| South African Class 6E1, Series 4 | |
|---|---|
| E1446 at Sentrarand Yard, Gauteng, 8 October 2009 | |
| Power type | Electric |
| Designer | Union Carriage and Wagon |
| Builder | Union Carriage and Wagon |
| Model | UCW 6E1 |
| Build date | 1973-1974 |
| Total produced | 100 |
| 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 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 Shosholoza Meyl |
| Class | Class 6E1 |
| Power class | 3 kV DC |
| Number in class | 100 |
| Number | E1446-E1545[1] |
| Delivered | 1973-1974 |
| First run | 1973 |
In 1973 and 1974 the South African Railways placed one hundred Class 6E1, Series 4 electric locomotives with a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement in main line service. One of them holds the world rail speed record on Cape gauge.[1][2][3]
Contents |
The Class 6E1, Series 4 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). One hundred locomotives were delivered in 1973 and 1974, numbered E1446 to E1545.[4]
UCW did not allocate builder’s numbers to the locomotives it built for the SAR. While the usual 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.[2]
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 South African 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][2]
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. The Series 3 to Series 5 locomotives are visually indistinguishable from each other, the only externally visible difference being the wider stirrup middle step below the side doors of Series 3 number E1346 and later locomotives.[1][2][5][6]
The Class 6E1 family saw service all over both of the Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) 3 kV DC main line and branch line networks.[3]
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.[3]
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:[3]
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.[3]
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.[3]
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]
In 1978 one of the Series 4 locomotives, E1525, was modified for experiments in high speed traction by re-gearing the traction motors and installing SAR designed Scheffel bogies and a streamlined nose cone. In this configuration E1525 managed to reach a speed of 245 kilometres per hour (152 miles per hour) on 31 October 1978 on a stretch of track between Westonaria and Midway, a still unbeaten world record on 3 feet 6 inches (1,067 millimetres) Cape gauge.[2][3][8]
During November 1980 the same locomotive was used to test the British Rail-Brecknell Willis high speed pantograph, then still under development, as part of the SAR’s research towards introducing a new high speed MetroBlitz service between Pretoria and Johannesburg. A number of European pantographs were being evaluated for use on the Class 6E1, with the trains running at 90 miles per hour (145 kilometres per hour) under catenary that usually saw nothing above 50 miles per hour (80 kilometres per hour). Testing took place over a 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) stretch of straight track between Rosslyn and De Wildt on the line between Pretoria and Brits. During the trials, speeds of up to 125 miles per hour (201 kilometres per hour) were achieved with the pantograph[8]
The MetroBlitz service commenced in January 1984. This testing project eventually bore more fruit in 2011 with the opening of the 1,435 millimetre (4 feet 8½ inches) Standard gauge Gautrain connecting Pretoria, Johannesburg and the O.R. Tambo Airport in Kempton Park.[8]
During 1990 and 1991 Spoornet semi permanently coupled several pairs of otherwise unmodified Class 6E1 locomotives, reclassified them to Class 16E and allocated a single running number to each pair, with the individual locomotives in the pairs inscribed "A" or "B". The aim was to accomplish savings on cab maintenance by coupling the locomotives at their number 1 ends, abandoning the number one end cabs in terms of maintenance and using only the number two end cabs. One known Series 4 locomotive, number E1457, was part of such a Class 16E pair and became Class 16E number 16-305B.[3]
All the Class 6E1, Series 4 locomotives were delivered in the SAR Gulf Red and yellow whiskers livery. The main picture shows E1446, the first of the Series 4, in Spoornet orange livery.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||