1.
Electro-Motive Diesel
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Electro-Motive Diesel is an American manufacturer of diesel-electric locomotives, locomotive products and diesel engines for the rail industry. The company is owned by Caterpillar through its subsidiary Progress Rail Services Corporation, in 1930, General Motors purchased Electro-Motive Company and the Winton Engine Co. combining the two to form its Electro-Motive Division in 1941. In 2005, GM sold EMD to Greenbriar Equity Group and Berkshire Partners, in 2010, Progress Rail Services completed the purchase of Electro-Motive Diesel from Greenbriar, Berkshire, and others. EMDs headquarters, engineering facilities and parts manufacturing operations are based in McCook, Illinois, while its final assembly line is located in Muncie. EMD also operates a traction motor maintenance, rebuild and overhaul facility in San Luis Potosí, as of 2008, EMD employed approximately 3,260 people, and in 2010 it held approximately 30 percent of the market for diesel-electric locomotives in North America. Harold L. Hamilton and Paul Turner founded the Electro-Motive Engineering Corporation in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1922, the company developed and marketed self-propelled railcars using General Electrics newly developed internal combustion-electric propulsion and control systems. Hamilton started his career as a fireman, then locomotive engineer, on the Southern Pacific Railroad. Financing himself, he quit his sales position and set up shop in a hotel with his partner. In 1923 EMC sold two gasoline-powered rail motor cars, one to the Chicago Great Western and the other to the Northern Pacific, EMC subcontracted the body construction to St. Louis Car Company, electrical components to General Electric, and the prime mover to Winton Engine Company. The motorcars were delivered in 1924 and worked well, fortunate for the fledgling company, in 1925, EMC entered full-scale production, selling 27 railcars. In 1930 General Motors was seeking to improve their Diesel technology and they purchased the Winton Engine Company who, in addition to their Diesel products, sold non-Diesel engines for EMC-developed rail motorcars. The combined resources of GM and their new Winton subsidiary were focused on developing Diesel engines with improved power-to-weight ratios, GM saw EMCs role in marketing and applications development as fitting their objectives and purchased the company shortly after the Winton acquisition, renaming it Electro-Motive Corporation. In 1933 EMC designed the power setups for the Zephyr and M-10000 streamliners, the Zephyr used the first major product of the new GM-Winton venture, the 600 hp Winton 201A 2-stroke Diesel engine. Encouraged by the success of the new streamliners, EMC invested in a new locomotive factory. The new headquarters on 55th Street in McCook, Illinois, west of Chicago, in 1938 EMC started production of locomotives using GMs new 567 engine, which upgraded the horsepower to 2000 per locomotive unit and increased reliability. The 567, named for its displacement-per-cylinder of 567.45 in³, was a two-cycle Roots-blown, Uniflow-scavenged, Unit-injected engine with overhead camshafts and it was built as a V-6, V-8, V-12 and V-16. Charles F. Kettering and the General Motors Research Corporation were in charge of its development and their nearest competitor was the American Locomotive Company, who started production of less-developed Diesel locomotives to compete with the E-units in 1939. Baldwins response to the challenge of the E-units was to develop a steam locomotive design that pushed beyond the limits of practicality, passenger trains made little money for the railroads, but replacement of steam engines with reliable Diesel units could provide railroads with a crucial difference for profitability
2.
Track gauge
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In rail transport, track gauge is the spacing of the rails on a railway track and is measured between the inner faces of the load-bearing rails. All vehicles on a network must have running gear that is compatible with the track gauge, as the dominant parameter determining interoperability, it is still frequently used as a descriptor of a route or network. There is a distinction between the gauge and actual gauge at some locality, due to divergence of track components from the nominal. Railway engineers use a device, like a caliper, to measure the actual gauge, the nominal track gauge is the distance between the inner faces of the rails. In current practice, it is specified at a distance below the rail head as the inner faces of the rail head are not necessarily vertical. In some cases in the earliest days of railways, the company saw itself as an infrastructure provider only. Colloquially the wagons might be referred to as four-foot gauge wagons, say and this nominal value does not equate to the flange spacing, as some freedom is allowed for. An infrastructure manager might specify new or replacement track components at a variation from the nominal gauge for pragmatic reasons. Track is defined in old Imperial units or in universally accepted metric units or SI units, Imperial units were established in United Kingdom by The Weights and Measures Act of 1824. In addition, there are constraints, such as the load-carrying capacity of axles. Narrow gauge railways usually cost less to build because they are lighter in construction, using smaller cars and locomotives, as well as smaller bridges, smaller tunnels. Narrow gauge is often used in mountainous terrain, where the savings in civil engineering work can be substantial. Broader gauge railways are generally expensive to build and require wider curves. There is no single perfect gauge, because different environments and economic considerations come into play, a narrow gauge is superior if ones main considerations are economy and tight curvature. For direct, unimpeded routes with high traffic, a broad gauge may be preferable, the Standard, Russian, and 46 gauges are designed to strike a reasonable balance between these factors. In addition to the general trade-off, another important factor is standardization, once a standard has been chosen, and equipment, infrastructure, and training calibrated to that standard, conversion becomes difficult and expensive. This also makes it easier to adopt an existing standard than to invent a new one and this is true of many technologies, including railroad gauges. The reduced cost, greater efficiency, and greater economic opportunity offered by the use of a common standard explains why a number of gauges predominate worldwide
3.
