor") and 34-900, and the EMD Class 34-200, 34-600 and 34-800. Both these manufacturers also produced locomotives for the South African Classes 33, 35 and 36.^[2]

On the EMD Class 34 series locomotives, Class 34-200 and 34-600 locomotives are visually indistinguishable from one another, but they can be distinguished from the Class 34-800 by the thicker fishbelly shaped sills on their left sides, compared to the straight sill on the left side of the Class 34-800.^[4][5]

Rebuilding and modification

Class 39-000

South African Class 39-000 type EMD GT26CU-3 diesel-electric locomotives were to be rebuilt from Class 34-600, 34-800 and 37-000 locomotives. The project commenced in 2005, using suitable frames from wrecked locomotives.^[1][6]

Rebuilding was done at the Transwerk shops in Bloemfontein between 2006 and 2008. It was intended to produce one hundred Class 39-000s, 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. Two of these were rebuilt from Class 34-800. It was decided, instead of rebuilding old locomotives, to rather continue by building fifty new Class 39-200 locomotives from imported and locally produced components.^[7]

Traction motor upgrade

In 2010 an upgrading project commenced at the Koedoespoort Transnet Rail Engineering shops to upgrade Class 34-800 locomotives by, amongst other modifications, replacing the EMD D29B with EMD D31 traction motors, thereby improving their performance to the standard of the Class 37-000. The upgraded locomotives can be distinguished by the running board mounted handrails that are installed on the right side only.^[6]

Service

South African Railways

In SAR, Spoornet and Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) service the Class 34-800s worked on most main lines and some unelectrified branch lines in the central, eastern, northern and northeastern parts of the country.^[3]

NLPI

NLPI Limited (abbreviated from New Limpopo Projects Investments), a Mauritius registered company, specialises in private sector investments using the build-operate-transfer (BOT) concept. It has three connected railway operations in Zimbabwe and Zambia that form a rail link between South Africa and the Congo.^[1]

• 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) operates on the former Zambian Railways (ZR) from Victoria Falls to Sakania in the Congo.

In Zambia the RSZ locomotive fleet includes former ZR locomotives, but the rest of the locomotive fleet of all three operations consist of EMD 34-200, 34-600 and 34-800 and GE Class 35-000 and 35-400 locomotives from TFR. These locomotives are sometimes marked or branded as either BBR or LOG or both, but their status, whether leased or loaned, is unclear since they are still on the TFR roster and still often work in South Africa as well.^[1]

Iscor

In 1979 one locomotive was delivered new to Iscor’s Newcastle steel works in KwaZulu-Natal, numbered 666-0090.^[1]

Works numbers and deployment

The works numbers of the Class 34-800 as well as their known disposal and deployment are displayed in the table.^[1]

Liveries

The main picture shows 34-849 in Spoornet blue livery with outline numbers.

See also

• South African Class 34-000 (GE)
• South African Class 34-200 (EMD)
• South African Class 34-400 (GE)
• South African Class 34-500 (GE)
• South African Class 34-600 (EMD)
• South African Class 34-900 (GE)
• South African Class 39-000
• Diesel-electric locomotive numbering and classification
• List of South African locomotive classes

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Middleton, John N. (2002). Railways of Southern Africa Locomotive Guide - 2002 (as amended by Combined Amendment List 4, January 2009) (2nd, Dec 2002 ed.). Herts, England: Beyer-Garratt Publications. pp. 38-39, 41, 46. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d} 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
3. ^ ^{a b} Paxton, Leith; Bourne, David (1985). Locomotives of the South African Railways (1st ed.). Cape Town: Struik. p. 141. ISBN 0869772112. 
4. ^ Class 34-600 sill
5. ^ Class 34-800 sill
6. ^ ^{a b} Information supplied by staff at Transnet Rail Engineering, Bloemfontein and Koedoespoort
7. ^ The Class 39 Diesels