South African Class 6E1, Series 7

6,972 mm (22 ft 10+1⁄2 in)Length:
​ • Over couplers15,494 mm (50 ft 10 in) • Over body14,631 mm (48 ft 0 in)Width2,896 mm (9 ft 6 in)Height:
​ • Pantograph4,089 mm (13 ft 5 in) • Body height3,937 mm (12 ft 11 in)Axle load22,226 kg (49,000 lb)Adhesive weight88,904 kg (196,000 lb)Loco weight88,904 kg (196,000 lb)Electric system/s3 kV DC catenaryCurrent pickup(s)PantographsTraction motorsFour AEI-283AY ​ • Rating 1 hour623 kW (835 hp) • Continuous563 kW (755 hp)Gear ratio18:67Loco brakeAir & RegenerativeTrain brakesAir & VacuumCouplersAAR knuckle

Performance figures
Maximum speed	113 km/h (70 mph)
Power output:	​
• 1 hour	2,492 kW (3,342 hp)
• Continuous	2,252 kW (3,020 hp)
Tractive effort:	​
• Starting	311 kN (70,000 lbf)
• 1 hour	221 kN (50,000 lbf)
• Continuous	193 kN (43,000 lbf) @ 40 km/h (25 mph)

Career
Operators	South African Railways Spoornet Transnet Freight Rail PRASA
Class	Class 6E1
Number in class	150
Numbers	E1746-E1895
Delivered	1977-1979
First run	1977

The South African Railways Class 6E1, Series 7 of 1977 was an electric locomotive.

Between 1977 and 1979, the South African Railways placed 150 Class 6E1, Series 7 electric locomotives with a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement in mainline service.^[1]

Manufacturer

The 3 kV DC Class 6E1, Series 7 electric locomotive was designed and built for the South African Railways (SAR) by Union Carriage & Wagon (UCW) in Nigel, Transvaal. The electrical equipment was supplied by the General Electric Company (GEC).^[2]

The 150 units were delivered between 1977 and 1979, numbered in the range from E1746 to E1895. Like Series 6, the Series 7 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 and used the SAR unit numbers for their record keeping.^[1]

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 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.^[1]

Series identifying features

The Class 6E1 was produced in eleven series over a period of nearly sixteen years. While some Class 6E1 series are visually indistinguishable from their predecessors or successors, some externally visible changes did occur over the years.^[1]

The Series 6 and Series 7 locomotives are visually indistinguishable from each other, but can be distinguished from all the older series models by the rainwater beading that had been added above the small grilles on the sides aft of the side doors. Beginning with Series 8, all subsequent series had a large hatch door on each side to the right of their side doors.^[1][3]

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, making 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 chose to leave the doors ajar when parking and exiting the units.^[4]

Late-model Series 7 locomotives were equipped with side doors on which the outside door latch handle was mounted near floor level with a simple drawer pull type handle at mid-door level. Unit no. E1845 and later numbers were observed with such lower mounted door handles. Unit no. E1882 was one observed exception with a high-mounted door handle, although this may have been the result of a door replacement.^[4][5]

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.^[6]

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. Most pairs were later either disbanded with the units reverting to Class 6E1 and regaining their original numbers or getting rebuilt to Class 18E.^[6]

Twelve known Series 7 locomotives were part of such Class 16E pairs.^[6]

• E1790 became 16-407B.
• E1840 and E1841 became 16-409 A and B.
• E1846 and E1847 became 16-404 A and B.
• E1848 and E1849 became 16-405 A and B.
• E1850 and E1851 became 16-410 A and B.
• E1858 and E1859 became 16-411 A and B.
• E1870 became 16-406B.