3 ft 6 in gauge railways
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Railways with a track gauge of 3 ft 6 in/1,067 mm were first constructed as horse-drawn wagonways. From the mid-nineteenth century, the 3 ft 6 in gauge became widespread in the British Empire, there are approximately 112,000 kilometres of 1,067 mm gauge track in the world. 1795 One of the first railways to use 3 ft 6 in gauge was the Little Eaton Gangway in England, other 3 ft 6 in gauge wagonways in England and Wales were also built in the early nineteenth century. 1862 In 1862 the Norwegian engineer Carl Abraham Pihl constructed the first 3 ft 6 in gauge railway in Norway,1865 In 1865 the Queensland Railways were constructed. Its 3 ft 6 in gauge was promoted by the Irish engineer Abraham Fitzgibbon,1868 In 1868 Charles Fox asks civil engineer Edmund Wragge to survey a 3 ft 6 in railway in Costa Rica. 1871 In 1871 the Canadian Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway,1872 In January 1872 Robert Fairlie advocated the use of 3 ft 6 in gauge in his book Railways Or No Railways, Narrow Gauge, Economy with Efficiency v. Broad Gauge, Costliness with Extravagance. 1872 also saw the opening of the first 3 ft 6 in gauge railway in Japan,1873 On 1 January 1873, the first 3 ft 6 in gauge railway was opened in New Zealand, constructed by the British firm John Brogden and Sons. Earlier built 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in and broad gauge railways were converted to the narrower gauge. Also in 1873 the Cape Colony adopted the 3 ft 6 in gauge, after conducting several studies in southern Europe, the Molteno Government selected the gauge as being the most economically suited for traversing steep mountain ranges. Beginning in 1873, under supervision of Railway engineer of the Colony William Brounger, the Cape Government Railways rapidly expanded and the gauge became the standard for southern Africa. 1876 Natal also converted its short 10 kilometres long Durban network from 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in broad gauge prior to commencing with construction of a network across the colony in 1876. Other new railways in Southern Africa, notably Mozambique, Bechuanaland, after 1876 In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century numerous 3 ft 6 in gauge tram systems were built in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. In Sweden, the gauge was nicknamed Blekinge gauge, as most of the railways in the province of Blekinge had this gauge. An alternate name for this gauge, Cape gauge, is named after the Cape Colony in what is now South Africa, the term Cape Gauge is used in other languages, such as the Dutch kaapspoor, German Kapspur, Norwegian kappspor and French voie cape. After metrication in the 1960s, the gauge was referred to in official South African Railways publications as 1065 mm instead of 1067 mm, the gauge is sometimes referred to as CAP gauge, after C. A. The gauge name Colonial Gauge was used in New Zealand, in Australia the imperial term 3 foot 6 inch is used. In some Australian publications the term medium gauge is also used, in Japan 1,067 mm gauge is referred to as kyōki, which directly translates as narrow gauge. It is defined in metric units, Cape Government Railways Heritage railway List of track gauges Norwegian gauge controversy South African Trains – A Pictorial Encyclopaedia Why Did Japan Choose the 36 Narrow Gauge
4.
