South African Class 34-900

Between October 1979 and February 1981 the South African Railways placed thirty Class 34-900 GE U26C diesel-electric locomotives in service.^[4]

Manufacturer

The Class 34-900 type GE U26C diesel-electric locomotive was designed by General Electric and built for the South African Railways (SAR) by the South African General Electric-Dorman Long Locomotive Group (SA GE-DL, later Dorbyl).^[1][4][5]

Class 34 series

GE and EMD designs

South Africa’s Class 34 locomotive group consists of seven series, the 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.^[4]

Distinguishing Features

As built, the GE Class 34-000, 34-400 and 34-900 locomotives were visually indistinguishable from each other. The Class 34-500 locomotives could be visually distinguished from the other series by the air conditioning units mounted on their cab roofs and initially, when it was still a feature unique to them, by their running board mounted handrails.^[6]

At some stage during the mid 1980s all Class 34-000, 34-400 and 34-500 locomotives had saddle filters installed across the long hood, mounted just to the rear of the screens behind the cab on the sides. Since then Class 34-900 locomotives could be distinguished from the older models by the absence of the saddle filter.^[6]

Service

Systems

Class 34-900 locomotives work on most mainlines and some branchlines in the central, western, southern and southeastern parts of the country. Some eventually joined the Class 34-500 on the 861 kilometres (535 miles) Sishen-Saldanha iron ore line to haul export ore from the open cast iron mines at Sishen near Kathu in the Northern Cape to the harbour at Saldanha in the Western Cape.^[5]

Running board mounted handrails

Class 34-900 locomotives that are allocated to the Sishen-Saldanha Orex line are usually modified by having removable running board mounted handrails installed. All South African diesel-electric locomotives have their side handrails mounted along the upper edges of their long hoods. The ex Iscor Class 34-500s, however, came equipped with additional removable running board mounted handrails. Since these handrails are slide-fit into brackets welded onto the running board, they are easily removed.^[4][6]

Since circa 2009 other mainline diesel-electric locomotive types also emerged from the Koedoespoort Transwerk shops with running board mounted handrails after major overhauls.^[7]

Fuel capacity

The Class 34-900 has a 5,400 litres (1,400 US gallons) fuel tank as built, while the Class 34-500 was delivered new to Iscor with a 7,000 litres (1,800 US gallons) fuel tank in order to cope with the longer distance between refuelling points on the Sishen-Saldanha Orex line. To facilitate the larger fuel tank, the inter-bogie linkage found on all other models was omitted on the Class 34-500.^[8]

In order to be usable on the iron ore line, Class 34-900s that end up working there are modified to a similar fuel capacity. The inter-bogie linkage is removed and the fuel tank is enlarged by changing it from saddle shaped to rectangular shaped, as illustrated by the welds on the end of 34-080’s fuel tank in the picture alongside.^[3]

Mixed Power

On the Sishen–Saldanha Orex line GE Class 34 series diesel-electric locomotives run consisted to Class 9E and Class 15E electric locomotives to haul the 342 wagon iron ore trains. Each wagon has a 100 ton capacity and the trains are at least 3.72 kilometres (2.31 miles) in length, powered by mixed consists of Class 9E and Class 15E electric and GE U26C Class 34-000, 34-400, 34-500 and 34-900 diesel-electric locomotives. In South Africa mixed electric and diesel-electric consists are unique to the iron ore line.^[4][9][10]

A Class 9E or Class 15E electric locomotive serves as the master of each mixed electric and diesel-electric consist, with a total of between nine and twelve locomotives per train, twelve being the maximum number allowed. Before the Class 15E was placed in service in 2010, motive power usually consisted of three sets of locomotives, each set made up of one or two Class 9E electrics and one or two Class 34 diesel-electrics, with each set’s leading electric locomotive controlling its respective set of diesel-electrics by means of a slimkabel (smart cable). In effect each ore train was made up of three separate 114 wagon trains consisted together, with the locomotives of all three trains controlled by means of a Locotrol radio distributed power control system by one crew in the leading electric locomotive. A typical train would therefore be made up of locomotive set A, 114 wagons, locomotive set B, 114 wagons, locomotive set C, and 114 wagons.^{[4][9][10][11]}

Some problems were experienced using this configuration, and after a couple of major derailments the locomotive configuration was changed to four sets, with locomotive set D initially made up of two Class 34 diesel-electric locomotives at the rear end of the train, pushing at between 40% and 50% of tractive power at all times, depending on the grades being traversed. The total maximum number allowed was still between nine and twelve locomotives per train.^[4][10]

As more Class 15Es were delivered and placed in service, Class 9E or Class 15E electrics replaced the pair of Class 34 diesel-electrics in set D. At the same time the more powerful Class 15E also made it possible to use as few as seven locomotives per train, with locomotive sets A, B and C each made up of one Class 15E and one Class 34, and set D of a single Class 15E.^[4][10]

Liveries

In the SAR and Spoornet eras, when the official liveries were Gulf Red and whiskers for the SAR, and initially orange and later maroon for Spoornet, many selected electric locomotives and some diesels were painted blue for use with the Blue Train, but without altering the layout of the various paint schemes. Blue Train locomotives were therefore blue with yellow whiskers in the SAR era, blue with the Spoornet logo and "SPOORNET" in Spoornet’s orange era, and blue with the Spoornet logo but without "SPOORNET" in Spoornet’s maroon era. In Spoornet’s blue era there was no need for a separate Blue Train livery, while in the TFR era the Blue Train was relegated to the very bottom of the railway’s business priority list.^[1]

Seven Class 34-900 locomotives, numbers 34-924 to 34-930, were painted in the SAR Blue Train livery and took the place of the five SAR Blue Train liveried Class 34-000 locomotives, numbers 34-055 to 34-059, which were then all eventually repainted in Spoornet’s orange livery. Some of the Class 34-900 locomotives, numbers 34-925 to 34-927, 34-929 and 34-930, were repainted later in Spoornet’s orange era Blue Train livery, while the other two, numbers 34-924 and 34-928, received the Spoornet blue with outline numbers livery.^[1]

The main picture shows 34-926 in Spoornet’s orange era Blue Train livery.

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 34-800 (EMD)
• Diesel-electric locomotive numbering and classification
• South African Class 9E, Series 1
• South African Class 9E, Series 2
• South African Class 15E
• List of South African locomotive classes

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} 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, 40-41, 45-46. 
2. ^ GE Export List
3. ^ ^{a b} Bogie interlinking removed
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} 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
5. ^ ^{a b} Paxton, Leith; Bourne, David (1985). Locomotives of the South African Railways (1st ed.). Cape Town: Struik. pp. 140-141. ISBN 0869772112. 
6. ^ ^{a b c} 34-907 sans saddle filter with running board handrails
7. ^ Shosholoza Meyl’s 34-102 with running board handrails
8. ^ Information received from John Nicholas Middleton
9. ^ ^{a b} Actom Divisions News, 22 July 2010
10. ^ ^{a b c d} Information supplied by Orex train crew members
11. ^ Locotrol Distributed Power