South African Class 32-000


The South African Railways Class 32-000 of 1959 was a diesel-electric locomotive.
Between November 1959 and November 1961, the South African Railways placed 115 Class General Electric type U18C1 diesel-electric locomotives with a 1Co+Co1 wheel arrangement in service in South West Africa.

Manufacturer

The South African Class 32-000 type GE U18C1 diesel-electric locomotive was designed and built to South African Railways requirements by General Electric and imported. They were numbered in the range from to.

Class 32 series

The Class 32 consisted of two series, the high short hood Class and the low short hood Class, both GE products and both with a 1Co+Co1 wheel arrangement. The short hood end was the front on both versions and both had single station controls.

The pony truck affair

In the United States of America, the South African Class is credited with being a major factor in the demise of the American Locomotive Company and the rise of GE in the locomotive building business.
In the late 1950s South Africa, at the time one of the last bastions of steam traction, planned to embark on a massive dieselisation program. A SAR technical team was sent to Europe and the United States to prepare an assessment of design alternatives, finalise specifications and compile a list of qualified bidders.
In the United States only ALCO, GE and General Motors Electro-Motive Division were considered to be qualified bidders. The SAR was not very enthusiastic about two-stroke cycle prime movers and had a strong preference for ALCO's Model 251 prime mover and GE's transmission systems. As a long-time prior supplier of steam locomotives for the SAR, ALCO appeared to be virtually assured of receiving the order.
The SAR's tender for bid was issued in 1957, with two options:
These units were intended for operation in South West Africa under very light rail conditions that necessitated lighter axle loadings which could not be achieved with conventional Co bogies under a heavy locomotive. General Steel Castings had a design on paper for a 1Co bogie, a Co bogie with an integral pony truck, which could be utilised by either ALCO or GE and which would enable the SAR's specifications to be met for the heavier units.
The SAR made it clear that, despite the two options afforded by the tender, its strong preference was for a 1Co+Co1 locomotive. The use of a pony truck was not universally accepted by ALCO's engineering management, however, and the result was that ALCO bid on only the Co+Co option and lost out to GE, who had bid on both options.
In South Africa, this virtually opened the floodgates for GE since more than half of the SAR's vast diesel-electric locomotive fleet which was acquired between 1959 and 1981 were GE products.

Service

South African Railways

The Class was designed specifically for service in SWA and most of them spent their entire SAR working lives there.
Some initially entered service at Germiston to work coal trains on the Witbank coal line where electrification was approaching completion. From Germiston they worked all sorts of traffic, including the Trans-Natal Express between Johannesburg and Volksrust. Ten of these units were temporarily allocated to De Aar in the last quarter of 1961 to work the mainline to Beaufort West. Between 1964 and 1976, several were also allocated to the Eastern Transvaal for service around Waterval Boven.
Of the original 115 locomotives, only five survived into the Spoornet era in the 1990s. In SWA they began to be replaced by the Class 33-400 during the early 1970s. After being withdrawn from Spoornet service, a few were allocated to the National Collection, later the Transnet Heritage Foundation, and two of these, numbers and, still saw occasional service as Outeniqua Choo-Tjoe excursion locomotives based at George, Western Cape. Numbers and were staged at Danskraal for years and were sold in 2013, believed to be for further use by the buyer.

Post-SAR service

After withdrawal from SAR service in the 1980s, almost fifty of the Class locomotives were sold to Zaire's Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Zaïrois which became the Société nationale des Chemins de fer du Congo after the country's name change to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Of these at least one, SNCC no. 1405 was seen on local workings around Lubumbashi in 2013.
Three went to Consortium ARZ, an Italian per-way contractor working in Zaire and later also in Zambia.
Numbers,,, and went to Zambia, two to Nchanga and three to Nkana, two of the Zambian copper mines, where they were used on the mine systems at Nchanga and Kitwe on both ore trains and miner's passenger trains. The three locomotives at the Nkana Mine retained their SAR numbers. No. is depicted alongside on the Nkana-Chibuluma miner's train at Nkana Mine Sidings in Zambia. The coaches behind it are second-hand Tata bus bodies mounted on freight wagon frames and bogies which were initially made for the Mulungushi Commuter train service in Lusaka, which was later taken over by Zambia Railways and renamed Njanji Commuter.
LEGE in Durban, who operates an active hire and overhaul business, owns two of these locomotives, numbers and. Of these, no. has been observed shunting in the Merewent Oil Refinery on the Bluff as late as 2014.

Liveries

The class 32-000 were delivered in the new Gulf Red livery with yellow side-stripes and a yellow V on each end. They wore this livery throughout their SAR and Spoornet service life.

Preservation

Four of the Class 32-000's have been preserved.
The Class 32-000 builder's works numbers and known disposition are listed in the table.

SAR no.		GE works
no.		Post-SAR
owner		Post-SAR
no.
32-00133722
32-00233723
32-00333724
32-00433725SNCZ32-004
32-00533726
32-00633727SNCZ
32-00733728Nchanga26
32-00833729SNCZ
32-00933730SNCZ
32-01033731Nkana32-010
32-01133732
32-01233733
32-01333734Nkana32-013
32-01433735
32-01533736
32-01633737
32-01733738SNCZ
32-01833739SNCZ
32-01933740SNCZ1405
32-02033741SNCZ
32-0213374232-021
32-02233743SNCZ
32-02333744
32-02433745
32-02533746SNCZ
32-02633747
32-02733748
32-02833749
32-02933750THF32-029
32-03033751SNCZ
32-03133752
32-03233753
32-03333754
32-03433755SNCZ
32-03533756SNCZ
32-03633757SNCZ
32-03733758SNCZ
32-03833759
32-03933760
32-04033761
32-04133762
32-04233763THF32-042
32-04333764SNCZ1410-5
32-04433765
32-04533766
32-04633767
32-04733768THF32-047
32-04833769
32-04933770SNCZ
32-05033771SNCZ32-050
32-05133772SNCZ
32-05233773
32-05333774
32-05433775SNCZ
32-05533776
32-05633777CARZ
32-05733778CARZ
32-05833779SNCZ
32-05933780
32-06033781
32-06133782SNCZ
32-06233783
32-06333784
32-06433785
32-06533786
32-06633787SNCZ
32-06733788SNCZ
32-06833789SNCZ
32-06933790Nchanga27
32-07033791LEGE
32-07133792SNCZ
32-07233793SNCZ
32-07333794
32-07433795
32-07533796SNCZ
32-07633797SNCZ
32-07733798
32-07833799SNCZ
32-07933800
32-08033801
32-08133802SNCZ
32-08233803SNCZ
32-08333804
32-08433805LEGE
32-08533806SNCZ
32-08633807SNCZ
32-08733808CARZ
32-08833809
32-08933810SNCZ
32-09033811
32-09133812SNCZ
32-09233813SNCZ
32-09333814SNCZ
32-0943381532-094
32-09533816
32-09633817
32-09733818SNCZ
32-09833819SNCZ
32-09933820
32-10033821SNCZ
32-10133822
32-10233823SNCZ
32-10333824
32-10433825
32-10533826
32-10633827
32-10733828
32-10833829
32-10933830
32-11033831SNCZ
32-11133832SNCZ
32-11233833SNCZ
32-11333834Nkana32-113
32-11433835SNCZ
32-11533836SNCZ

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