The South African Railways Class 34-000 of 1971 is a diesel-electric locomotive.

Between July 1971 and March 1973, the South African Railways placed 125 Class 34-000 General Electric type U26C 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 34-000 type GE U26C diesel-electric locomotive of the South African Railways (SAR) was designed by General Electric (GE). The first three locomotives were built by GE and imported, numbered in the range from 34-001 to 34-003, while the remainder were built by the South African General Electric-Dorman Long Locomotive Group (SA GE-DL, later Dorbyl) and numbered in the range from 34-004 to 34-125. The 125 locomotives entered service between July 1971 and March 1973.

The same U26C locomotive type is also in use on other railways around the world. One of them is the New Zealand Railways, where it is known as their DX class. Other users are Kenya Railways who for some years also leased South African Class 34 U26C locomotives, and América Latina Logística (ALL) in Brazil.

Class 34 series

GE and GM-EMD designs The Class 34 consists of seven series, the GE Classes , , (also known as " ex Iscor") and , and the General Motors Electro-Motive Division (GM-EMD) Classes , and . Both manufacturers also produced locomotives for the South African Classes 33, 35 and 36.

Distinguishing features As built, the GE Classes , and locomotives were visually indistinguishable from each other. The Class locomotives could be visually distinguished from the other series by the air conditioning units mounted on their cab roofs and initially when it was still a feature unique to them, by their running board mounted handrails. At some stage during the mid-1980s, all Class 34-000, 34-400 and 34-500 locomotives had saddle filters installed across the long hood, mounted just to the rear of the screens behind the cab on the sides. Since then, Class 34-900 locomotives could be distinguished from the older models by the absence of the saddle filter.34-057 with saddle filter, 14 October 200934-058 & 34-059 without saddle filter, 1 September 197534-060 with saddle filter, 25 August 2007

Modifications

Fuel capacity As built, the Class 34-000 has a fuel tank and interlinked bogies, while the Class was delivered new to Iscor with a fuel tank to cope with the lack of en route refuelling points on the Sishen-Saldanha iron ore line. To facilitate the larger fuel tank, the inter-bogie linkage found on all other models had to be omitted on the Class .Information received from John Nicholas Middleton

To be usable on the iron ore line, Class 34-000 locomotives which ended up working there were modified to a similar fuel capacity. The inter-bogie linkage was removed and the fuel tank was enlarged by changing it from saddle-shaped to rectangular box-shaped. To maintain its lateral balance, a slab of metal was attached to each bogie in place of the removed linkage. In the second picture, the weld lines on the end of the enlarged fuel tank as well as the metal slab at the end of the bogie are visible.Bogie interlinking removed

Running board mounted handrails Class 34-000 locomotives that were allocated to the Sishen-Saldanha Orex line were often modified by having removable running board-mounted handrails installed. All pre-2000 South African diesel-electric locomotives had their side handrails mounted along the upper edges of their long hoods. The ex Iscor Class 34-500s, however, came equipped with additional removable running board-mounted handrails. Since these handrails are slide-fit into brackets which are welded onto the running board, they are easily removed.

Since c. 2009, other mainline diesel-electric locomotive types also emerged from the Koedoespoort Transwerk shops with running board mounted handrails after major overhauls.Shosholoza Meyl’s 34-102 with running board handrails

Electronic control system Beginning in 2010, some Class 34-000 locomotives were equipped with electronic fuel injection and GE "Bright Star" control systems. On some of the first locomotives which were so modified, evidence of the modification is a raised middle portion of the long hood.

Service

GE Class 34-000s work on most mainlines and some branch lines in the central, western, southern and southeastern parts of the country. Some eventually joined the Class 34-500 on the Sishen–Saldanha Orex line to haul export ore from the open cast iron mines at Sishen near Kathu in the Northern Cape to the harbour at Saldanha in the Western Cape, until they gradually began to be replaced by new Class 43-000 locomotives in 2012.

