South African Class 9E, Series 1

In 1978 and 1979 the South African Railways placed twenty-five Class 9E, Series 1 electric locomotives with a Co-Co wheel arrangement in service on the Sishen-Saldanha iron ore line.^[2]

Manufacturer

The Class 9E, Series 1 50 kV AC electric locomotive was designed for the South African Railways (SAR) by the General Electric Company (GEC) and was built by Union Carriage and Wagon (UCW) in Nigel, Transvaal. UCW delivered twenty-five locomotives in 1978 and 1979, numbered E9001 to E9025.^[3]

In a break with prior practice, GEC works numbers were allocated to the Class 9E locomotives. UCW usually did not allocate builder’s numbers to 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 usually simply used the SAR running numbers for their record keeping.^[2]

Features

The locomotive has a single full width air conditioned cab. At the rear end the body work is lower to provide clearance for the 50 kV AC electrical equipment that is mounted on the roof. This consists of a single pantograph, a potential divider, a vacuum circuit breaker, a surge diverter and the main transformer’s high voltage terminal. The electrical control system is solid state, using thyristors.^[1]

Since huge voltage drops are often encountered between electric sub-stations, the locomotive was designed to be able to operate on a supply varying between 55 and 25 kV AC. The battery boxes and the main air reservoirs are mounted between the bogies beneath the frame, where a compartment houses a small motor scooter for use by the crew for lineside inspections of the train that can be up to 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) long.^[1]

Series 1 locomotives have four braking systems, air brakes for the locomotive, train air braking, a handbrake and dynamic rheostatic braking which can dissipate 4,200 kilowatts (5,600 horsepower).^[1]

The Series 1 and Series 2 Class 9E’s can be visually distinguished from each other by their bogies, which were redesigned for the Series 2 locomotives.^[2]

Service

Class 9E locomotives are used on the 861 kilometres (535 miles) Sishen-Saldanha iron ore line to haul export ore from the open cast iron mines at Sishen in the Northern Cape to the harbour at Saldanha in the Western Cape. Most of the route is across the hot and dry Northern Cape, but the last 75 kilometres (47 miles) to Saldanha runs parallel to the Atlantic coastline and is subjected to the fog and salt sea air of the West Coast.^[1][4]

In South Africa, the Sishen-Saldanha line is unusual for several reasons.

• Construction, which started in 1973, was not undertaken by the SAR, but by the South African Iron and Steel Corporation (ISCOR), who operated the line with diesel-electric motive power. Operations on the Sishen-Saldanha iron ore line was only taken over from ISCOR by the SAR in 1977.
• It was electrified by the SAR at 50 kV AC, compared to the 25 kV AC high voltage that it used in other parts of the country.
• At the time it was the longest 50 kV AC electrified railway line in the world.^[1]
• It is the only line in South Africa where electric and diesel-electric locomotives are consisted in mixed power use.^[5]

Mixed Power

On the Sishen–Saldanha Orex line General Electric (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.^[2][4][5][6]

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 diesels 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.^[2][5][6][7]

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.^[2][6]

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.^[2][6]

Liveries

The main picture shows E9016 in Spoornet blue livery with solid numbers at the Salkor yard in Saldanha on 26 July 2009.

See also

• South African Class 9E, Series 2
• Electric locomotive numbering and classification
• South African Class 15E
• South African Class 34-000
• South African Class 34-400
• South African Class 34-500
• South African Class 34-900
• List of South African locomotive classes

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Paxton, Leith; Bourne, David (1985). Locomotives of the South African Railways (1st ed.). Cape Town: Struik. pp. 129-131. ISBN 0869772112. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} 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. ^ "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. 
4. ^ ^{a b} 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. 50, 62. 
5. ^ ^{a b c} Actom Divisions News, 22 July 2010
6. ^ ^{a b c d} Information obtained from Transnet Freight Rail
7. ^ Locotrol Distributed Power