South African Class 34-200

Last updated

South African Class 34-200
SAR Class 34-200 34-227.JPG
No. 34-227 at Wildrand siding, near Piet Retief, Mpumalanga, 17 August 2007
Type and origin
Power typeDiesel Electric
Designer General Motors Electro-Motive Division
BuilderGeneral Motors Electro-Motive Division
Serial number37563-37612
Model GM-EMD GT26MC
Build date1971-1972
Total produced50
Specifications
Configuration:
​
 •  AAR C-C
 •  UIC Co'Co'
 • Commonwealth Co+Co
Gauge 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) Cape gauge
Wheel diameter1,016 mm (40.0 in)
Wheelbase 14,732 mm (48 ft 4.0 in)
 •  Bogie 3,632 mm (11 ft 11.0 in)
Pivot centres11,278 mm (37 ft 0 in)
Length:
​
 • Over couplers19,202 mm (63 ft 0 in)
Width2,819 mm (9 ft 3.0 in)
Height3,924 mm (12 ft 10.5 in)
Axle load 18,850 kg (41,560 lb)
Adhesive weight 113,100 kg (249,300 lb)
Loco weight113,100 kg (249,300 lb) max
Fuel type Diesel
Fuel capacity6,100 litres (1,300 imp gal)
Prime mover GM-EMD 16-645E3
RPM range250-900
 • RPM low idle250
 • RPM idle315
 • Maximum RPM900
Engine type2-stroke diesel
AspirationGM-EMD E16 turbocharger
Displacement10.57 litres (645 cu in)
Alternator 10 pole 3 phase GM-EMD AR10F-D14
Traction motors Six GM-EMD D29B DC 4 pole
 • Rating 1 hour485A
 • Continuous450A @ 21 km/h (13 mph)
Cylinders V16
Gear ratio63:14
MU working 6 maximum
Loco brake 28-LAV-1 with vigilance control
Train brakes Gardner-Denver ADJV-8101 compressor/exhauster
Air tank cap.850 litres (190 imp gal)
Compressor0.021 m3/s (0.74 cu ft/s) @ 475 rpm
Exhauster0.084 m3/s (3.0 cu ft/s) @ 475 rpm
Couplers AAR knuckle type E
Performance figures
Maximum speed100 km/h (62 mph)
Power output:
​
 • Starting2,145 kW (2,876 hp)
 • Continuous1,940 kW (2,600 hp)
Tractive effort:
​
 • Starting272 kN (61,000 lbf)
 • Continuous218 kN (49,000 lbf) @ 26 km/h (16 mph)
Factor of adh.:
​
 • Starting25%
 • Continuous20%
Brakeforce65% ratio @ 345 kPa (50.0 psi)
Dynamic brake peak effort188 kN (42,000 lbf) @ 28 km/h (17 mph)
Career
OperatorsSouth African Railways
Spoornet
Transnet Freight Rail
NLPI
Sheltam
Class Class 34-200
Number in class50
Numbers34-201 to 34-250
Delivered1971-1972
First run1971

The South African Railways Class 34-200 of 1971 is a diesel-electric locomotive.

Contents

Between October 1971 and March 1972, the South African Railways placed fifty Class 34-200 General Motors Electro-Motive Division type GT26MC diesel-electric locomotives in service. [1]

Manufacturer

The Class 34-200 type GT26MC diesel-electric locomotive was designed and built for the South African Railways (SAR) by General Motors Electro-Motive Division (GM-EMD) at their McCook plant in Illinois. Fifty locomotives were delivered between October 1971 and March 1972, numbered in the range from 34-201 to 34-250. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Class 34 series

GE and GM-EMD designs

The Class 34 locomotive family consists of seven series, the General Electric (GE) Classes 34-000, 34-400, 34-500 (also known as 34-400 ex Iscor) and 34-900, and the GM-EMD Classes 34-200, 34-600 and 34-800. Both manufacturers also produced locomotives for the South African Classes 33, 35 and 36. [1]

Distinguishing features

Of the GM-EMD Class 34 series locomotives, Classes 34-200 and 34-600 units are visually indistinguishable from one another, but they can be distinguished from the Class 34-800 by the thicker fishbelly-shaped sills on their left hand sides compared to the straight sill on the left hand side of the Class 34-800. [5] [6]

Service

South Africa

The Class 34-200 were mostly destined for use in the Cape Midlands, but was imported through Durban harbour since Port Elizabeth harbour did not have facilities to handle these large mainline diesel-electrics. The locomotives arrived fully assembled and were hauled inland from Durban Harbour in blocks of 16 to 18 units, each worked by four new Class 6E1 units. Reports at the time indicated that the locomotives would be worked directly to the Cape Midlands via Bethlehem, Kroonstad and Bloemfontein to Port Elizabeth. Since at least one of these loads was photographed between Germiston and Pretoria, it is more likely that they first went to Koedoespoort in Pretoria for commissioning before being released for service on the Cape Midlands. [4]

The Class 34-200s eventually worked on most mainlines and some unelectrified branch lines in the central, eastern, northern and northeastern parts of South Africa. By the 2010s a significant number of them were observed at Richards Bay, Empangeni, Vryheid and Ermelo. [3]

NLPI Ltd.

