South African Class 33-400

Between July 1968 and March 1970 the South African Railways placed one hundred and fifteen Class 33-400 GE U20C diesel-electric locomotives in service. A large number of them were transferred to TransNamib, the Namibian Railways, upon South West Africa’s independence on 21 March 1990.^[2]

Manufacturer

The Class 33-400 type GE U20C diesel-electric locomotive was designed for the South African Railways (SAR) by General Electric (GE) and built in South Africa by the South African General Electric-Dorman Long Locomotive Group (SA GE-DL, later Dorbyl). One hundred and fifteen locomotives were delivered between July 1968 and March 1970, numbered 33-401 to 33-515.^[2]

Class 33 series

The Class 33 consists of three series, the GE Class 33-000 and Class 33-400 and the EMD Class 33-200. Both these manufacturers also produced locomotives for the subsequent SAR Classes 34, 35 and 36.^[3]

Service

South African Railways

Forty-five of the Class 33-400 locomotives were placed in service in South West Africa (SWA) upon being commissioned. They remained in service there until they were transferred to TransNamib, the Namibian Railways, upon SWA’s independence on 21 March 1990. They retained their SAR running numbers on the TransNamib roster, but without the "33-" prefix. Some have since been sold, while others have been rebuilt with reconditioned engines by TransNamib in Windhoek and renumbered from number 501 up.^[1]

In South Africa, most of the Class 33-400 locomotives survived in main and branch line service well into the 21st century, for example on the lines from De Aar to Upington and from Worcester to George. From 2009 some were also employed out of Cape Town on the Overberg line across Sir Lowry’s Pass to Caledon and on the Bitterfontein line up the West Coast, where they replaced several Class 35-000 and 35-400 locomotives that were leased to private railway operators in several Southern African countries. Others were employed as heavy shunters to assemble iron ore trains at the Sishen-Saldanha iron ore route's terminals until the arrival of the Class 15E in 2010 made more Class 34-000 locomotives available for this task.^[1]

Industrial service

Several Class 33-400 locomotives were sold into industrial service, some to Iscor (now Kumba Iron Ore) for use at its Vanderbijlpark steel works and others to Kumba’s Grootgeluk Colliery at Ellisras.^[1]

South America

Twenty of them were sold in 1997 to Ferrovia Centro-Atlântica (FCA) and were since resold, in 1999, to América Latina Logística (ALL) in Brazil, where they retained their FCA running numbers.^[1]

Three of these locomotives, ex SAR 33-410 (ALL 2663), 33-452 (2668) and 33-481 (2679), were subsequently resold to the Ferroviaria Oriental (FOB) in Bolivia in 2003. Of these, one was resold again to Empresa Ferroviaria Oriental (EFO) in Bolivia and the other two to Sociedad Química y Minera (SQM) in Chile.^[1][4][5]

Of these twenty locomotives, ten still survived by July 2010. These include the three units sold to FOB and subsequently resold to EFO and SQM, five locomotives reported as non-operating and two that were returned to Rede Ferroviária Federal, Sociedade Anônima, (RFFSA), the state-owned federal railroad network of Brazil.^[4]

Sudan Railways

Another ten Class 33-400 locomotives were sold to the Sudan Railways.^[1]

The Class 33-400 works numbers and disposition are set out in the table.^[1]

Liveries

The main picture shows Namibia’s TransNamib livery, with ex SAR 33-475, now TransNamib’s number 504, south of Keetmanshoop on 2 September 2004.

See also

• South African Class 33-000 (GE)
• South African Class 33-200 (EMD)
• Diesel-electric locomotive numbering and classification
• List of South African locomotive classes

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} 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. 38-39, 45, 47, 66. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} 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. ^ Paxton, Leith; Bourne, David (1985). Locomotives of the South African Railways (1st ed.). Cape Town: Struik. pp. 139-140. ISBN 0869772112. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Ex SAR 33-401 as ALL 2670
5. ^ Friends of the Rail