South African Class 35-400


The South African Railways Class of 1976 is a diesel-electric locomotive.
Between March 1976 and May 1980, the South African Railways placed one hundred Class General Electric type U15C diesel-electric locomotives in branch line service.

Manufacturer

The Class type GE U15C diesel-electric locomotive was designed by General Electric and built for the South African Railways by the South African General Electric-Dorman Long Locomotive Group. The first batch of fifty locomotives was delivered between March and December 1976, numbered in the range from 35-401 to 35-450. These were followed by a second batch of fifty between October 1978 and May 1980, numbered in the range from to 35-500.

Distinguishing features

The locomotive has interlinked bogies, hence the "Co+Co" wheel arrangement classification. The linkage is usually hidden from view by the saddle-shaped fuel tank.
With the two GE U15C Class 35 models, the Class can be distinguished from the Class by the length of the humps on their long hoods, the Class having a hump that is more than twice as long as that of the Class. An externally visible modification which was done during major overhauls is the addition of a saddle hood astride the long hump of the Class. By 2013 this modification had been done on a large number of long-humped Class units, but no similar modification was done on any short-humped Class.

Service

South African Railways

The Class 35 family is South Africa's standard branch line diesel-electric locomotive. The GE Class was designed to operate on light rail and they work on most branch lines in the central, western, southern and southeastern parts of the country.
In the Western Cape, they work out of Bellville Depot in Cape Town on the branch lines to Bitterfontein, Saldanha and Caledon, and out of Worcester to George. Since the Ceres branch was reopened during 2012 in terms of an agreement between the Ceres Rail Company and Transnet, they also work fruit container trains in that line during the fruit season.

NLPI Ltd.

NLPI Limited, abbreviated from New Limpopo Projects Investments, is a Mauritius-registered company which specialises in private sector investments, using the build-operate-transfer concept. It had three connected railway operations in Zimbabwe and Zambia that formed a rail link between South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In Zambia, the RSZ locomotive fleet included former Zambia Railways locomotives, but the rest of the locomotive fleet of all three operations consisted of South African GM-EMD Classes, and South African Class 34-800| and GE Classes and locomotives, supplied by Transnet Freight Rail. These locomotives were sometimes marked 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. The locomotives did not appear to be restricted to work in any one of the three operations sections and have been observed being transferred between Zimbabwe and Zambia across the bridge at Victoria Falls as required. Class locomotives which serve with NLPI include the locomotives annotated "NLPI" in the "leased or loaned" column in the table.
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”.

Tanzania Railways

Ten Class locomotives were leased to Tanzania Railways, where they were regauged to Metre gauge. Locomotives which served there include the ones annotated "Tanzania" in the "leased or loaned" column in the table.

Zaire

Class locomotives were also leased to Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Zaïrois in Zaire and were occasionally used by Zambia Railways on their journey north through Zambia. This was done with the agreement of SNCZ, who stipulated that they could only haul transit traffic for Zaire. Class locomotives which were noted in such service through Zambia were, amongst others, two unidentified locomotives at Kabwe in August 1981, no. 35-464 at Choma in May 1985, no. 35-451 at Lusaka in February 1986, and another unidentified locomotive at Lusaka in May 1990, all under power on northbound goods.

Works numbers

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

Loco no.		Works
no.		Leased or
Loaned
35-40140520NLPI
35-40240521NLPI
35-40340522
35-40440523
35-40540524NLPI
35-40640525NLPI
35-40740526NLPI
35-40840527
35-40940528
35-41040529
35-41140530
35-41240531
35-41340532
35-41440533
35-41540534
35-41640535
35-41740536
35-41840537
35-41940538
35-42040539
35-42140540
35-42240541
35-42340542
35-42440543
35-42540544
35-42640545
35-42740546
35-42840547
35-42940548NLPI
35-43040549
35-43140550NLPI
35-43240551NLPI
35-43340552
35-43440553NLPI
35-43540554
35-43640555NLPI
35-43740556
35-43840557
35-43940558
35-44040559
35-44140560
35-44240561
35-44340562
35-44440563
35-44540564
35-44640565
35-44740566
35-44840567
35-44940568
35-45040569
35-45141300SNCZ
35-45241301
35-45341302
35-45441303Tanzania
35-45541304Tanzania
35-45641305Tanzania
35-45741306Tanzania
35-45841307
35-45941308
35-46041309
35-46141310NLPI
35-46241311
35-46341312NLPI
35-46441313SNCZ
35-46541314
35-46641315
35-46741316
35-46841317
35-46941318
35-47041319
35-47141320
35-47241321
35-47341322
35-47441323
35-47541324
35-47641325
35-47741326Tanzania
35-47841327
35-47941328
35-48041329
35-48141330Tanzania
35-48241331
35-48341332Tanzania
35-48441333
35-48541334Tanzania
35-48641335Tanzania
35-48741336
35-48841337Tanzania
35-48941338
35-49041339
35-49141340
35-49241341
35-49341342
35-49441343
35-49541344
35-49641345
35-49741346
35-49841347
35-49941348
35-50041349

Liveries

The Class 35-000 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 many of the Class 35-400 units began to be repainted in the Spoornet orange livery with a yellow and blue chevron pattern on the buffer beams. In the late 1990s many were repainted once again, this time in the Spoornet blue livery with outline numbers on the long hood sides. After 2008 in the Transnet Freight Rail era many were repainted in the TFR red, green and yellow livery.

Illustration

The last picture below shows the roof of a Class U15C locomotive. It was involved in a major derailment near Moorreesburg on 7 June 2007 after the track roadbed was washed away during heavy rain and flooding.

File:SAR Class 35-400 35-467.JPG|No. 35-467 in SAR Gulf Red and yellow whiskers livery, Bellville loco depot, Cape Town, 24 May 2009
File:SAR Class 35-400 35-403.JPG|No. 35-403 in an early version of Spoornet’s orange with a wide gray top edge, Stikland, 19 October 2006
File:SAR Class 35-400 35-401.JPG|No. 35-401 in Spoornet blue livery with outline numbers, Stikland, Cape Town, 16 August 2006
File:Class 35-400 35-483.JPG|No. 35-483 in Transnet Freight Rail livery, Worcester Depot, Western Cape, 26 March 2013
File:Class 35-400 35-403.JPG|No. 35-403 in Spoornet orange livery at Biesiesfontein Farm outside Moorreesburg, 9 June 2007

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