South African Class 1E


The South African Railways Class 1E of 1925 was an electric locomotive.
Between 1925 and 1945, the South African Railways placed altogether 172 Class 1E electric locomotives in service, spread over seven orders. They were the first mainline electric locomotives to be introduced in South Africa.

Railways electrification

In 1920, following a report and recommendations on electric traction by consulting engineers Merz and McClellan of London, the South African Parliament authorised the electrification of the lines between Durban and Pietermaritzburg in Natal and between Cape Town and Simon's Town on the Cape Peninsula at a cost of £4,400,000.
At the time, there were two routes between Pietermaritzburg and Durban. The newer route with its 1 in 66 gradients was chosen for electrification over the older route with its 1 in 33 gradients. Between Cato Ridge and Durban, electrification necessitated the doubling of the track and the construction of ten tunnels as well as the construction of long stretches of cutting and embankment across difficult terrain.
After it was pointed out that the Natal traffic bottleneck was really above rather than below Pietermaritzburg, electrification in Natal eventually first took place between that city and Glencoe. It was a mountainous single-track section which carried heavy mineral traffic towards the port of Durban on an alignment with severe gradients and tight curves where the existing working by steam locomotives became too slow and inefficient to keep up with increasing traffic.
Work commenced in 1922 and the first electric train on that section was run in November 1925. The whole section was in full electric operation by January 1927. Electrification of the Simon's Town line commenced in March 1927 and full electric operation was introduced during September 1928. Electrification of the new mainline section from Pietermaritzburg to Durban via Delville Wood was completed in 1936 and the first electrically-hauled passenger train entered Durban station on 2 December of that year. Electrification of the original Natal Government Railways mainline from Rossburgh to Cato Ridge was commenced soon after the new mainline was energised, but during the Second World War the work was halted and not restarted until the late 1950s, eventually being switched on in May 1959.

Benefits

An important consideration in deciding upon the economics of electrification was the potential saving in wage-bills. Electrification would reduce the required crew roster from 300 drivers and stokers to 170 drivers and assistants. In addition it was expected that a large reduction in overtime would be accomplished by increasing the average train speeds from steam traction's to electric traction's on the Glencoe to Pietermaritzburg section, with slightly higher future speeds anticipated. It was further estimated that the total capacity of the line would be increased by 60%.

Colenso power station

The chosen overhead power supply was, the highest direct current overhead voltage in use at the time. The Colenso power station was built by the SAR specifically to power this line. The complete electrical system for the section consisted of the coal power station at Colenso which generated three-phase current at, stepped up and distributed at to twelve automatic substations along the route. The substations were located at an average of about apart and all but one were supplied at by two separate three-phase transmission lines. The one at Colenso was fed directly from the power station.
At the substations, the current was stepped down again to, converted by synchronous motor generators to and fed to the overhead catenary for use by the electric locomotives. The overhead equipment consisted of a copper catenary which supported a copper contact wire by means of droppers. The track structures were steel lattice masts erected on concrete foundations.

Manufacturers

South Africa's first electric locomotive, the Class 1E, entered service in Natal in 1925. The locomotive was designed by Metropolitan-Vickers of Manchester while the mechanical parts of the unit were approved by Col F.R. Collins DSO, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the South African Railways. At the time, the first batch of 78 Class 1E, Series 1 locomotives constituted the largest order for a single type of electric locomotive to have been placed anywhere in the world. The eventual fleet of 172 locomotives was built for the SAR in seven series by four manufacturers over a period of twenty years.

Characteristics

The locomotives were operated as single units on light local passenger trains, double-headed on mainline passenger trains and light goods trains or triple-headed on heavy goods trains.

Interior layout

The interior layout consisted of five compartments.
The sections of the roof above the compartments and the clerestory roof above the high tension compartment were removable to enable heavy machinery or control gear to be lifted out for repair.

Orientation

These dual cab locomotives had four grilles below the four windows on the equipment side and only two grilles below the centre two windows on the corridor side. When observing the locomotive from the side with four grilles, the no. 1 end would be to the left.

Bogies

Like the subsequent Classes 2E, 3E and 4E, the Class 1E had bogie mounted draft gear. It had a Bo+Bo wheel arrangement with an articulated inter-bogie linkage, therefore no train forces were transmitted directly to the locomotive body. The bogie pivot centres were apart. One of the bottom pivot centres was fixed while the other was free to move longitudinally to allow for any wear occurring in the articulated coupling between the two bogies.
Three different cowcatchers were used on Class 1E units. The first six series were delivered with cowcatchers made up of horizontal bars. The Series 7 units were delivered with a plain plate type cowcatcher, but the bogies were sometimes interchanged during overhauls with the result that units from different orders often carried cowcatchers not as originally fitted. In later years, units were often fitted with boiler-tube cowcatchers made up of vertically mounted short pieces of boiler tube, similar to those that were fitted on most South African steam locomotives after the Second World War.

