The first six Class 44-000 locomotives were built in the United States of America by General Electric in Erie, Pennsylvania in April and July 2015. In October 2015 the first of 227 locally-built locomotives was nearing completion at the Koedoespoort shops in Pretoria, while the first two of the six imported locomotives were undergoing testing on the line between Pyramid South and Warmbad. The acquisition of the Class 44-000 forms part of the largest-ever locomotive supply contract in South African history and the single-biggest investment initiative by a South African corporation. It consists of contracts for the construction of 1,064 locomotives by four global original equipment manufacturers:
General Electric South Africa Technologies for 233 Class 44-000 diesel-electric locomotives.
CNR Rolling Stock South Africa Ltd. for 232 Class 45-000 diesel-electric locomotives.
Bombardier Transportation South Africa for 240 Class 23E dual-voltage electric locomotives.
Construction
The Class 44-000 GE type ES40ACi diesel-electric locomotive was designed by GE Rail, a division of General Electric. While the forerunner Class was, to a large extent, designed by GE for Cape gauge and bought "off the shelf", the Class was designed and built to stringent specifications prescribed by Transnet Freight Rail. The core components of the Class, such as the GEVO-12prime movers, were manufactured in the United States of America, with locomotive construction and final assembly taking place at Koedoespoort. This will be in compliance with the minimum local content criteria for rolling stock of 55% for diesel-electric locomotives. The six American-built locomotives, numbered in the range from to, were all delivered to Transnet Engineering at Koedoespoort by September 2015. The first two, numbers and, were at Pyramid South for testing and evaluation with a traction test vehicle on the line between Pyramid South and Warmbad, prior to road testing hauling freight. The rest are being built by Transnet Engineering and will be numbered in the range from to.
Works numbers
The GE-built Class 44-000 builder’s works numbers are shown in the table.
Loco no.
Builder
Works no.
Year
44-001
GE
63325
2015-07
44-002
GE
63326
2015-04
44-003
GE
63327
2015-04
44-004
GE
63328
2015-07
44-005
GE
63329
2015-07
44-006
GE
63330
2015-07
44-007
TE
2015
Illustration
All the Class 44-000 locomotives were delivered in red TFR livery. The reason for the pink colour of the chains on the bogies could not be determined.