Bogie
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A bogie is a chassis or framework carrying wheels, attached to a vehicle, thus serving as a modular subassembly of wheels and axles. Bogies take various forms in various modes of transport, while bogie is the preferred spelling and first-listed variant in various dictionaries, bogey and bogy are also used. A bogie in the UK, or a truck, wheel truck. In Indian English, bogie may also refer to a railway carriage. In South Africa, the bogie is often alternatively used to refer to a freight or goods wagon. The first standard gauge British railway to build coaches with bogies, an alternate configuration often is used in articulated vehicles, which places the bogies under the connection between the carriages or wagons. Most bogies have two axles, but some cars designed for heavy loads have more axles per bogie, heavy-duty cars may have more than two bogies using span bolsters to equalize the load and connect the bogies to the cars. Suspension to absorb shocks between the frame and the rail vehicle body, Common types are coil springs, or rubber airbags. At least one wheelset, composed of an axle with bearings and a wheel at each end The bolster, the railway car is supported at the pivot point on the bolster. Axle box suspensions absorb shocks between the bearings and the bogie frame. The axle box suspension usually consists of a spring between the frame and axle bearings to permit up-and-down movement, and sliders to prevent lateral movement. A more modern design uses solid rubber springs, brake equipment, Two main types are used, brake shoes that are pressed against the tread of the wheel, and disc brakes and pads. More modern, bolsterless bogie designs omit these features, instead taking advantage of the movement of the suspension to permit rotational movement. The Commonwealth bogie, manufactured by the English Steel Corporation under licence from the Commonwealth Steel Company in Illinois, fitted with SKF or Timken bearings, it was introduced in the late 1950s for all BR Mark 1 vehicles. It was a heavy, cast-steel design weighing about 6.5 long tons, with sealed roller bearings on the axle ends, the leaf springs were replaced by coil springs running vertically rather than horizontally. The advanced design gave a better quality than the BR1. The side frame of the bogie was usually of bar construction, with simple horn guides attached, the axle boxes had a cast-steel equaliser beam or bar resting on them. The bar had two steel coil springs placed on it and the bogie frame rested on the springs, the effect was to allow the bar to act as a compensating lever between the two axles and to use both springs to soften shocks from either axle
5.
Diesel fuel
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Diesel engines have found broad use as a result of higher thermodynamic efficiency and thus fuel efficiency. This is particularly noted where diesel engines are run at part-load, as their air supply is not throttled as in a petrol engine, to distinguish these types, petroleum-derived diesel is increasingly called petrodiesel. Ultra-low-sulfur diesel is a standard for defining diesel fuel with substantially lowered sulfur contents, as of 2016, almost all of the petroleum-based diesel fuel available in UK, Europe and North America is of a ULSD type. In the UK, diesel fuel for use is commonly abbreviated DERV, standing for diesel-engined road vehicle. In Australia diesel fuel is known as distillate, and in Indonesia, it is known as Solar. Diesel fuel originated from experiments conducted by German scientist and inventor Rudolf Diesel for his engine he invented in 1892. Diesel fuel is produced from various sources, the most common being petroleum, other sources include biomass, animal fat, biogas, natural gas, and coal liquefaction. Petroleum diesel, also called petrodiesel, or fossil diesel is the most common type of diesel fuel, synthetic diesel can be produced from any carbonaceous material, including biomass, biogas, natural gas, coal and many others. The raw material is gasified into synthesis gas, which after purification is converted by the Fischer–Tropsch process to a synthetic diesel, the process is typically referred to as biomass-to-liquid, gas-to-liquid or coal-to-liquid, depending on the raw material used. Paraffinic synthetic diesel generally has a content of sulfur and very low aromatics content, reducing unregulated emissions of toxic hydrocarbons, nitrous oxides. Fatty-acid methyl ester, more known as biodiesel, is obtained from vegetable oil or animal fats which have been transesterified with methanol. It can be produced from many types of oils, the most common being rapeseed oil in Europe, methanol can also be replaced with ethanol for the transesterification process, which results in the production of ethyl esters. FAME can be used pure in engines where the manufacturer approves such use, FAME as a fuel is specified in DIN EN14214 and ASTM D6751. Pure biodiesel has an energy content about 5–10% lower than petroleum diesel, the loss in power when using pure biodiesel is 5–7%. As FAME contains low levels of sulfur, the emissions of oxides and sulfates. Use of biodiesel also results in reductions of unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, CO emissions using biodiesel are substantially reduced, on the order of 50% compared to most petrodiesel fuels. The exhaust emissions of particulate matter from biodiesel have been found to be 30% lower than overall particulate matter emissions from petrodiesel, the exhaust emissions of total hydrocarbons are up to 93% lower for biodiesel than diesel fuel. Biodiesel also may reduce risks associated with petroleum diesel
6.