On the Orex line, GE Class 34 series diesel-electric locomotives ran consisted to Class 9E or 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 in length, powered by mixed consists of Class 9E and Class 15E electric, GE U26C Class 34-000, , 34-500 and 34-900 and from 2012, GE C30ACi Class 43-000 diesel-electric locomotives. In South Africa, mixed electric and diesel-electric consists are unique to the iron ore line.Actom Divisions News, 22 July 2010 Information supplied by Orex train crew members

Works numbers The Class 34-000 builder's works numbers are listed in the table. +Class 34-000, GE type U26CLoco no.BuilderWorksno.34-001GE37810 34-002GE37811 34-003GE37812 34-004GE-DL37813 34-005GE-DL37814 34-006GE-DL37815 34-007GE-DL37816 34-008GE-DL37817 34-009GE-DL37818 34-010GE-DL37819 34-011GE-DL37820 34-012GE-DL37821 34-013GE-DL37822 34-014GE-DL37823 34-015GE-DL37824 34-016GE-DL37825 34-017GE-DL37826 34-018GE-DL37827 34-019GE-DL37828 34-020GE-DL37829 34-021GE-DL37830 34-022GE-DL37831 34-023GE-DL37832 34-024GE-DL37833 34-025GE-DL37834 34-026GE-DL37835 34-027GE-DL37836 34-028GE-DL37837 34-029GE-DL37838 34-030GE-DL37839 34-031GE-DL37840 34-032GE-DL37841 34-033GE-DL37842 34-034GE-DL37843 34-035GE-DL37844 34-036GE-DL37845 34-037GE-DL37846 34-038GE-DL37847 34-039GE-DL37848 34-040GE-DL37849 34-041GE-DL37850 34-042GE-DL37851 34-043GE-DL37852 34-044GE-DL37853 34-045GE-DL37854 34-046GE-DL37855 34-047GE-DL37856 34-048GE-DL37857 34-049GE-DL37858 34-050GE-DL37859 34-051GE-DL37860 34-052GE-DL37861 34-053GE-DL37862 34-054GE-DL37863 34-055GE-DL37864 34-056GE-DL37865 34-057GE-DL37866 34-058GE-DL37867 34-059GE-DL37868 34-060GE-DL37869 34-061GE-DL37870 34-062GE-DL37871 34-063GE-DL37872 34-064GE-DL37873 34-065GE-DL37874 34-066GE-DL37875 34-067GE-DL37876 34-068GE-DL37877 34-069GE-DL37878 34-070GE-DL37879 34-071GE-DL37880 34-072GE-DL37881 34-073GE-DL37882 34-074GE-DL37883 34-075GE-DL37884 34-076GE-DL37885 34-077GE-DL37886 34-078GE-DL37887 34-079GE-DL37888 34-080GE-DL37889 34-081GE-DL37890 34-082GE-DL37891 34-083GE-DL37892 34-084GE-DL37893 34-085GE-DL37894 34-086GE-DL37895 34-087GE-DL37896 34-088GE-DL37897 34-089GE-DL37898 34-090GE-DL37899 34-091GE-DL37900 34-092GE-DL37901 34-093GE-DL37902 34-094GE-DL37903 34-095GE-DL37904 34-096GE-DL37905 34-097GE-DL37906 34-098GE-DL37907 34-099GE-DL37908 34-100 GE-DL37909 34-101 GE-DL37910 34-102 GE-DL37911 34-103 GE-DL37912 34-104 GE-DL37913 34-105 GE-DL37914 34-106 GE-DL37915 34-107 GE-DL37916 34-108 GE-DL37917 34-109 GE-DL37918 34-110 GE-DL37919 34-111 GE-DL37920 34-112 GE-DL37921 34-113 GE-DL37922 34-114 GE-DL37923 34-115 GE-DL37924 34-116 GE-DL37925 34-117 GE-DL37926 34-118 GE-DL37927 34-119 GE-DL37928 34-120 GE-DL37929 34-121 GE-DL37930 34-122 GE-DL37931 34-123 GE-DL37932 34-124 GE-DL37933 34-125 GE-DL37934

Liveries With five exceptions, the Class 34-000 were all delivered in the SAR Gulf Red livery with signal red buffer beams, yellow side stripes on the long hood sides and a yellow V on each end. The five exceptions, numbers 34-055 to 34-059, were delivered in blue with a yellow V on the ends and yellow buffer beams for use on the Blue Train between Kimberley and Beaufort West. They were all eventually repainted in Spoornet’s orange livery after they were replaced in Blue Train service by seven Class 34-900 locomotives, numbers 34-924 to 34-930.Soul of A Railway, System 7, Western Transvaal, based in Johannesburg, Part 9. South-Eastwards as far as Volksrust (2nd part) by Les Pivnic. Caption 4. (Accessed on 11 April 2017)

In the 1990s many of the Class 34-000 units began to be repainted in the Spoornet orange livery with a yellow and blue chevron pattern on the buffer beams. Several later received the Spoornet maroon livery. In the late 1990s many were repainted in the Spoornet blue livery with outline numbers on the long hood sides. After 2008 in the Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) and Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) era, many were repainted in the TFR red, green and yellow livery and at least four were repainted in the PRASA purple livery.

Illustration

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