Modification to Class 17E

Class 17E locomotives were modified and reclassified from Class 6E1, Series 7, 8 and 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.^[6]

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.^[7]

Fourteen Series 7 units are known to have been modified and reclassified to Class 17E, their numbers being E1749, E1775, E1776, E1777, E1778, E1801, E1803, E1805, E1810, E1822, E1826, E1827, E1832 and E1843. Twelve of them were subsequently rebuilt to Class 18E, the exceptions being numbers E1778 and E1803.^[6]

Rebuilding to Class 18E

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 (TRE) 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.^[6][7]

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 is 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.^[7]

Most of the Class 6E1, Series 7 units which were used in this project were rebuilt to Class 18E, Series 1 locomotives. The known numbers and renumbering details are listed in the table.^[7]

Class 6E1, Series 7 units rebuilt to Class 18E
as on 31 January 2014

Count	6E1 no.	Year built	18E no.	18E series	Year rebuilt	Notes
1	E1746	1977	18-159	1	2004
2	E1747	1977	18-141	1	2004
3	E1748	1977	18-366	1	2007
4	E1749	1977	18-332	1	2007	ex 17E
5	E1750	1977	18-206	1	2005
6	E1751	1977	18-390	1	2008
7	E1752	1977	18-208	1	2005
8	E1753	1977	18-399	1	2008
9	E1755	1977	18-416	1	2009	TFR, ex PRASA
10	E1756	1977	18-408	1	2009
11	E1757	1977	18-521	1	2009
12	E1758	1977	18-407	1	2009
13	E1759	1977	18-391	1	2008
14	E1760	1977	18-389	1	2008
15	E1761	1977	18-520	1	2009
16	E1762	1977	18-607	2	2009
17	E1763	1977	18-516	1	2009
18	E1764	1977	18-377	1	2008
19	E1765	1977	18-134	1	2004
20	E1766	1977	18-398	1	2008
21	E1767	1977	18-603	2	2009
22	E1768	1977	18-605	2	2010
23	E1769	1977	18-139	1	2004
24	E1770	1977	18-335	1	2007
25	E1771	1977	18-410	1	2009	PRASA
26	E1772	1977	18-382	1	2008
27	E1773	1977	18-522	1	2009
28	E1774	1977	18-385	1	2008
29	E1775	1977	18-292	1	2006	ex 17E
30	E1776	1977	18-326	1	2007	ex 17E
31	E1777	1977	18-289	1	2006	ex 17E
32	E1779	1977	18-418	1	2009	TFR, ex PRASA
33	E1780	1977	18-107	1	2003
34	E1781	1977	18-510	1	2009
35	E1782	1977	18-137	1	2004
36	E1783	1977	18-772	2	2013
37	E1785	1977	18-165	1	2003
38	E1786	1977	18-417	1	2009
39	E1787	1977	18-354	1	2008
40	E1788	1977-78	18-187	1	2005
41	E1789	1977-78	18-361	1	2007
42	E1790	1977-78	18-184	1	2005	ex 16-407B
43	E1791	1977-78	18-601	2	2009
44	E1792	1977-78	18-333	1	2007
45	E1793	1977-78	18-633	2	2010
46	E1794	1977-78	18-514	1	2009
47	E1795	1977-78	18-358	1	2007
48	E1796	1977-78	18-188	1	2005
49	E1797	1977-78	18-231	1	2005
50	E1798	1977-78	18-500	1	2009
51	E1799	1977-78	18-379	1	2008
52	E1800	1977-78	18-699	2	2012
53	E1801	1977-78	18-331	1	2007	ex 17E
54	E1802	1977-78	18-501	1	2009
55	E1804	1977-78	18-403	1	2008	PRASA
56	E1805	1977-78	18-260	1	2006	ex 17E
57	E1806	1977-78	18-618	2	2010
58	E1807	1977-78	18-654	2	2011
59	E1808	1977-78	18-502	1	2009
60	E1809	1977-78	18-612	2	2009
61	E1810	1977-78	18-294	1	2006	ex 17E
62	E1811	1977-78	18-512	1	2009
63	E1812	1977-78	18-649	2	2011
64	E1814	1977-78	18-343	1	2007