NLPI Limited (abbreviated from New Limpopo Projects Investments), a Mauritius-registered company, specialises in private sector investments by using the build-operate-transfer (BOT) concept. It had three connected railway operations in Zimbabwe and Zambia, which formed a rail link between South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo. [2]

In Zambia, the RSZ locomotive fleet included former ZR locomotives, but the rest of the locomotive fleet of all three operations consisted of South African GM-EMD Classes 34-200, 34-600 and 34-800 and GE Classes 35-000 and 35-400 locomotives. These locomotives were sometimes marked or branded as either BBR or LOG or both, but their status, whether leased or loaned, was unclear since they were still on the TFR roster and still often worked in South Africa as well. [2]

Zambia Railways, the state-owned holding company, resumed control of the Zambian national rail network on 11 September 2012. This followed the Zambian government's decision to revoke the operating concession which had been awarded to RSZ after Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda claimed that RSZ had "blatantly disregarded the provisions of the agreement" and had been "acting in a manner prejudicial to the interests of Zambians”. [7]

Sheltam

One of the Class 34-200 locomotives, no. 34-221, was sold to Sheltam where it became their no. 4, having since been renumbered to 2601. Sheltam is a locomotive hire and repair company which undertakes complete operating contracts and maintenance contracts, based at the Douglas Colliery near Witbank in Mpumalanga. By the turn of the millennium, Sheltam locomotives were operating at Randfontein Estates Gold Mine in Gauteng, in Mpumalanga at Douglas and Vandyksdrift Collieries and at SAPPI, Ngodwana. They also operated on Spoornet's Newcastle-Utrecht branch in KwaZulu-Natal and for a while on Kei Rail in the Eastern Cape. Outside South Africa, they operate on the BBR, NLL and RSZ lines through Zimbabwe and Zambia and in the Congo. [2] [8]

Works numbers

The Class 34-200 builder's works numbers and known deployment are listed in the table. [2]

Liveries

The Class 34-200 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. In the 1990s they began to be repainted in the Spoornet orange livery with a yellow and blue chevron pattern on the buffer beams. [9]

Illustration

The main picture shows the right hand side of no. 34-227 in the Spoornet orange livery. The left side and the NLPI LOG livery as applied to Class 34-200 locomotives are illustrated below.

Related Research Articles

The Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway (BBR) is a privately owned railway company that provides a rail link in Zimbabwe between Beitbridge at the South African border and Zimbabwe's second city Bulawayo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Class 6E</span>

The South African Railways Class 6E of 1970 was an electric locomotive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Class 33-000</span>

The South African Railways Class 33-000 of 1965 was a diesel-electric locomotive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Class 33-200</span>

The South African Railways Class 33-200 of 1966 was a diesel-electric locomotive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Class 33-400</span> Class of 115 South African diesel-electric locomotives

The South African Railways Class 33-400 of 1968 was a South African and Namibian diesel-electric locomotive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Class 34-000</span> Class of 125 South African diesel-electric locomotives

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

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Class 34-500</span>

The South African Railways Class 34-500 of 1974 is a diesel-electric locomotive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Class 34-600</span>

The South African Railways Class 34-600 of 1974 is a diesel-electric locomotive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Class 34-800</span>

The South African Railways Class 34-800 of 1978 is a diesel-electric locomotive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Class 35-000</span>

The South African Railways Class 35-000 of 1972 is a diesel-electric locomotive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Class 35-200</span>

The South African Railways Class 35-200 of 1974 is a diesel-electric locomotive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Class 35-400</span>

The South African Railways Class 35-400 of 1976 is a diesel-electric locomotive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Class 35-600</span> Class of 101 South African diesel-electric locomotives

The South African Railways Class 35-600 of 1976 is a branch line diesel-electric locomotive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Class 36-000</span>

The South African Railways Class 36-000 is a diesel-electric locomotive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Class 36-200</span>

The South African Railways Class 36-200 of 1980 is a diesel-electric locomotive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Class 37-000</span>

The South African Railways Class 37-000 of 1981 is a mainline diesel-electric locomotive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Class 39-000</span> South African diesel-electric locomotive

The Spoornet Class 39-000 of 2006 is a South African diesel-electric locomotive from the Spoornet era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Class 39-200</span>

The Transnet Freight Rail Class 39-200 of 2009 is a South African diesel-electric locomotive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Class 43-000</span>

The Transnet Freight Rail Class 43-000 of 2011 is a South African diesel-electric locomotive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheltam</span>

Sheltam is a locomotive hire and repair company that undertakes complete operating contracts and maintenance contracts, based in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. By the year 2000, Sheltam locomotives were operating at Randfontein Estates Gold Mine in Gauteng, and in Mpumalanga at Douglas and Vandyksdrift Collieries and at SAPPI, Ngodwana. They also operated on Spoornet’s Newcastle-Utrecht branch in KwaZulu-Natal and on Kei Rail in the Eastern Cape. Outside South Africa they operate on the Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway (BBR), NLL and Railway Systems of Zambia (RSZ) lines through Zimbabwe and Zambia and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

References

  1. 1 2 3 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
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 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, 41, 45.
  3. 1 2 Paxton, Leith; Bourne, David (1985). Locomotives of the South African Railways (1st ed.). Cape Town: Struik. p. 141. ISBN   0869772112.
  4. 1 2 Soul of A Railway, System 6, Part 3: Durban Harbour, Wests, the Bluff & Cato Creek to Congella; featuring SAR & H Harbour Craft. Captions 97-99, 117. (Accessed on 11 March 2017)
  5. ↑ Class 34-200 sill
  6. ↑ Class 34-800 sill
  7. ↑ ZRL in charge as RSZ concession revoked. Railway Gazette International, 13 September 2012
  8. ↑ SA Rail, Volume 46, Number 2, April 2008, p3-7, ISSN 1026-3195
  9. ↑ 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. Archived 24 July 2021 at the Wayback Machine (Accessed on 11 April 2017)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.