South African Class 33-000


The South African Railways Class 33-000 of 1965 was a diesel-electric locomotive.
In 1965 and 1966, the South African Railways placed sixty-five General Electric type U20C diesel-electric locomotives in service.

Manufacturer

The South African Class 33-000 type GE U20C diesel-electric locomotive was designed and built for the South African Railways by General Electric and imported. Sixty-five of these locomotives were delivered between June 1965 and January 1966, numbered in the range from to.

Class 33 series

The Class 33 family consisted of three series, the GE-built Classes and South African Class 33-400| and the General Motors Electro-Motive Division-built Class 33-200. Both manufacturers also produced locomotives for the subsequent SAR Classes 34, 35 and 36.
The two GE-built Classes were virtually identical in appearance, but could be distinguished from each other by some ventilation openings on their bodywork.
These doors and panels could get swapped between models and sometimes did, either as replacement for damaged items or by chance during overhauls.

Service

In South Africa

The Class 33-000 was initially used to dieselise the Cape Midland region. When the Class 34-000 entered service in 1971, the Class 33-000 locomotives were relocated to Transvaal and some later to the Cape Western system.
In the SAR era, the inner parts of cabside locomotive number plates were often unofficially painted in various colours to identify the depot to which the locomotive was allocated. Judging from the flaked paint on the plate in the picture alongside, no. 33-014 saw service in several regions over the years.
Most of these locomotives survived in mainline and branch line service well into the twenty-first century, for example on the lines from De Aar to Upington and on the branch line from Worcester to Voorbaai. Some were later employed as heavy shunting engines to assemble or unload iron ore trains at the Sishen-Saldanha iron ore line's terminals, until the arrival of the Class on that line in 2011 made more GE-built Class 34 locomotives available for this task.

Outside South Africa

Between October 1978 and May 1993, Zambia Railways hired locomotives to solve its chronic shortages in motive power, mainly from South Africa but at times also from Zaire, Zimbabwe, the TAZARA Railway and even the Zambian copper mines. In Zambia, the South African locomotives were mainly used on goods trains between Livingstone and Kitwe, sometimes in tandem with a ZR locomotive and occasionally also on passenger trains.
Locomotives were selected from a pool of engines which were allocated by the Railways for hire to Zambia. The South African fleet in Zambia was never constant since locomotives were continually exchanged as they became due back in South Africa for their three-monthly servicings.
The locomotives were initially selected from the Classes 33-400, 35-000 and 35-200, but by December 1989 some Class locomotives also began to serve one or more tours of duty in Zambia. The pool of Class locomotives which were allocated by the Railways for hire to Zambia from time to time included the unit numbers as shown in the table.
Until c. 2015, several still saw service with Spoornet Traction whose locomotives operate in several Southern African countries. A few were leased to Sudan Railways on a long-term contract as a result of the distance from South Africa, while others were sold to COMILOG in Gabon.

Mozambique

In 2013 some Class 33-000 locomotives were sold to Corredor de Desenvolvimento do Norte at Nacala in northern Mozambique. CDN operates a rail link with the land-locked Malawi to the west. These locomotives were refurbished in South Africa prior to being delivered to their new owners.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

In 2015, some Class 33-000 and Class 33-400 locomotives were sold to the Congolese Company for Transportation and Ports in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These locomotives were also refurbished in South Africa prior to being delivered to their new owners.

Withdrawal

Although some of the locomotives had been sold to other operators over the years, most of the class remained in South African service for more than fifty years. During 2015, when sufficient numbers of new GE-designed Class locomotives had entered service, several of the remaining Class 33-000 units were sold to, amongst others, TransNamib in Namibia and the Congolese Company for Transportation and Ports in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Most of these locomotives were refurbished in South Africa prior to being delivered to their new owners.

Liveries

The class 33-000 were delivered in the new Gulf Red livery with yellow side-stripes on the long hood, a yellow V on each end, signal red buffer beams and unpainted steel cowcatchers. Most of them wore this livery throughout their SAR service life. In the Spoornet era, some of those leased to other countries were painted in a maroon livery with yellow and blue chevron buffer beams and inscribed "Spoornet Traction" on the long hood sides.

Works numbers

The Class 33-000 builder's works numbers, service in the Zambia Railways leasing pool and known eventual disposition are listed in the table.

Loco no.		Works
no.		Leased
to		Post-SAR
owner		Post-SAR
no.
33-00135457Zambia
33-00235458TransNamib002
33-00335459Withdrawn
33-00435460Sudan3506
33-00535461Withdrawn
33-00635462ZambiaTransNamib006
33-00735463
33-00835464TransNamib008
33-00935465
33-01035466Congo
33-01135467Zambia
33-01235468ZambiaCongo
33-01335469ZambiaTransNamib013
33-01435470
33-01535471
33-01635472
33-01735473TransNamib017
33-01835474
33-01935475ZambiaWithdrawn
33-02035476Zambia
33-02135477ZambiaWithdrawn
33-02235478Zambia
33-02335479ZambiaCongo
33-02435480ZambiaWithdrawn
33-02535481Zambia
33-02635482ZambiaWithdrawn
33-02735483COMILOG
33-02835484Zambia, Sudan3501 to 3
33-02935485ZambiaWithdrawn
33-03035486ZambiaTransNamib030
33-03135487ZambiaCongo
33-03235488Zambia
33-03335489Zambia
33-03435490Zambia
33-03535491Zambia
33-03635492Zambia
33-03735493COMILOG
33-03835494Zambia
33-03935495ZambiaCongo
33-04035496Zambia
33-04135497ZambiaTransNamib041
33-04235498Zambia
33-04335499Zambia
33-04435500Zambia
33-04535501Zambia
33-04635502Zambia, Sudan3501 to 3
33-04735503ZambiaWithdrawn
33-04835504Sudan3501 to 3
33-04935505
33-05035506Sudan3504
33-05135507TransNamib051
33-05235508Scrapped
33-05335509Congo
33-05435510Sudan3505
33-05535511
33-05635512
33-05735513Congo
33-05835514
33-05935515TransNamib059
33-06035516Congo
33-06135517
33-06235518Congo
33-06335519
33-06435520
33-06535521Congo

Illustration