South African Class 34-200

South African Class 34-200
No. 34-227 at Wildrand siding, near Piet Retief, Mpumalanga, 17 August 2007
Type and origin Power type Diesel Electric Designer General Motors Electro-Motive Division Builder General Motors Electro-Motive Division Serial number 37563-37612 Model GM-EMD GT26MC Build date 1971-1972 Total produced 50
Specifications Configuration: ​  • AAR C-C  • UIC Co'Co'  • Commonwealth Co+Co Gauge 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) Cape gauge Wheel diameter 1,016 mm (40.0 in) Wheelbase 14,732 mm (48 ft 4.0 in) ​  • Bogie 3,632 mm (11 ft 11.0 in) Pivot centres 11,278 mm (37 ft 0 in) Length: ​  • Over couplers 19,202 mm (63 ft 0 in) Width 2,819 mm (9 ft 3.0 in) Height 3,924 mm (12 ft 10.5 in) Axle load 18,850 kg (41,560 lb) Adhesive weight 113,100 kg (249,300 lb) Loco weight 113,100 kg (249,300 lb) max Fuel type Diesel Fuel capacity 6,100 litres (1,300 imp gal) Prime mover GM-EMD 16-645E3 RPM range 250-900 ​  • RPM low idle 250  • RPM idle 315  • Maximum RPM 900 Engine type 2-stroke diesel Aspiration GM-EMD E16 turbocharger Displacement 10.57 litres (645 cu in) Alternator 10 pole 3 phase GM-EMD AR10F-D14 Traction motors Six GM-EMD D29B DC 4 pole ​  • Rating 1 hour 485A  • Continuous 450A @ 21 km/h (13 mph) Cylinders V16 Gear ratio 63:14 MU working 6 maximum Loco brake 28-LAV-1 with vigilance control Train brakes Gardner-Denver ADJV-8101 compressor/exhauster Air tank cap. 850 litres (190 imp gal) Compressor 0.021 m3/s (0.74 cu ft/s) @ 475 rpm Exhauster 0.084 m3/s (3.0 cu ft/s) @ 475 rpm Couplers AAR knuckle type E
Performance figures Maximum speed 100 km/h (62 mph) Power output: ​  • Starting 2,145 kW (2,876 hp)  • Continuous 1,940 kW (2,600 hp) Tractive effort: ​  • Starting 272 kN (61,000 lbf)  • Continuous 218 kN (49,000 lbf) @ 26 km/h (16 mph) Factor of adh.: ​  • Starting 25%  • Continuous 20% Brakeforce 65% ratio @ 345 kPa (50.0 psi) Dynamic brake peak effort 188 kN (42,000 lbf) @ 28 km/h (17 mph)
Career Operators South African Railways Spoornet Transnet Freight Rail NLPI Sheltam Class Class 34-200 Number in class 50 Numbers 34-201 to 34-250 Delivered 1971-1972 First run 1971

The South African Railways Class 34-200 of 1971 is a diesel-electric locomotive.

Between October 1971 and March 1972, the South African Railways placed fifty Class 34-200 General Motors Electro-Motive Division type GT26MC diesel-electric locomotives in service.

Manufacturer

The Class 34-200 type GT26MC diesel-electric locomotive was designed and built for the South African Railways (SAR) by General Motors Electro-Motive Division (GM-EMD) at their McCook plant in Illinois. Fifty locomotives were delivered between October 1971 and March 1972, numbered in the range from 34-201 to 34-250.

Class 34 series

GE and GM-EMD designs

The Class 34 locomotive family consists of seven series, the General Electric (GE) Classes 34-000, 34-400, 34-500 (also known as 34-400 ex Iscor) and 34-900, and the GM-EMD Classes 34-200, 34-600 and 34-800. Both manufacturers also produced locomotives for the South African Classes 33, 35 and 36.

Distinguishing features

Of the GM-EMD Class 34 series locomotives, Classes 34-200 and 34-600 units are visually indistinguishable from one another, but they can be distinguished from the Class 34-800 by the thicker fishbelly-shaped sills on their left hand sides compared to the straight sill on the left hand side of the Class 34-800.

Service

South Africa

The Class 34-200 were mostly destined for use in the Cape Midlands, but was imported through Durban harbour since Port Elizabeth harbour did not have facilities to handle these large mainline diesel-electrics. The locomotives arrived fully assembled and were hauled inland from Durban Harbour in blocks of 16 to 18 units, each worked by four new Class 6E1 units. Reports at the time indicated that the locomotives would be worked directly to the Cape Midlands via Bethlehem, Kroonstad and Bloemfontein to Port Elizabeth. Since at least one of these loads was photographed between Germiston and Pretoria, it is more likely that they first went to Koedoespoort in Pretoria for commissioning before being released for service on the Cape Midlands.