Traction motors

The four-pole traction motors each operated at. They were electrically coupled in pairs, two in series across the supply line.

Braking

The locomotive used air brakes. Air connections between units were arranged in the main reservoir circuit so that air could be supplied to another unit in the event of failure of its compressor. For train braking, it also made use of regenerative braking which enabled higher speeds to be allowed on down grades, while reducing the dependence on the train's vacuum or air braking system and with the collateral benefit of savings in electricity consumption. The usual speeds during regeneration were for goods and passenger working respectively. It was reportedly the first extensive use in regular traffic of electric locomotives equipped for multiple unit operation with regenerative braking.

Sanding

Sanding was arranged for multiple control with electrically operated sand valves to enable multiple unit coupled locomotives to sand simultaneously.

Lighting

Lighting was supplied from a 110 V circuit which was fed by the generator in parallel with lead acid batteries. The batteries were mounted in cases suspended underneath the locomotive body between the bogies. This generator also supplied power to the control circuits, exhauster, compressor and cab heaters.

Service

Early models bore number plates inscribed in English only. By 1938 when the Series 5 locomotives entered service, Afrikaans had been accepted as South Africa's second official language and new locomotives bore bilingual number plates.
While they were employed mainly in Natal, some of the Class 1E units later also worked on the Witwatersrand and eventually also in the Western Cape. From early 1955, as the new Class 5E began to take over the Natal mainline, several Class 1Es were transferred to the Western Transvaal System to work as haulers on cross-Reef trips to transfer loads from yard to yard. Some of them covered more than during their service lives.
By the late 1960s some efforts were being made to keep steam locomotives out of the central Durban city areas and North Coast loads would be moved between the Bayhead marshalling yards and Stamford Hill by electric haulers. Steam would work goods trains north from there on the North Coast mainline. By 1969, the line to Stanger had been electrified, allowing Empangeni trains to be worked that far by electric units.

Modification

They served in both goods and passenger service. Since their top speed of was considered too slow for fast passenger service on the mail trains, two Class 1E units, numbers E121 and E122, were modified in 1936 by changing their gear ratio to enable them to run at speeds of up to. This appeared to be the practical limit for this type of electric locomotive.

Reclassification

Altogether 35 of the Class 1E locomotives were eventually withdrawn from mainline service, modified and reclassified to Class 1ES for use as shunting locomotives. The modifications included alteration of the resistance grids in the electrical circuit and enlarged and widened cabs, but the gear ratios were not altered. Apart from the wider cabs, the modified Class 1ES locomotives were identifiable by their front windows with slanted upper edges compared to the rectangular front windows of the Class 1E.

Rebuilding

In 1964, two of these Class 1ES locomotives were rebuilt to centre-cab Class ES shunting locomotives.

Withdrawal

All the Class 1E and Class 1ES locomotives were withdrawn from service by 1990.

Series-specific data

The Class 1E builders, works numbers, years of construction and modifications to Classes ES and 1ES are listed in the table. The axle load and adhesive weight as shown under "Specifications" in the infobox may be considered as average figures for the Class 1E since these weights varied between the seven series. In respect of the Series 1 to 6 locomotives, the actual load per axle of each bogie and the total locomotive mass are included in the table below.

