The South African Railways Class of 1980 is a diesel-electric locomotive.
In 1980 and 1981, the South African Railways placed thirty 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 type GE U26C diesel-electric locomotive was designed by General Electric and built for the South African Railways (SAR) by the South African General Electric-Dorman Long Locomotive Group (SA GE-DL, later Dorbyl). Thirty locomotives were delivered in 1980 and 1981, numbered in the range from to .GE Export List
Distinguishing features
As built, the GE Classes , and were visually indistinguishable from each other. The ex Iscor Class locomotives could be visually distinguished from the other series by the air conditioning units mounted on the cab roofs of most of them 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 , and locomotives had saddle filters installed across the long hood, mounted just to the rear of the screens on the sides behind the cab. Since then, Class locomotives could be distinguished from the older models by the absence of the saddle filter.34-907 sans saddle filter with running board handrails
Modifications
Fuel capacity As built, the Class had 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 refueling points on the Sishen-Saldanha iron ore line. To accommodate the larger fuel tank, the inter-bogie linkage found on all other models was omitted on the Class .Information received from John Nicholas Middleton
To be usable on the iron ore line, Class 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 locomotives which are allocated to the Sishen-Saldanha Orex line are usually further modified by having removable running board-mounted handrails installed. All South African diesel-electric locomotives have their side handrails mounted along the upper edges of their long hoods. The ex Iscor Class , however, came equipped with additional removable running board-mounted handrails. Since these handrails are slide-fit into brackets welded onto the running board, they are easily removed.
Electronic control system Beginning in 2010, some locomotives were equipped with electronic fuel injection and GE Bright Star control systems. On some of the first locomotives which were so modified, externally visible evidence of the modification is a raised middle portion of the long hood. All Bright Star-equipped locomotives emerged from this modification repainted in the Transnet Freight Rail livery.
Service
Class locomotives work on most mainlines and some branchlines in the central, western, southern and southeastern parts of the country. Some eventually joined the Class on the 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.
On the Sishen–Saldanha Orex line, GE Class 34 series diesel-electric locomotives run consisted to Class 9E and Class 15E electric locomotives to haul the 342-truck iron ore trains. Each truck has a 100-ton capacity and the trains are at least in length, powered by mixed consists of Class 9E and Class 15E electric and type GE U26C Class , , , and, from 2012, type GE C30ACi Class 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 builder's works numbers are listed in the table. +Class , GE type U26CLoco no.Worksno.Speciallivery34-901 41350 34-902 41351 34-903 41352 34-904 41353 34-905 41354 34-906 41355 34-907 41356 34-908 41357 34-909 41358 34-910 41359 34-911 41360 34-912 41361 34-913 41362 34-914 41363 34-915 41364 34-916 41365 34-917 41366 34-918 41367 34-919 41368 34-920 41369 34-921 41370 34-922 41371 34-923 41372 34-924 41373 Blue train34-925 41374 Blue train34-926 41375 Blue train34-927 41376 Blue train34-928 41377 Blue train34-929 41378 Blue train34-930 41379 Blue train
Liveries All but seven Class 34-900 locomotives were 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. In the 1990s many of the Class 34-900 units began to be repainted in the Spoornet orange livery with a yellow and blue chevron pattern on the buffer beams. 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) era, many were repainted in the TFR red, green and yellow livery.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)
The seven exceptions, numbers to , were painted in the SAR Blue Train livery and took the place of the five SAR Blue Train liveried Class locomotives, numbers to which were then all eventually repainted in Spoornet's orange livery. Some of the Class locomotives, numbers to , and , were later repainted in Spoornet's orange era Blue Train livery, while the other two, numbers and , received the Spoornet blue with outline numbers livery.
Illustration
References