Railway brake
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Brakes are used on the cars of railway trains to enable deceleration, control acceleration or to keep them standing when parked. Clasp brakes are one type of historically used on trains. In the earliest days of railways, braking technology was primitive, some railways fitted a special deep-noted brake whistle to locomotives to indicate to the porters the necessity to apply the brakes. All the brakes at this stage of development were applied by operation of a screw and linkage to brake blocks applied to wheel treads, and it was also unreliable, as the application of brakes by guards depended upon them hearing and responding quickly to a whistle for brakes. This had become apparent from the trials on railway brakes carried out at Newark in the previous year, the chief types of solution were, The chain brake, such as the Heberlein brake, in which a chain was connected continuously along the train. As with car brakes, actuating pressure to apply brakes was transmitted hydraulically and these found some favor in the UK, but even in the UK problems were found with the water used as brake fluid freezing The Westinghouse air brake system. The Westinghouse system uses smaller air reservoirs and brake cylinders than the vacuum equipment. An ejector on the created a vacuum in a continuous pipe along the train. This system was very cheap and effective, but it had the weakness that it became inoperative if the train became divided or if the train pipe was ruptured. This system was similar to the vacuum system, except that the creation of vacuum in the train pipe exhausted vacuum reservoirs on every vehicle. If the driver applied the brake, his drivers brake valve admitted atmospheric air to the pipe. Being an automatic brake, this system applies braking effort if the train divided or if the train pipe is ruptured. Its disadvantage is that the vacuum reservoirs were required on every vehicle, and their bulk. Note, there are a number of variants and developments of all these systems, the Newark trials showed the braking performance of the Westinghouse air-brakes to be distinctly superior but for other reasons it was the vacuum system that was generally adopted on UK railways. Goods and mineral vehicles were provided with hand brakes by which the brakes could be applied by a lever operated by staff on the ground. Early goods vehicles had brake handles on one side only and random alignment of the vehicles gave the guard sufficient braking but, from about 1930 and these trains, not fitted with continuous brakes were described as unfitted trains and they survived in British practice until about 1985. By 1952 only 14% of open wagons, 55% of covered, in the early days of diesel locomotives, a purpose-built brake tender was attached to the locomotive to increase braking effort when hauling unfitted trains. The brake tender was low, so that the driver could see the line and signals ahead if the brake tender was propelled ahead of the locomotive
7.
Railway coupling
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A coupling is a mechanism for connecting rolling stock in a train. The design of the coupler is standard, and is almost as important as the gauge, since flexibility. The equipment that connects the couplings to the stock is known as the draft gear. The different types of coupling do not always have formal or official names and these couplings followed earlier tramway practice but were made more regular. The vehicles are coupled by hand using a hook and links with a turnbuckle that draws the vehicles together, in Britain, this is called a screw coupling. Vehicles have buffers, one at each corner on the ends and this arrangement limits the slack in trains and lessens shocks. The earliest buffers were fixed extensions of the frames. This coupling is still the standard in European countries, the link-and-pin coupling was the original style of coupling used on North American railways. After most railroads converted to semi-automatic Janney couplers, the link-and-pin survived on forestry railways, while simple in principle, the system suffered from a lack of standardisation regarding size and height of the links, and the size and height of the pockets. The link-and-pin coupler consisted of a body that received an oblong link. During coupling, a worker had to stand between the cars as they came together and guide the link into the coupler pocket. Once the cars were joined, the employee inserted a pin into a hole a few inches from the end of the tube to hold the link in place. This procedure was exceptionally dangerous and many brakemen lost fingers or entire hands when they did not get out of the way of the coupler pockets in time. Many more were killed as a result of being crushed between cars or dragged under cars that were coupled too quickly, brakemen were issued with heavy clubs that could be used to hold the link in position, but many brakemen would not use the club, and risked injury. The link-and-pin coupler proved unsatisfactory because, It made a connection between the cars, with too much slack action. There was no design, and train crews often spent hours trying to match pins. Crew members had to go between moving cars during coupling, and were injured and sometimes killed. The links and pins were often pilfered due to their value as scrap metal, john H. White suggests that the railroads considered this to be more important than the safety issue at the time
8.
