| South African Class 6E1, Series 2 | |
|---|---|
| E1252 at Sentrarand Depot, Gauteng, 29 September 2009 | |
| Power type | Electric |
| Designer | Union Carriage and Wagon |
| Builder | Union Carriage and Wagon |
| Model | UCW 6E1 |
| Build date | 1971 |
| Total produced | 50 |
| UIC classification | Bo-Bo |
| Gauge | 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) Cape gauge |
| Bogies | 3.430 m (11 ft 3.0 in) wheelbase |
| Wheel diameter | 1,220 mm (48.0 in) |
| Wheelbase | 11.279 m (37 ft 0.1 in) |
| Length | 15.494 m (50 ft 10.0 in) |
| Width | 2.896 m (9 ft 6.0 in) |
| Height | 4.089 m (13 ft 5.0 in) pantographs down |
| Axle load | 22,226 kg (21.9 long tons) |
| Locomotive weight | 88,904 kg (87.5 long tons) |
| Current collection method |
Pantographs |
| Traction motors | Four AEI 283 AZ |
| Transmission | 18/67 Gear ratio |
| Top speed | 113 km/h (70 mph) |
| Power output | Per motor: 623 kW (835 hp) 1 hour 563 kW (755 hp) continuous Total: 2,492 kW (3,342 hp) 1 hour 2,252 kW (3,020 hp) continuous |
| Tractive effort | 311 kN (70,000 lbf) starting 221 kN (50,000 lbf) 1 hour 193 kN (43,000 lbf) continuous at 40 km/h (25 mph) |
| Locomotive brakes | Regenerative |
| Train brakes | Air & Vacuum |
| Career | South African Railways Spoornet Transnet Freight Rail |
| Class | Class 6E1 |
| Power class | 3 kV DC |
| Number in class | 50 |
| Number | E1246-E1295[1] |
| Delivered | 1971 |
| First run | 1971 |
In 1971 the South African Railways placed fifty Class 6E1, Series 2 electric locomotives with a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement in main line service.[1]
Contents |
The Class 6E1, Series 2 3 kV DC electric locomotive was designed and built for the South African Railways (SAR) by Union Carriage and Wagon (UCW) in Nigel, Transvaal, with the electrical equipment supplied by the General Electric Company (GEC). Fifty locomotives were delivered in 1971, numbered E1246 to E1295.[2]
UCW did not allocate builder’s numbers to the locomotives it built for the SAR. While the practice by most other locomotive builders was to allocate builder’s numbers or works numbers to record the locomotives built by them, UCW simply used the SAR running numbers for their record keeping.[1]
To ensure the maximum transfer of power to the rails without causing wheel slip, the Class 6E1 was built with sophisticated traction links between the bogies and the frames and equipped with electronic wheel slip detection. These traction struts and linkages were to become a distinguishing feature of most subsequent South African electric locomotive models.[3]
These dual cab locomotives have a roof access ladder on one side only, just to the right of the cab access door. The roof access ladder end is marked as the number 2 end. A passage along the centre of the locomotive connects the cabs.[1]
The Class 6E1 was produced in eleven series over a period of nearly sixteen years, nine hundred and sixty units altogether, all built by UCW. This makes the 6E1 the most numerous single locomotive class ever to have seen service in South Africa and serves as ample proof of a highly successful design.[1][3]
While some Class 6E1 series are visually indistinguishable from their predecessors or successors, some externally visible changes did occur over the years. Series 2 and all subsequent Class 6E1 series can be distinguished from Series 1 locomotives by their sandboxes that are not mounted on the bogies as before, but along the bottom edge of the locomotive body with the sandbox lids fitting into recesses in the body sides.[1]
The fifty Series 2 and the first fifty Series 3 locomotives are visually indistinguishable from each other, while on Series 3 numbers E1346 to E1445 an externally visible difference is a wider stirrup middle step below their side doors. This appears to indicate that Series 2 should actually have consisted of one hundred locomotives and not fifty, firstly since these locomotives, numbers E1246 to E1345, are identical in exterior appearance, and secondly since Series 4, 5 and 6 were all delivered in batches of one hundred.[1][4][5]
If that had been the case, Series 2 and 3 would also have consisted of one hundred locomotives each, numbers E1246 to E1345 and E1346 to E1445 respectively, instead of fifty and one hundred and fifty, numbered E1246 to E1295 and E1296 to E1445 respectively, as they were officially designated.[4][5]
The Class 6E1 family saw service all over both of the Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) 3 kV DC main line and branch line networks.[6]
The smaller network is the Cape Western line between Cape Town and Beaufort West, with the locomotives based at the Bellville Depot in Cape Town.[6]
The larger network covers portions of the Northern Cape, the Free State, Natal, Gauteng, North West Province and Mpumalanga, the main routes in this vast area being as follows:[6]
The electric locomotives allocated to depots within this network are largely pooled and can operate anywhere in the network as required by the Operating Department, but they return to their home depots for maintenance every twenty-eight days.[6]
In 2011 the Class 6E1 began to be withdrawn from the Natal corridor (NatCor) line between Johannesburg and Durban, being replaced with Class 18E locomotives.[6]
The coastal sections from Durban to Empangeni in the north and Port Shepstone in the south were dieselised at the end of October 2011, using EMD Class 34 and Class 37-000 locomotives that were displaced by new class 43-000 diesel-electric locomotives on the line from Mpumalanga to Richards Bay, via Swaziland. The overhead catenary equipment between Stanger and Empangeni and between Kelso and Port Shepstone was to be removed soon after.[7]
The main picture shows E1252 in Spoornet orange livery at Sentrarand Depot in Gauteng on 29 September 2009.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||