South African Class 6E1, Series 8

Between 1979 and 1981 the South African Railways placed one hundred and five Class 6E1, Series 8 electric locomotives with a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement in main line service.^[1]

Manufacturer

The Class 6E1, Series 8 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 and five locomotives were delivered between 1979 and 1981, numbered E1896 to E2000.^[2]

UCW did not allocate builder’s or works 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]

Characteristics

Bogies

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 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]

Orientation

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]

Series identifying features

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.^[1][3]

Series 8 is the only Class 6E1 series with unique visual distinguishing features. It can be distinguished from all earlier series by the large hatch door on each side, below the second small window to the right of the side door on the roof access ladder side, and below the first window immediately to the right of the door on the other side. It can also be distinguished from all subsequent series by the absence of rainwater drainage holes along the lower body sides.^[1]

Crew access

The Class 5E, 5E1, 6E and earlier 6E1 series locomotives are notoriously difficult to enter since their lever-style door handles are at waist level when standing inside the locomotive, making it impossible to open the door from outside without first climbing up high enough to reach the handle while hanging on to the side handrails with one hand only. Crews therefore often chose to leave the doors ajar when parking and exiting the locomotives.^[4]

Series 8 and some late model Series 7 locomotives are equipped with doors on which the outer door latch handle is mounted near floor level, with a simple drawer pull type handle at mid door level.^[5]

Service

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]

Cape Western network

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]

Northern network

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]

• From Johannesburg in Gauteng via Kimberley to Hotazel in the Northern Cape.
• From Johannesburg to Bloemfontein in the Free State.
• From Johannesburg to Durban in Natal.
• From Johannesburg via Pretoria in Gauteng and Witbank in Mpumalanga to Komatipoort on the Mozambique border, as well as to Derwent and Roossenekal.
• From Johannesburg via Springs to Witbank.
• From Johannesburg via Coligny to Lichtenburg.
• From Durban in Natal to Empangeni in the north and Port Shepstone in the south.
• From Ermelo to Ogies and Wonderfontein in Mpumalanga.
• From Kroonstad in the Free State via Bethlehem and Ladysmith to Vryheid in Natal.

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]

Reclassification and rebuilding

Reclassification to Class 16E

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. Most were later either disbanded with the locomotives reverting to Class 6E1 and regaining their original numbers, or rebuilt to Class 18E.^[6]

At least ten Series 8 locomotives were part of such Class 16E pairs.^[6]

• E1914 and E1915 became 16-503 A and B.
• E1916 and E1917 became 16-501 A and B.
• E1918 and E1919 became 16-505 A and B.
• E1925 and E1926 became 16-504 A and B.
• E1928 and E1929 became 16-506 A and B.

Reclassification to Class 17E

Class 17E locomotives were modified and reclassified from Class 6E1 Series 7, 8 or 9 locomotives during 1993 and 1994. Key modifications included improved regenerative braking and wheel slip control to improve their reliability on the steep gradients and curves of the Natal main line. Unlike the unmodified but reclassified Class 16E locomotives, the Class 17Es retained their original running numbers after reclassification. Fifty-five Series 8 locomotives were reclassified to Class 17E. Their running numbers are shown in the table below.^[6]

Rebuilding to Class 18E

Beginning in 2000, Spoornet started a project of rebuilding Series 6 to Series 11 Class 6E1 locomotives to Class 18E locomotives at the Koedoespoort Transwerk workshops. In the process the cab at the number 1 end was stripped of all controls in order to have a toilet installed to accommodate female crew, thereby forfeiting the loco's bi-directional ability.^[6][8]

Liveries

In the SAR and Spoornet eras, when the official liveries were Gulf Red and yellow 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. Later, in Spoornet’s blue era, there was no need for a separate Blue Train livery, while in the TFR era the Blue Train, once the pride of the SAR, was relegated to the very bottom of the railway’s business priority list.^[9][10]

All but eight Class 6E1, Series 8 locomotives were delivered in the SAR Gulf Red and yellow whiskers livery. The eight exceptions, numbers E1950 to E1957, were painted blue with whiskers for use with the Blue Train between Cape Town and Beaufort West in the Cape Western region.^[3][6]

After four of these blue locomotives were damaged following a collision between two Trans Karoo passenger trains at Gouda, one other known Series 8 locomomotive, number E1973, was repainted in Spoornet’s orange era Blue Train livery while the rest were later replaced by eight Class 6E locomotives that were repainted in blue.^[6]

Of the four damaged blue locomotives, numbers E1953 and E1956 were scrapped while numbers E1954 and E1955 were rebuilt to the first two Class 18E locomotives, numbered 18-001 and 18-002.^[6]

The main picture shows both versions of the Spoornet Blue Train livery. The leading locomotive, number E1973, is in the orange era livery with "SPOORNET" below the emblem on the side, while the trailing locomotive, E1951, is in the maroon era livery without "SPOORNET" below the emblem on the side.^[9][10]

Gallery

See also

• South African Class 16E
• South African Class 17E
• South African Class 18E, Series 1
• South African Class 18E, Series 2
• South African Class 6E1, Series 1
• South African Class 6E1, Series 2
• South African Class 6E1, Series 3
• South African Class 6E1, Series 4
• South African Class 6E1, Series 5
• South African Class 6E1, Series 6
• South African Class 6E1, Series 7
• South African Class 6E1, Series 9
• South African Class 6E1, Series 10
• South African Class 6E1, Series 11
• Electric locomotive numbering and classification
• List of South African locomotive classes

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} 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
2. ^ "UCW - Electric locomotives". The UCW Partnership. Archived from the original on 12 October 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20071012023401/http://www.ucw.co.za/pdf/electric_loco.pdf. Retrieved 30 September 2010. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d} Paxton, Leith; Bourne, David (1985). Locomotives of the South African Railways (1st ed.). Cape Town: Struik. pp. 128-129. ISBN 0869772112. 
4. ^ E1882 with high mounted door handle
5. ^ E1898 with low mounted door handle
6. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} 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. 49-51. 
7. ^ KwaZulu-Natal coastal region de-electrification
8. ^ Information gathered from the rebuild files of individual locomotives at Transnet Rail Engineering’s Koedoespoort shops
9. ^ ^{a b} E1973 with blue based on orange livery
10. ^ ^{a b} E1951 with blue based on maroon livery