Janney coupler
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The Janney Coupler is a semi-automatic railway coupler. The earliest commercially successful version of the coupler, it was patented by Eli H. Janney in 1873. The AAR/APTA Type E, Type F, and Type H tightlock couplers are all compatible knuckle couplers, prior to the formation of the AAR these were known as MCB Couplers. After 1910 the MCB reconstituted itself into the AAR, in 1913 the American Steel Foundries had developed the new Type D coupler that was accepted as the standard coupler for the United States, and no new equipment could be built using any other coupler. It was and is still the most used knuckle coupler in the world, the modern Alliance coupler still uses the modern AAR-10 and/or -10A contour, as well as others, but cannot be used in the US on an interchanging railway. Brand names of the now standard AAR Type E, F and Tightlock couplers are ASF, Buckeye, the Interlocking contour of knuckle couplers was the first aspect to be standardized. In about 1910 the producers were all using the then standardized MCB-10 contour, in the 1930s the AAR Type D was improved and became the Type E, the contour, however, stayed the same. A few years later the 10 contour was modified into an optional standard called the 10A contour. The most modern contour, for a plain Type E knuckle coupler, is still the AAR-10 and -10A, the same MCB-10 contour has been an approved standard for interchange service for over 100 years, with only the slightest dimensional changes. The Type H Tightlock couplers, which are used on passenger-carrying rolling stock, the purpose of couplers is to join rail cars or locomotives to each other so they all are securely linked together. Major Eli Janney, a Confederate veteran of the Civil War, Janney couplers are usually attached to draw gear, but sometimes, in the case of locomotives, the Type E is bolted directly on the headstock. The Janney coupler is used in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Japan, Australia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Chile, Brazil, China and elsewhere. Among its features, Maximum tonnage as high as 32,000 metric tons such as on the Fortescue Railway, minimum ultimate tensile strength, Grade E knuckles,650,000 pounds-force Grade C or Grade E knuckles are required for interchange service. Such as Victorian narrow gauge lines, Janney couplers are always right-handed, i. e. their shape resembles the human right hand with fingers curled, as viewed from above. Required coupler heights, in North AmericaEmpty cars,33.5 inches ± 1-inch Loaded cars,32.5 inches in ± 1-inch Janney couplers are uncoupled by lifting the pin with a lever at the corner of the car. This pin is locked when the coupler is under tension, so the usual uncoupling steps are to compress the coupling with a locomotive, lift and hold up the pin, side operated variants are called the Sharon or Buckeye coupler. Most Janney couplers are now bottom operated, trains fitted with Janney couplers can accommodate heavier loads than any other type of coupler. Thus, the heaviest coal trains in New Zealand use Janney couplings, also, long-distance freight trains in North America are commonly more than 1-mile long, whereas this is not seen in Europe, where most freight trains still use English buffers and chain couplers
9.
Port Elizabeth
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Port Elizabeth or The Bay is one of the largest cities in South Africa, situated in the Eastern Cape Province,770 km east of Cape Town. The city, often shortened to PE and nicknamed The Friendly City or The Windy City, stretches for 16 km along Algoa Bay, Port Elizabeth is the southernmost large city on the African continent, just farther south than Cape Town. Port Elizabeth was founded as a town in 1820 to house British settlers as a way of strengthening the border region between the Cape Colony and the Xhosa and it now forms part of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, which has a population of over 1.3 million. The area around what is now called Algoa Bay was first settled by hunting and gathering people ancestral to the San at least 100,000 years ago. Around 2,000 years ago, they were displaced or assimilated by agriculturalist populations ancestral to the Xhosa. For centuries, the area was marked on European navigation charts as a landing place with fresh water. One of the goals of the Portuguese Crown in the Indian Ocean was to take over the lucrative trade of Arab. As they took over that trade, the Portuguese strengthened trading with Goa, the name Algoa means to Goa, just as the port further north in present-day Mozambique, Delagoa means from Goa. The area became part of the Cape Colony and this area had a turbulent history between its founding by the Dutch East India Company in 1652 and the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910 as a result of the British winning the Boer War. In 1799, during the first British occupation of the Colony during the Napoleonic Wars and this fort, built to protect against a possible landing of French troops, overlooked the site of what later became Port Elizabeth. The fort is now preserved as a monument, from 1814 to 1821, the Strandfontein farm, which later became the Summerstrand beach suburb of Port Elizabeth, was owned by Piet Retief. He later became a Voortrekker leader and was killed in 1837 by Zulu king Dingane during negotiations about land, an estimated 500 men, woman and children of his party were massacred. After Retief, the Strandfontein farm was owned by Frederik Korsten, another contemporary suburb of Port Elizabeth is named for him in the 21st century. At this time the town was founded by Sir Rufane Shaw Donkin, the Acting Governor of the Cape Colony. Diplomat Edmund Roberts visited Port Elizabeth in the early 1830s and he noted that Port Elizabeth in the 1820s had contained four houses, and now it has upward of one hundred houses, and its residents are rated at above twelve hundred persons. The Apostolic Vicariate of Cape of Good Hope, Eastern District, was established in the city in 1847, the town expanded as a diverse community comprising European, Cape Malay and other immigrants. The population increased rapidly after 1873 when the railway to Kimberley was built, during the Second Boer War, the port was an important transit point for British soldiers, horses and materials headed to the front by railway. While no armed conflict took place within the city, many refugees from the war moved into the city and these included Boer women and children, who were interned by the British in a concentration camp
10.
