The South African Railways Class 33-200 of 1966 was a diesel-electric locomotive.
Between October 1966 and May 1967 the South African Railways placed twenty Class 33-200 General Motors Electro-Motive Division type GL26MC diesel-electric locomotives in service.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
Manufacturer The Class 33-200 type GM-EMD GL26MC diesel-electric locomotive was designed and built for the South African Railways (SAR) by General Motors Electro-Motive Division (GM-EMD) and imported. They were delivered between October 1966 and May 1967 and numbered in the range from to 33-220.
Class 33 series The Class 33-200 was the first GM-EMD diesel-electric locomotive to be placed in service by the SAR. The Class 33 consisted of three series, the General Electric (GE) Class 33-000 and 33-400 and the GM-EMD Class . Both manufacturers also produced locomotives for the subsequent SAR Classes 34, 35 and 36.
Of the three series, the Class 33-200 was the only one to be delivered with a high short hood.
Service
South African Railways The Class 33-200 locomotives spent their entire SAR working lives operating out of East London. After some of the locomotives were sold by the SAR, their dynamic braking equipment, located in the high short hood, was removed by some of the new owners and the short hoods were rebuilt to low noses. In the process their starting power output was reduced from .
Between 1991 and 1992, the remaining Spoornet locomotives were similarly modified and placed in shunting service around East London. All of them were eventually withdrawn and sold by Spoornet and several are still operating in other parts of Africa.
Traxtion Sheltam Of the original twenty locomotives, eleven were still in service with Sheltam by 2010, two having first served at Douglas Colliery as numbers D8 and D9. Sheltam is a locomotive leasing and repair company. All their serving Class 33-200 locomotives have had their short hoods modified to low noses.Sheltam Company Profile
Three more locomotives were bought by Sheltam for spare parts and are believed now to be scrapped. Sheltam initially numbered all their locomotives from no. 1 upwards, but have since renumbered them according to their horsepower.
Other operators Of the remainder, four locomotives went to SitaRail in Côte d'Ivoire, one to the Sudan Railways and one to the Nkana mine of Mopani Copper Mines in Zambia.
Works numbers The Class 33-200 builder's works numbers and disposition are listed in the table. + Class 33-200, type GM-EMD GL26MCSAR No.GM-EMDworks no.Post-SARownerPost-SARno.Sheltamnew no.33-201 31191 SheltamSpare parts 33-202 31192 SitaRailCC 200133-203 31193 Sheltam1 2001 33-204 31194 SitaRailCC 200333-205 31195 Sheltam14 200833-206 31196 Sheltam8 200433-207 31197 D833-208 31198 SheltamSpare parts 33-209 31199 SitaRailCC 200433-210 31200 Sheltam152009 33-211 31201 D9 33-212 31202 Nkana1 33-213 31203 Sheltam13200733-214 31204 SitaRailCC 200233-215 31205 Sheltam12200633-216 31206 Sheltam3 2003 33-217 31207 Sheltam2 2002 33-218 31208 Sheltam16201033-219 31209 Sheltam17 2011 33-220 31210 Sudan Ry
Illustration The main picture shows Class 33-200 no. 33-212 on 8 January 1970 with its original high short hood and in the SAR Gulf Red livery, leading General Electric-built Class no. 33-023 on a passenger train near Vincent, Eastern Cape. The following pictures show some of these locomotives with low short hoods in various liveries.
References