South African Class 5E, Series 3


The South African Railways Class 5E, Series 3 of 1958 was an electric locomotive.
In 1958 and 1959, the South African Railways placed fifty-five Class 5E, Series 3 electric locomotives with a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement in mainline service.

Manufacturer

Like the Series 2, all the Class 5E, Series 3 locomotives were built for the South African Railways by Vulcan Foundry, subcontracted by English Electric who had designed the locomotive and supplied the electric components. They were built in 1958 and entered service in 1958 and 1959, numbered in the range from E536 to E590.
The number range of the Series 3 locomotives did not follow directly on that of the Series 2, since the Class 5E1, Series 1 and the Class ES locomotives were allocated most of the numbers in between. Twelve numbers, E499, E513, E514 and those in the range from E527 to E535 were never allocated.

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 except that Cab 2 was where the handbrake was located.

Service

Crews found the Class 5E to give a rough ride, which soon earned it the nickname Balstamper. The successor Class 5E1 with its new design bogies gave a smoother ride.
The Class 5E family entered service on the Natal mainline between Durban and Johannesburg and eventually served almost country-wide as electrification was completed on more mainlines. In 1960, sixty units of the Class 5E family were allocated to the Witbank section upon completion of its electrification. In December 1961, twelve of them were replaced by Class 32-000 diesel-electric locomotives and transferred to the newly-electrified Touws River-Beaufort West section. More followed to replace the Class 25 condensers that were being transferred from that section to Beaconsfield in Kimberley at the time.
After withdrawal from service, only one Series 3 locomotive, no. E576, was sold into industrial service. It went to the Driefontein gold mine near Carletonville where, for an unknown reason, it was given the number plates from Series 2 no. E343 which had also been acquired by Driefontein.
Numbers E563 and E590 were transferred to MetroRail, later part of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, for use as shunting locomotives at the MetroRail Depot in Salt River, Cape Town. They still survive, staged out of service at Salt River.

Liveries

The locomotives were delivered in a bottle green and yellow whiskers livery with red cowcatchers. Beginning c. 1960, a Gulf Red and yellow whiskers livery gradually replaced the green and yellow.
With both liveries, the locomotives all had red cowcatchers except in the Cape Western region, where units based at the Bellville Depot could often be identified by their yellow cowcatchers.
Some selected electric and diesel-electric locomotives were painted blue for use with the Blue Train, but without altering the layout of the paint scheme. During the late 1970s numbers E562 to E569 were painted blue with yellow whiskers for use on the Blue Train between Cape Town and Beaufort West in the Cape Western region. In the early 1990s no. E564 was renumbered E263 to represent a Series 1 locomotive and repainted in SAR green and yellow whiskers for use on tourist excursion trains.
MetroRail's shunting locomotive no. E590 was later painted in MetroRail's grey and yellow suburban livery.

Preservation

One of the 5E Series 3's is currently preserved in the meantime.
The EE and VF works numbers of the Class 5E, Series 3 and their known disposal are shown in the table.

Loco no.		EE works
no.		VF works
no.		Sold
to
E5362544E209
E5372545E210
E5382546E211
E5392547E212
E5402548E213
E5412549E214
E5422550E215
E5432551E216
E5442552E217
E5452553E218
E5462554E219
E5472555E220
E5482556E221
E5492557E222
E5502558E223
E5512559E224
E5522560E225
E5532561E226
E5542562E227
E5552563E228
E5562564E229
E5572565E230
E5582566E231
E5592567E232
E5602568E233
E5612569E234
E5622570E235
E5632571E236Metro
E5642572E237Preserved
E5652573E238
E5662574E239
E5672575E240
E5682576E241
E5692577E242
E5702578E243
E5712579E244
E5722580E245
E5732581E246
E5742582E247
E5752583E248
E5762584E249Dries
E5772585E250
E5782586E251
E5792587E252
E5802588E253
E5812589E254
E5822590E255
E5832591E256
E5842592E257
E5852593E258
E5862594E259
E5872595E260
E5882596E261
E5892597E262
E5902598E263Metro

Illustration

The main picture shows no. E590 in MetroRail livery, while the rest of the pictures serve to illustrate some of the other liveries in which Series 3 locomotives served.