South African Class 34-600
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The South African Railways Class 34-600 of 1974 is a diesel-electric locomotive. Between December 1974 and July 1976, the South African Railways placed one hundred Class 34-600 General Motors Electro-Motive Division type GT26MC diesel-electric locomotives in service, one hundred locomotives were delivered between December 1974 and July 1976, numbered in the range from 34-601 to 34-700. Both manufacturers also produced locomotives for the South African Classes 33,35 and 36, the South African Class 39-000 type GT26CU-3 diesel-electric locomotives were to be rebuilt from Class 34-600, 34-800 and 37-000 locomotives. The project commenced in 2005, using frames from wrecked locomotives. Rebuilding was done at the Transwerk shops in Bloemfontein between 2006 and 2008 and it was decided, instead of rebuilding old locomotives, to continue the program by building fifty new Class 39-200 locomotives from imported and locally produced components. Three Class 34-600 locomotives, numbers 34-620, 34-635 and 34-674, were rebuilt to Class 39-000 before rebuilding was halted, locomotives which are known to have undergone this upgrade are annotated D31 TM in the Leased, rebuilt or sold to column in the table below. From at least 1988 until at least 1992, the National Railways of Zimbabwe hired type GT26MC Class 34-600 locomotives from the SAR and later Spoornet. Locomotives which were observed to be working on the NRZ between April 1988 and September 1992, are annotated NRZ in the Leased, rebuilt or sold to column in the table below. NLPI Limited, abbreviated from New Limpopo Projects Investments, a Mauritius-registered company, specialises in private sector investments and 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, commissioned on 1 September 1999, operates the Beit Bridge to Bulawayo line in Zimbabwe, since February 2004, NLPI Logistics operates between Bulawayo and Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe-Zambia border. Since February 2003, the Railway Systems of Zambia operated on the former Zambian Railways from Victoria Falls to Sakania in the Congo, Class 34-600 locomotives which served with NLPI include the locomotives annotated NLPI in the Leased, rebuilt or sold to column in the table below. Zambia Railways, the holding company, resumed control of the Zambian national rail network on 11 September 2012. One of the Class 34-600 locomotives, no, 34-640, was sold to Sheltam, 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 and they also operated on Spoornet’s Newcastle-Utrecht branch in KwaZulu-Natal and on Kei Rail in the Eastern Cape. Outside South Africa, they operated on the BBR, NLL and RSZ lines through Zimbabwe and Zambia, six Class 34-600 locomotives were leased to the Congolese railway, the Chemin de Fer Congo-Ocean, where they were renumbered in the range from CC801 to CC806. The order of their renumbering is not known, five Class 34-600 locomotives went to Ferrovia Centro Atlântico at Divinipolis in Brazil, where they run on 1,000 mm. While they were part of Spoornet Traction’s leasing scheme, they were later renumbered onto the FCA roster. Ten Class 34-600 locomotives went to Ferrovia Sul Atlântico at Curitiba in Brazil, while they were also initially part of Spoornet Traction’s leasing scheme, they were later renumbered onto the FSA roster, in the number range from 8231 to 8240
11.
