South African Class 34-600


The South African Railways Class of 1974 is a diesel-electric locomotive.
Between December 1974 and July 1976, the South African Railways placed one hundred Class General Motors Electro-Motive Division type GT26MC diesel-electric locomotives in service.

Manufacturer

The Class type GT26MC diesel-electric locomotive was designed by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and built for the South African Railways by General Motors South Africa in Port Elizabeth. One hundred locomotives were delivered between December 1974 and July 1976, numbered in the range from to.

Distinguishing features

Of the GM-EMD Class 34 family of locomotives, Classes South African Class 34-200| and units are visually indistinguishable from one another, but they can be distinguished from the Class by the thicker fishbelly shaped sills on their left hand sides compared to the straight sill on the left hand side of the Class.

Rebuilding and modification

Class 39-000

The Class 39-000 type GT26CU-3 diesel-electric locomotives were to be rebuilt from Class, South African Class 34-800| and South African Class 37-000| locomotives. The project commenced in 2005, using suitable frames from wrecked locomotives. Rebuilding was done at the Transwerk shops in Bloemfontein between 2006 and 2008.
It was intended to produce one hundred Class locomotives but in spite of the technical success of the project, rebuilding was halted after completing the first five locomotives due to higher than anticipated cost. It was decided, instead of rebuilding old locomotives, to continue the program by building fifty new Class locomotives from imported and locally produced components. Three Class locomotives, numbers, and, were rebuilt to Class before the rebuilding project was halted.

Traction motor upgrade

In 2010, an upgrading project commenced at the Koedoespoort Transnet Rail Engineering shops to upgrade Class locomotives by, amongst other modifications, replacing the GM-EMD D29B with GM-EMD D31 traction motors, thereby improving their performance to the standard of the Class.
Locomotives that are known to have undergone this upgrade are annotated "D31 TM" in the "Leased, rebuilt or sold to" column in the table.

Service

South African Railways

In SAR, Spoornet and Transnet Freight Rail service, the Class worked on most mainlines and some unelectrified branch lines in the central, eastern, northern and northeastern parts of South Africa.

National Railways of Zimbabwe

From at least 1988 until at least 1992, the National Railways of Zimbabwe hired type GT26MC Class locomotives from the SAR and later Spoornet. Locomotives which were observed to be working on the NRZ between April 1988 and September 1992 are annotated "NRZ" in the "Leased, rebuilt or sold to" column in the.

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 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 34-200|, and South African Class 34-800| and GE Classes and South African Class 35-400| locomotives from Spoornet and later TFR. 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.
Class locomotives which served with NLPI include the locomotives annotated "NLPI" in the "Leased, rebuilt or sold to" column in the table.
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 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, a locomotive hire and repair company based at the Douglas Colliery near Witbank in Mpumalanga which undertakes complete operating contracts and maintenance contracts. 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 on Kei Rail in the Eastern Cape. Outside South Africa, they operated on the BBR, NLL and RSZ lines through Zimbabwe and Zambia and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Chemin de Fer Congo-Ocean

Six Class locomotives were leased to the Congolese railway, the Chemin de Fer Congo-Ocean, where they were renumbered in the range from CC801 to CC806.

Camrail

Six more locomotives which were at one time erroneously believed to have also gone to CFCO in the Congo, are now believed to have gone to Camrail in the Republic of Cameroon in about 2002, where they were renumbered in the range from CC2601 to CC2606. The order of their renumbering is not known.

Ferrovia Centro Atlântico

Five Class locomotives went to Ferrovia Centro Atlântico at Divinipolis in Brazil, where they run on. While they were initially part of Spoornet Traction's leasing scheme, they were later renumbered onto the FCA roster in the number range from 8226 to 8230.

Ferrovia Sul Atlântico

Ten Class locomotives went to Ferrovia Sul Atlântico at Curitiba in Brazil, where they also run on Metre gauge. While they were also initially part of Spoornet Traction's leasing scheme, they were later renumbered onto the FSA roster in the number range from 8231 to 8240.

Works numbers

The builder's works numbers of Class locomotives as well as their known disposal and deployment are listed in the table.

Loco no.		GMSA
works no.		Leased, rebuilt
or sold to		New
no.
34-601101-1
34-602101-2
34-603101-3
34-604101-4FCA8226
34-605101-5
34-606101-6NRZ
34-607101-7
34-608101-8
34-609101-9
34-610101-10
34-611101-11
34-612101-12
34-613101-13
34-614101-14
34-615101-15
34-616101-16
34-617101-17
34-618101-18FSA8231
34-619101-19Camrail
34-620101-20Class 39-00039-004
34-621101-21NRZ
34-622101-22
34-623101-23NLPI
34-624101-24
34-625101-25NRZ
34-626101-26
34-627101-27
34-628101-28FSA8232
34-629101-29
34-630101-30FSA8233
34-631101-31
34-632101-32FCA8228
34-633101-33
34-634101-34
34-635101-35Class 39-00039-001
34-636101-36
34-637101-37
34-638101-38
34-639101-39
34-640101-40Sheltam18/2604
34-641101-41NLPI
34-642101-42
34-643101-43
34-644101-44NRZ/Camrail
34-645101-45
34-646101-46FSA8234
34-647101-47NLPI/D31 TM
34-648101-48NRZ/NLPI
34-649101-49
34-650101-50NLPI
34-651101-51
34-652101-52
34-653101-53
34-654101-54
34-655101-55Camrail
34-656101-56FSA8235
34-657101-57FSA8236
34-658101-58
34-659101-59FCA8229
34-660101-60NRZ/Camrail
34-661101-61NRZ/Camrail
34-662101-62CFCOCC804
34-663101-63CFCOCC805
34-664101-64
34-665101-65
34-666101-66NLPI
34-667101-67
34-668101-68NRZ/NLPI/D31 TM
34-669101-69FSA8237
34-670101-70CFCOCC806
34-671101-71CFCOCC803
34-672101-72
34-673101-73FSA8238
34-674101-74NRZ/Class 39-00039-003
34-675101-75
34-676101-76NRZ
34-677101-77FSA8239
34-678101-78NLPI
34-679101-79
34-680101-80NRZ/CFCOCC801
34-681101-81NRZ
34-682101-82NRZ/CFCOCC802
34-683101-83FCA8227
34-684101-84Camrail
34-685101-85
34-686101-86NRZ/D31 TM
34-687101-87
34-688101-88FCA8230
34-689101-89
34-690101-90NRZ
34-691101-91NLPI
34-692101-92FSA8240
34-693101-93NLPI
34-694101-94NLPI
34-695101-95
34-696101-96NRZ/NLPI
34-697101-97
34-698101-98NLPI
34-699101-99
34-700101-100

Liveries

The Class 34-600 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 many of the Class 34-600 units began to be repainted in the Spoornet orange livery with a yellow and blue chevron pattern on the buffer beams. Two known locomotives, numbers and, were painted in Spoornet's orange era Blue Train livery. Some later received the Spoornet Traction maroon livery. After 2008 in the Transnet Freight Rail era, some were repainted in the TFR red, green and yellow livery.

Illustration

Depicted below is no. in Spoornet's Blue Train livery, incorrectly numbered as a Class on the cabside. The error was corrected later. Other liveries which were applied to Class locomotives are also illustrated.