South African Class 34-200


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

Manufacturer

The Class 34-200 type GT26MC diesel-electric locomotive was designed and built for the South African Railways by General Motors Electro-Motive Division at their McCook plant in Illinois. Fifty locomotives were delivered between October 1971 and March 1972, numbered in the range from to.

Class 34 series

GE and GM-EMD designs

The Class 34 locomotive family consists of seven series, the General Electric Classes, South African Class 34-400|, South African Class 34-500| and South African Class 34-000|, and the GM-EMD Classes, South African Class 34-600| and South African Class 34-800|. Both manufacturers also produced locomotives for the South African Classes 33, 35 and 36.

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.

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.
The Class 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.

NLPI Ltd.

NLPI Limited, a Mauritius-registered company, specialises in private sector investments by using the build-operate-transfer 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.
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, South African Class 34-600| and South African Class 34-800| and GE Classes and South African Class 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.
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”.

Sheltam

One of the Class locomotives, no., 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.

Works numbers

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

Loco no.		GM-EMD
works no.		Leased or
Sold to
34-20137563
34-20237564
34-20337565
34-20437566
34-20537567
34-20637568
34-20737569
34-20837570
34-20937571NLPI
34-21037572
34-21137573
34-21237574NLPI
34-21337575
34-21437576NLPI
34-21537577
34-21637578
34-21737579
34-21837580
34-21937581
34-22037582
34-22137583Sheltam 4/2601
34-22237584
34-22337585
34-22437586
34-22537587
34-22637588
34-22737589
34-22837590
34-22937591
34-23037592
34-23137593
34-23237594
34-23337595
34-23437596
34-23537597
34-23637598
34-23737599
34-23837600NLPI
34-23937601
34-24037602NLPI
34-24137603
34-24237604NLPI
34-24337605
34-24437606NLPI
34-24537607NLPI
34-24637608NLPI
34-24737609NLPI
34-24837610NLPI
34-24937611
34-25037612

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.

Illustration

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