65	E1815	1977-78	18-401	1	2008	PRASA
66	E1817	1977-78	18-369	1	2007
67	E1819	1977-78	18-402	1	2009	PRASA
68	E1820	1977-78	18-613	2	2010
69	E1821	1977-78	18-409	1	2009	PRASA
70	E1822	1977-78	18-097	1	2003	ex 17E
71	E1823	1977-78	18-610	2	2010
72	E1824	1977-78	18-615	2	2009
73	E1825	1977-78	18-524	1	2009
74	E1826	1977-78	18-344	1	2007	ex 17E
75	E1827	1977-78	18-283	1	2006	ex 17E
76	E1828	1977-78	18-413	1	2008	PRASA
77	E1829	1977-78	18-406	1	2008	PRASA
78	E1830	1977-78	18-387	1	2008
79	E1831	1978	18-086	1	2003
80	E1832	1978	18-307	1	2007	ex 17E
81	E1833	1978	18-365	1	2007
82	E1834	1978	18-431	2	2013	PRASA
83	E1835	1978	18-280	1	2006
84	E1836	1978	18-505	1	2009
85	E1837	1978	18-233	1	2005
86	E1838	1978	18-317	1	2007
87	E1839	1978	18-625	2	2010
88	E1840	1978	18-338	1	2007	ex 16-409A
89	E1841	1978	18-339	1	2007	ex 16-409B
90	E1842	1978	18-135	1	2004
91	E1843	1978	18-270	1	2006	ex 17E
92	E1844	1978	18-725	2	2013
93	E1845	1978	18-626	2	2010
94	E1846	1978	18-359	1	2007	ex 16-404A
95	E1847	1978	18-360	1	2007	ex 16-404B
96	E1848	1978	18-264	1	2006	ex 16-405A
97	E1849	1978	18-265	1	2006	ex 16-405B
98	E1850	1978	18-392	1	2008	ex 16-410A
99	E1851	1978	18-393	1	2008	ex 16-410B
100	E1853	1978	18-368	1	2007
101	E1854	1978	18-133	1	2004
102	E1855	1978	18-779	2	2013	c. 2013
103	E1856	1978	18-511	1	2009
104	E1857	1978	18-412	1	2008	PRASA
105	E1860	1978	18-138	1	2004
106	E1861	1978	18-342	1	2007
107	E1862	1978	18-692	2	2012
108	E1863	1978-79	18-363	1	2007
109	E1864	1978-79	18-364	1	2007
110	E1865	1978-79	18-523	1	2009
111	E1866	1978-79	18-691	2	2012
112	E1867	1978-79	18-730	2	2013
113	E1868	1978-79	18-414	1	2008	PRASA
114	E1869	1978-79	18-701	2	2012
115	E1871	1978-79	18-090	1	2003
116	E1872	1979	18-396	1	2008
117	E1873	1979	18-213	1	2005
118	E1874	1979	18-509	1	2009
119	E1875	1979	18-356	1	2007
120	E1876	1979	18-183	1	2005
121	E1877	1979	18-606	2	2009
122	E1878	1979	18-198	1	2005
123	E1879	1979	18-374	1	2007
124	E1880	1979	18-513	1	2009
125	E1881	1979	18-318	1	2007
126	E1882	1979	18-609	2	2009
127	E1883	1979	18-314	1	2007
128	E1884	1979	18-616	2	2010
129	E1885	1979	18-080	1	2003
130	E1886	1979	18-362	1	2007
131	E1887	1979	18-624	2	2010
132	E1888	1979	18-370	1	2007
133	E1889	1979	18-266	1	2006
134	E1890	1979	18-631	2	2010
135	E1891	1979	18-515	1	2009
136	E1892	1979	18-371	1	2007
137	E1893	1979	18-161	1	2005
138	E1894	1979	18-205	1	2005
139	E1895	1979	18-353	1	2007

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 6 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 outline numbers on the sides. In the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) era after 2008, at least one was repainted in the Shosholoza Meyl purple livery.^[8]

Illustration

• 
  No. E1798 in SAR Gulf Red & whiskers livery at Bayhead, Durban, 8 August 2007
• 
  No. E1800 in Spoornet orange livery at Beaufort West, Western Cape, 4 April 2006
• 
  No. E1781 in Spoornet blue livery with outline numbers at Empangeni, 14 August 2007
• 
  No. E1834 in PRASA’s Shosholoza Meyl livery at Bellville Depot, 15 May 2010

References

External links

Media related to South African Class 6E1 Series 7 at Wikimedia Commons