South African Class 6E1, Series 8


The South African Railways Class 6E1, Series 8 of 1979 was an electric locomotive.
Between 1979 and 1981, the South African Railways placed 105 Class 6E1, electric locomotives with a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement in mainline service.

Manufacturer

The 3 kV DC Class 6E1, Series 8 electric locomotive was designed and built for the South African Railways by Union Carriage & Wagon in Nigel, Transvaal. The electrical equipment was supplied by the General Electric Company.
Between 1979 and 1981, 105 locomotives were delivered, numbered in the range from E1896 to E2000. Like Series 6 and 7, the Series 8 units were equipped with AEI-283AY traction motors. UCW did not allocate builder’s or works numbers to the locomotives it built for the SAR, but used the SAR unit numbers for their record keeping.

Characteristics

Orientation

These dual cab locomotives had a roof access ladder on one side only, just to the right of the cab access door. The roof access ladder end was marked as the no. 2 end. A corridor along the centre of the locomotive connected the cabs which were identical apart from the fact that the handbrake was located in cab 2. A pantograph hook stick was stowed in a tube mounted below the lower edge of the locomotive body on the roof access ladder side. The locomotive had one square and two rectangular access panels along the lower half of the body on the roof access ladder side and only one square access panel on the opposite side.

Series identifying features

The Class 6E1 was produced in eleven series over a period of nearly sixteen years. While some of the Class 6E1 series are visually indistinguishable from their predecessors or successors, some externally visible changes did occur over the years.
Series 8 was the only Class 6E1 series with unique visual distinguishing features. It could be distinguished from all earlier series by its large hatch door on each side, below the second small window to the right of the side door on the roof access ladder side and below the first window immediately to the right of the side door on the other side. It could also be distinguished from all subsequent series by the absence of rainwater drainage holes along the lower body sides.

Crew access

The Class 5E, 5E1, 6E and 6E1 locomotives were notoriously difficult to enter from ground level since their lever-style door handles were at waist level when standing inside the cab. This made it impossible to open the door from outside without first climbing up high enough to reach the door handle while hanging on to the side handrails with one hand only. Crews therefore often choose to leave the doors ajar when parking and exiting the locomotives.
Series 8 and some late model Series 7 locomotives were equipped with doors on which the outside door latch handle was mounted near floor level with a simple drawer pull type handle at mid-door level.

Service

The Class 6E1 family saw service all over both 3 kV DC mainline and branch line networks, the smaller Cape Western mainline between Cape Town and Beaufort West and the larger network which covers portions of the Northern Cape, the Free State, Natal, Gauteng, North West and Mpumalanga.

Reclassification and rebuilding

Reclassification to Class 16E

During 1990 and 1991, Spoornet semi-permanently coupled several pairs of otherwise largely unmodified Class 6E1 locomotives, reclassified them to Class 16E and allocated a single locomotive number to each pair, with the individual units in the pairs inscribed "A" or "B". The aim was to accomplish savings on cab maintenance by coupling the units at their no. 1 ends, abandoning the no. 1 end cabs in terms of maintenance and using only the no. 2 end cabs. Most were later either disbanded with the units reverting to Class 6E1 and regaining their original numbers or getting rebuilt to Class 18E.
Ten known Series 8 locomotives were part of such Class 16E pairs.
locomotives were modified and reclassified from Class 6E1 Series 7, 8 or 9 locomotives during 1993 and 1994. Key modifications included improved regenerative braking and wheel-slip control to improve their reliability on the steep gradients and curves of the Natal mainline. Unlike the unmodified but reclassified Class 16E locomotives, the Class 17Es retained their original unit numbers after reclassification.
A stumbling block was that the regeneration equipment at many of the sub-stations along the route was unreliable. Since there was no guarantee that another train would be in the same section to absorb the regenerated energy, there was always the risk that line voltage could exceed 4.1 kV, which would make either the sub-station or the locomotive trip out. As a result, the subsequently rebuilt Class 18E locomotives were not equipped with regenerative braking.
Fifty-five known Series 8 locomotives were modified and reclassified to Class 17E. Their unit numbers are listed in the table.

Rebuilding to Class 18E

Beginning in 2000, Spoornet began a project to rebuild Series 2 to 11 Class 6E1 locomotives to Class 18E, Series 1 and Series 2 at the Transnet Rail Engineering workshops at Koedoespoort. In the process the cab at the no. 1 end was stripped of all controls and the driver's front and side windows were blanked off to have a toilet installed, thereby forfeiting the locomotive's bi-directional ability.
Since the driving cab's noise level had to be below 85 decibels, cab 2 was selected as the Class 18E driving cab primarily based on its lower noise level compared to cab 1, which was closer and more exposed to the compressor's noise and vibration. Another factor was the closer proximity of cab 2 to the low voltage switch panel. The fact that the handbrake was located in cab 2 was not a deciding factor, but was considered an additional benefit.
While the earlier Class 6E1, Series 2 to 7 locomotives had been built with a brake system which consisted of various valves connected to each other with pipes and commonly referred to as a "bicycle frame" brake system, the Class 6E1, Series 8 to 11 locomotives were built with an air equipment frame brake system, commonly referred to as a brake rack. Since the design of the rebuilt Class 18E locomotives included the same brake rack, the rebuilding project was begun with the newer series 8 to 11 locomotives to reduce the overall cost of rebuilding.
Bar two, all the Class 6E1, Series 8 locomotives which were used in this rebuilding project were rebuilt to Class 18E, Series 1 locomotives. The known numbers and renumbering details are listed in the table.

