South African Class 6E1, Series 4


The South African Railways Class 6E1, Series 4 of 1973 was an electric locomotive.
In 1973 and 1974, the South African Railways placed one hundred Class 6E1, electric locomotives with a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement in mainline service. One of them holds the narrow gauge world rail speed record on Cape gauge.

Manufacturer

The 3 kV DC Class 6E1, Series 4 electric locomotive was designed and built for the South African Railways by Union Carriage & Wagon in Nigel, Transvaal, with the electrical equipment being supplied by the General Electric Company.
One hundred units were delivered in 1973 and 1974, numbered in the range from E1446 to E1545. Like Series 1 to 3, Series 4 units were equipped with four AEI-283AZ axle-hung traction motors. UCW did not allocate builder's or works numbers to the locomotives it built for the SAR and 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 unit 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 bottom edge of the locomotive body on the roof access ladder side. The units 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 Class 6E1 series were visually indistinguishable from their predecessors or successors, some externally visible changes did occur over the years.
The Series 3 to Series 5 locomotives are visually indistinguishable from each other. On the early Series 3 units in the number range from E1296 to E1345, an externally visible difference was a narrower stirrup below their side doors.

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.

World rail speed record

During the 1970s, Dr. Herbert Scheffel of the SAR experimented with self-steering bogies which not only reduced flange wear on goods wagons, but also opened up the possibility of running at high speed in passenger service on Cape gauge.
In 1978, one of the Series 4 units, no. E1525, was modified for experiments in high speed traction by re-gearing the traction motors, installing SAR-designed Scheffel bogies and fitting a streamlined nose cone on the no. 1 end. In this configuration, no. E1525 reached a speed of hauling a specially-adapted suburban coach on a stretch of track between Westonaria and Midway on 31 October 1978, a still unbeaten narrow gauge world speed record on Cape gauge.
During November 1980, the same locomotive was used to test the British Rail-Brecknell Willis single-arm high speed pantograph, then still under development, as part of the SAR's research towards introducing a new high speed MetroBlitz service between Pretoria and Johannesburg. A number of European pantographs were being evaluated for use on the Class 6E1, with the trains running at under catenary which usually saw nothing above. Testing took place over a stretch of straight track between Rosslyn and De Wildt on the line between Pretoria and Brits. During the trials, speeds of up to were achieved with the pantograph.
In the 2000s, similar single-arm type pantographs were adopted by Spoornet. These pantographs gradually replaced the older box-frame type pantographs on all electric locomotive types as and when replacement became necessary. Along with Class Experimental AC no. E1600, no. E1525 is still dedicated to testing projects since its different gear ratio and traction effort curves make it unsuitable for use in multi-unit working with other Class 6E1 locomotives in the fleet.
The MetroBlitz service commenced in January 1984. This testing project eventually bore more fruit in 2011 upon the opening of the 1,435 millimetres broad gauge Gautrain which connects Pretoria, Johannesburg and the O.R. Tambo International Airport in Kempton Park.
No. E1525 is set to be preserved for the national collection by the SA Heritage Agency and Transnet Heritage Foundation.

Reclassification and rebuilding

Reclassification to Class 16E

During 1990 and 1991, Spoornet semi-permanently coupled several pairs of otherwise largely unmodified Class 6E1 units, 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.
One known Series 4 unit, no. E1457, was part of such a Class 16E pair and became Class 16E no. 16-305B.

Rebuilding to Class 18E

Beginning in 2000, Spoornet began a project to rebuild Series 2 to 11 Class 6E1 units 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 unit'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.
The known Class 6E1, Series 4 units which were used in this project were all rebuilt to Class 18E, Series 2 locomotives. Their numbers and renumbering details are listed in the table.

Count		6E1
no.		Year
built		18E
no.		18E
series		Year
rebuilt		Notes
1E1446197318-78522014circa 2014
2E1447197318-70822012
3E14511973-7418-85522015
4E1452197318-42122012PRASA
5E1453197318-74222013
6E1458197318-65722011
7E1459197318-42922013PRASA
8E1460197318-42522012PRASA
9E1461197318-82922015
10E1463197318-65822011
11E1467197318-43322013PRASA
12E14691973-7418-85722015
13E14701973-7418-67122011
14E14711973-7418-80422014circa 2014
15E14731973-7418-80222014circa 2014
16E14761973-7418-79722014circa 2014
17E14771973-7418-84622015
18E14781973-7418-84822015
19E14791973-7418-66622011
20E14801973-7418-66022011
21E14811973-7418-42822012PRASA
22E14831973-7418-85622015
23E14841973-7418-85222015
24E14861973-7418-85422015
25E14871973-7418-65922011
26E14881973-7418-76522013
27E14901973-7418-42422012PRASA
28E14921973-7418-71922012
29E14931973-7418-64022011
30E1494197418-66522011
31E1495197418-76322013
32E1498197418-78722014circa 2014
33E1501197418-69622012
34E1502197418-67522011
35E1503197418-66922011
36E1504197418-84722015
37E1505197418-84022015
38E1506197418-83122015
39E1507197418-83822015
40E1508197418-63822010
41E1509197418-84122015
42E1510197418-84522015
43E1511197418-78422014circa 2014
44E1512197418-68822011
45E1513197418-84322015
46E1514197418-83622015
47E1516197418-71422012
48E1517197418-77422013circa 2013
49E1518197418-73822013
50E1519197418-65022010
51E1520197418-85322015
52E1521197418-64322010
53E1522197418-83922015
54E1524197418-67422011
55E1526197418-74022013
56E1527197418-75822013
57E1529197418-83322015
58E1530197418-65622011
59E1531197418-71822012
60E1532197418-73922013
61E1533197418-76722013
62E1534197418-83422015
63E1535197418-63622010
64E1536197418-71722012
65E1537197418-75322013
66E1538197418-69422012
67E1540197418-74622013
68E1542197418-78022013circa 2013
69E1544197418-74922013
70E1545197418-78122014circa 2014

Liveries

The whole series was 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. In the 1990s many of the Series 4 units began to be repainted in the Spoornet orange livery with a yellow and blue chevron pattern on the cowcatchers. Several later received the Spoornet maroon livery. In the late 1990s at least two were repainted in the Spoornet blue livery with solid numbers. After 2008 in the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa era, at least one was repainted in the PRASA purple livery.

Illustration