South African Class 34-800
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The South African Railways Class 34-800 of 1978 is a diesel-electric locomotive. Between August 1978 and December 1979, the South African Railways placed fifty Class 34-800 General Motors Electro-Motive Division type GT26MC diesel-electric locomotives in service. In 1979, one more of the type was placed in service by Iscor in Newcastle. The first fifty were delivered between August 1978 and December 1979, numbered in the range from 34-801 to 34-850, in 1979, one more of the same type was placed in service by Iscor and numbered 666-0090. Between April and July 1980, an eight of these locomotives were delivered to the South African Railways. The Class 34 locomotive family consists of seven sub-classes, the General Electric Classes 34-000, 34-400, 34-500 and 34-900, both manufacturers also produced locomotives for the South African Classes 33,35 and 36. South African Class 39-000 type GT26CU-3 diesel-electric locomotives were to be rebuilt from Class 34-600, 34-800 and 37-000 locomotives, the project commenced in 2005, using suitable frames from wrecked locomotives. Rebuilding was done at the Transwerk shops in Bloemfontein between 2006 and 2008, two of these five were rebuilt from Class 34-800 locomotives. It was decided, instead of rebuilding old locomotives, to build fifty new Class 39-200 locomotives from imported. The upgraded locomotives could initially be distinguished by the running board mounted handrails which were installed during the upgrade, from at least 1988 until at least 1992, the National Railways of Zimbabwe hired type GT26MC Class 34-600 locomotives from the SAR and later Spoornet. At least one Class 34-800 locomotive, no, 34-820, also served on lease in Zimbabwe and was observed there in September 1992. NLPI Limited, abbreviated from New Limpopo Projects Investments, a Mauritius-registered company, specialises in private sector investments and 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, commissioned on 1 September 1999, operates the Beit Bridge to Bulawayo line in Zimbabwe, since February 2004 NLPI Logistics operates between Bulawayo and Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe-Zambia border. Since February 2003 the Railway Systems of Zambia operated on the former Zambian Railways, Class 34-800 locomotives which served with NLPI, include the locomotives annotated NLPI in the disposition column in the table below. Zambia Railways, the holding company, resumed control of the Zambian national rail network on 11 September 2012. In 1979, one Class 34-800 locomotive was delivered new to Iscor’s Newcastle steel works in Natal, the works numbers of the Class 34-800, as well as their known disposal and deployment, are displayed in the table. 34-849, in Spoornet blue livery with outline numbers, other liveries which were applied to Class 34-800 locomotives, are illustrated below
12.
KwaZulu-Natal
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KwaZulu-Natal is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu and Natal Province were merged. It is located in the southeast of the country, enjoying a long shoreline beside the Indian Ocean and its capital is Pietermaritzburg and its largest city is Durban. It is the 2nd most populous province in South Africa, with fewer residents than Gauteng. Two areas in KwaZulu-Natal have been declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, at around 92,100 km2 in area, KwaZulu-Natal is roughly the size of Portugal. It has three different geographic areas, the areas largest river, the Tugela, flows west to east across the center of the province. The coastal regions typically have subtropical thickets and deeper ravines, steep slopes host some Afromontane Forest, the midlands have moist grasslands and isolated pockets of Afromontane Forest. The north has a primarily moist savanna habitat, whilst the Drakensberg region hosts mostly alpine grassland, the province contains rich areas of biodiversity of a range of flora and fauna. The iSimangaliso Wetland Park and the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park have been declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, along with uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park and Ndumo, are wetlands of international importance for migratory species, and are designated as Ramsar sites. South Africa signed the 1971 Ramsar Convention to try to conserve and protect important wetlands because of their importance to habitats, the former Eastern Cape enclave of the town of Umzimkulu and its hinterland have been incorporated into KwaZulu-Natal following the 12th amendment of the Constitution of South Africa. The amendment also made changes to the southern border of the province. The northwesterly line of latitude and longitude traverses the province from the coast at Hibberdene to northeast Lesotho. KwaZulu-Natal has a varied yet verdant climate thanks to diverse, complex topography, generally, the coast is subtropical with inland regions becoming progressively colder. Temperature drops towards the hinterland, with Pietermaritzburg being similar in the summer, Ladysmith in the Tugela River Valley reaches 30 °C in the summer, but may drop below freezing point on winter evenings. The Drakensberg can experience heavy snow, with light snow occasionally experienced on the highest peaks in summer. The Zululand north coast has the warmest climate and highest humidity, one of these, eThekwini, is a metropolitan municipality and the other ten are district municipalities. The local seat of district municipality is given in parentheses. In 2012, the Ingonyama Trust owns 32% of the land in KwaZulu-Natal and this amounts to about three million hectares, occupied by over 4 million people. The Zulu king is the chairman of the Trust, the coastline is dotted with small towns, many of which serve as seasonal recreational hubs