Count		6E1
no.		Year
built		18E
no.		18E
series		Year
rebuilt		Notes
1E1896197918-60822010
2E1897197918-38312008
3E1898197918-42012009PRASA
4E1899197918-19512005
5E1900197918-26212006ex 17E
6E1901197918-29812006ex 17E
7E1902197918-02112002
8E1903197918-02512002
9E1904197918-08712003ex 17E
10E1905197918-31112007ex 17E
11E1906197918-28412006ex 17E
12E1907197918-33012007ex 17E
13E1908197918-28812006ex 17E
14E1909197918-06112002ex 17E
15E1910197918-29512006ex 17E
16E1911197918-01212001
17E1912197918-01012001
18E1913197918-34012007ex 17E
19E1914197918-07712003ex 16-503A
20E1915197918-07812003ex 16-503B
21E19161979-8018-03512002ex 16-501A
22E19171979-8018-03612002ex 16-501B
23E19181979-8018-06312002ex 16-505A
24E19191979-8018-06712003ex 16-505B
25E19201979-8018-00612001
26E19211979-8018-34112007ex 17E
27E19221979-8018-30612007ex 17E
28E19231979-8018-28612006
29E19241979-8018-33412007ex 17E
30E19251979-8018-03312002ex 16-504A
31E19261979-8018-03412002ex 16-504B
32E19271979-8018-50712009
33E19281979-8018-05512002ex 16-506A
34E19291979-8018-04912002ex 16-506B
35E1931198018-20212005ex 17E
36E1932198018-22112005
37E1933198018-32012007ex 17E
38E1934198018-09412003ex 17E
39E1935198018-01812002ex 17E
40E1936198018-27412006ex 17E
41E1937198018-21612005ex 17E
42E1938198018-29312006ex 17E
43E1939198018-20312005ex 17E
44E1940198018-08412003ex 17E
45E1941198018-20012005
46E1942198018-01112001
47E1943198018-24812006
48E1944198018-19712005ex 17E
49E1945198018-20712005ex 17E
50E1946198018-06212002ex 17E
51E1947198018-29012006ex 17E
52E1948198018-06912003
53E1949198018-06412002ex 17E
54E1951198018-74122013
55E1952198018-41912009PRASA
56E1954198018-00112000
57E1955198018-00212001
58E1957198018-41512009PRASA
59E1958198018-07212003
60E1959198018-19912005
61E1960198018-22012005
62E1961198018-01512002
63E1962198018-07012003ex 17E
64E1963198018-05112002
65E1964198018-32912007ex 17E
66E1965198018-31612007ex 17E
67E1966198018-17812005ex 17E
68E1967198018-26312006ex 17E
69E1968198018-22212005ex 17E
70E1969198018-20112005ex 17E
71E1970198018-37812008
72E1971198018-26912006ex 17E
73E1972198018-20412005
74E1973198018-37612007
75E1974198018-01912002
76E1975198018-01412002
77E1976198018-25612006ex 17E
78E1978198018-01312001
79E1979198018-33712007ex 17E
80E1980198018-02612002
81E1981198018-02712002
82E1982198018-27212006ex 17E
83E1983198018-29612006ex 17E
84E19841980-8118-22612005ex 17E
85E19851980-8118-31212007ex 17E
86E19861980-8118-21512005ex 17E
87E19871980-8118-32412007ex 17E
88E1988198118-04112002
89E1989198118-30312006ex 17E
90E1990198118-31012007ex 17E
91E1991198118-22512005ex 17E
92E1992198118-27812006ex 17E
93E1993198118-33612007ex 17E
94E1994198118-30512006ex 17E
95E1995198118-27912006ex 17E
96E1996198118-31512007ex 17E
97E1997198118-15612004ex 17E
98E1998198118-23712006ex 17E
99E1999198118-06512002ex 17E
100E2000198118-30912007ex 17E

Liveries

All but eight Class 6E1, Series 8 locomotives were delivered in the SAR Gulf Red livery with signal red cowcatchers, yellow whiskers and with the number plates on the sides mounted on three-stripe yellow wings. The eight exceptions, numbers E1950 to E1957, were delivered in blue with yellow whiskers for use with the Blue Train between Cape Town and Beaufort West. In the 1990s many of the Series 8 units began to be repainted in the Spoornet orange livery with a yellow and blue chevron pattern on the cowcatchers. Some later received the Spoornet maroon livery while numbers E1950 to E1957 and no. E1973 were repainted in either the Spoornet orange era or maroon era blue train livery. In the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa era after 2008, no. E1950 was first repainted in the Shosholoza Meyl purple livery and later in the PRASA blue livery.
The main picture shows both versions of the Spoornet Blue Train livery. The leading locomotive, no. E1973, is in the orange era livery with the name "SPOORNET" below the emblem on the side, while the trailing locomotive, no. E1951, is in the maroon era livery without the name "SPOORNET" below the emblem on the side.
Four of the Blue Train locomotives were damaged on 24 April 1997 when train numbers 81007 and 18008, two Trans-Karoo passenger trains, collided at Gouda. The four damaged locomotives were later replaced by eight Class 6E locomotives which were repainted in blue.
Of the four damaged blue locomotives, numbers E1953 and E1956 were scrapped while numbers E1954 and E1955 were rebuilt to the first two Class 18E locomotives in 2000 and 2001, numbered and respectively.

Illustration