Class		Series
Loco
no.		Builder
Works
no.		Year
built		Axle loads
Bogie 1		Axle loads
Bogie 2		Adhesive
weight		Rebuilt
to
1E1E1SLM28751923
1E1E2SLM28761923
1E1E3SLM28771923
1E1E4SLM28781923
1E1E5SLM28791923
1E1E6SLM28801923
1E1E7SLM28811923
1E1E8SLM28821923
1E1E9SLM28831923
1E1E10SLM28841923
1E1E11SLM28851923
1E1E12SLM28861923
1E1E13SLM28871923
1E1E14SLM28881923
1E1E15SLM28891923
1E1E16SLM28901923
1E1E17SLM28911923
1E1E18SLM28921923
1E1E19SLM28931923
1E1E20SLM28941923
1E1E21SLM28951923
1E1E22SLM28961923
1E1E23SLM28971923
1E1E24SLM28981923
1E1E25SLM28991923
1E1E26SLM29001923
1E1E27SLM29011923
1E1E28SLM29021923
1E1E29SLM29031923
1E1E30SLM29041923
1E1E31SLM29051923
1E1E32SLM29061923
1E1E33SLM29071923
1E1E34SLM29081923
1E1E35SLM29091923
1E1E36SLM29101923
1E1E37SLM29111923
1E1E38SLM29121923
1E1E39SLM29131923
1E1E40SLM29141923
1E1E41SLM29151923
1E1E42SLM29161923
1E1E43SLM29171923
1E1E44SLM29181923
1E1E45SLM29191923
1E1E46SLM29201923
1E1E47SLM29211923
1E1E48SLM29221923
1E1E49SLM29231923
1E1E50SLM29241923
1E1E51SLM29251923
1E1E52SLM29261923
1E1E53SLM29271923
1E1E54SLM29281923
1E1E55SLM29291923
1E1E56SLM29301923
1E1E57SLM29311923
1E1E58SLM29321923
1E1E59SLM29331923
1E1E60SLM29341923
1E1E61Metrovick1925
1E1E62Metrovick1925
1E1E63Metrovick1925
1E1E64Metrovick1925
1E1E65Metrovick1925
1E1E66Metrovick1925
1E1E67Metrovick1925
1E1E68Metrovick1925
1E1E69Metrovick1925
1E1E70Metrovick1925
1E1E71Metrovick1925
1E1E72Metrovick1925
1E1E73Metrovick1925
1E1E74Metrovick1925
1E1E75Metrovick1925
1E1E76Metrovick1925
1E1E77Metrovick1925
1E1E78Metrovick1925
1E2E79Metrovick1925-26
1E2E80Metrovick1925-26
1E2E81Metrovick1925-26
1E2E82Metrovick1925-26
1E2E83Metrovick1925-26
1E2E84Metrovick1925-26
1E2E85Metrovick1925-26
1E2E86Metrovick1925-26
1E2E87Metrovick1925-26
1E2E88Metrovick1925-26
1E2E89Metrovick1925-26
1E2E90Metrovick1925-26
1E2E91Metrovick1925-26
1E2E92Metrovick1925-26
1E2E93Metrovick1925-26
1E2E94Metrovick1925-26
1E2E95Metrovick1925-26
1E3E98Metrovick1936
1E3E99Metrovick1936
1E3E100Metrovick1936
1ES3E101Metrovick19361ES
1E3E102Metrovick1936
1E4E103Metrovick1936
1ES4E104Metrovick19361ES
1ES4E105Metrovick19361ES
1ES4E106Metrovick19361ES
1ES4E107Metrovick19361ES
1ES4E108Metrovick19361ES
1ES4E109Metrovick19361ES
1ES4E110Metrovick19361ES
1ES4E111Metrovick19361ES
1ES4E112Metrovick19361ES
1ES4E113Metrovick19361ES
1ES4E114Metrovick1936ES E525
1ES4E115Metrovick19361ES
1ES4E116Metrovick19361ES
1ES4E117Metrovick19361ES
1ES4E118Metrovick19361ES
1ES4E119Metrovick19361ES
1ES4E120Metrovick19361ES
1ES4E121Metrovick19361ES
1ES4E122Metrovick19361ES
1ES5E139SLM365519381ES
1ES5E140SLM365619381ES
1ES5E141SLM365719381ES
1ES5E142SLM365819381ES
1ES5E143SLM365919381ES
1ES5E144SLM366019381ES
1ES5E145SLM366119381ES
1ES5E146SLM36621938ES E526
1ES5E147SLM366319381ES
1ES5E148SLM366419381ES
1ES5E149SLM366519381ES
1ES5E150SLM366619381ES
1ES5E151SLM366719381ES
1E5E152SLM36681938
1ES5E153SLM366919381ES
1E5E154SLM36701938
1E5E155SLM36711938
1E5E156SLM36721938
1ES5E157SLM367319381ES
1E5E158SLM36741938
1E5E159SLM36751938
1E5E160SLM36761938
1E6E161Werkspoor7471938
1E6E162Werkspoor7481938
1E6E163Werkspoor7491938
1E6E164Werkspoor7501938
1E6E165Werkspoor7511938
1E6E166Werkspoor7521938
1E6E167Werkspoor7531938
1E6E168Werkspoor7541938
1E6E169Werkspoor7551938
1E6E170Werkspoor7561938
1E6E171Werkspoor7571938
1E6E172Werkspoor7581938
1E6E173Werkspoor7591938
1E6E174Werkspoor7601938
1E6E175Werkspoor7611938
1E6E176Werkspoor7621938
1E6E177Werkspoor7631938
1E6E178Werkspoor7641938
1E6E179Werkspoor7651938
1E6E180Werkspoor7661938
1E7E181RSH71811944
1E7E182RSH71821944
1E7E183RSH71831944
1E7E184RSH71841944
1E7E185RSH71851944
1E7E186RSH71861944
1E7E187RSH71871944
1E7E188RSH71881944
1E7E189RSH71891944
1E7E190RSH71901944

Illustration

The main picture shows a Class 1ES locomotive with its enlarged cab and slanted upper edge front windows, while the following pictures illustrate unmodified locomotives.