The Class 34-200s eventually worked on most mainlines and some unelectrified branch lines in the central, eastern, northern and northeastern parts of South Africa. By the 2010s a significant number of them were observed at Richards Bay, Empangeni, Vryheid and Ermelo.

NLPI Ltd.

NLPI Limited (abbreviated from New Limpopo Projects Investments), a Mauritius-registered company, specialises in private sector investments by using the build-operate-transfer (BOT) concept. It had three connected railway operations in Zimbabwe and Zambia, which formed a rail link between South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

• The Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway (BBR), commissioned on 1 September 1999, operates the Beit Bridge to Bulawayo line in Zimbabwe.
• From February 2004, NLPI Logistics (NLL or LOG) operated between Bulawayo and Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe-Zambia border.
• From February 2003, the Railway Systems of Zambia (RSZ) operated on the former Zambian Railways (ZR) from Victoria Falls to Sakania in the Congo.

In Zambia, the RSZ locomotive fleet included former ZR locomotives, but the rest of the locomotive fleet of all three operations consisted of South African GM-EMD Classes 34-200, 34-600 and 34-800 and GE Classes 35-000 and 35-400 locomotives. These locomotives were sometimes marked or branded as either BBR or LOG or both, but their status, whether leased or loaned, was unclear since they were still on the TFR roster and still often worked in South Africa as well.

Zambia Railways, the state-owned holding company, resumed control of the Zambian national rail network on 11 September 2012. This followed the Zambian government's decision to revoke the operating concession which had been awarded to RSZ after Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda claimed that RSZ had "blatantly disregarded the provisions of the agreement" and had been "acting in a manner prejudicial to the interests of Zambians”.

Sheltam

One of the Class 34-200 locomotives, no. 34-221, was sold to Sheltam where it became their no. 4, having since been renumbered to 2601. Sheltam is a locomotive hire and repair company which undertakes complete operating contracts and maintenance contracts, based at the Douglas Colliery near Witbank in Mpumalanga. By the turn of the millennium, Sheltam locomotives were operating at Randfontein Estates Gold Mine in Gauteng, in Mpumalanga at Douglas and Vandyksdrift Collieries and at SAPPI, Ngodwana. They also operated on Spoornet's Newcastle-Utrecht branch in KwaZulu-Natal and for a while on Kei Rail in the Eastern Cape. Outside South Africa, they operate on the BBR, NLL and RSZ lines through Zimbabwe and Zambia and in the Congo.

Works numbers

The Class 34-200 builder's works numbers and known deployment are listed in the table.

Class 34-200, GM-EMD type GT26MC

Loco no.	GM-EMD works no.	Leased or Sold to
34-201	37563
34-202	37564
34-203	37565
34-204	37566
34-205	37567
34-206	37568
34-207	37569
34-208	37570
34-209	37571	NLPI
34-210	37572
34-211	37573
34-212	37574	NLPI
34-213	37575
34-214	37576	NLPI
34-215	37577
34-216	37578
34-217	37579
34-218	37580
34-219	37581
34-220	37582
34-221	37583	Sheltam 4/2601
34-222	37584
34-223	37585
34-224	37586
34-225	37587
34-226	37588
34-227	37589
34-228	37590
34-229	37591
34-230	37592
34-231	37593
34-232	37594
34-233	37595
34-234	37596
34-235	37597
34-236	37598
34-237	37599
34-238	37600	NLPI
34-239	37601
34-240	37602	NLPI
34-241	37603
34-242	37604	NLPI
34-243	37605
34-244	37606	NLPI
34-245	37607	NLPI
34-246	37608	NLPI
34-247	37609	NLPI
34-248	37610	NLPI
34-249	37611
34-250	37612

Liveries

The Class 34-200 were all delivered in the SAR Gulf Red livery with signal red buffer beams, yellow side stripes on the long hood sides and a yellow V on each end. In the 1990s they began to be repainted in the Spoornet orange livery with a yellow and blue chevron pattern on the buffer beams.

Illustration

The main picture shows the right hand side of no. 34-227 in the Spoornet orange livery. The left side and the NLPI LOG livery as applied to Class 34-200 locomotives are illustrated below.

• 
  No. 34–226 in Spoornet orange livery at Vryheid yard, KwaZulu-Natal, 16 August 2007
• 
  No. 34–209 with NLPI LOG emblems at Koedoespoort, Pretoria, 30 September 2009