South African Class 6E1, Series 6


The South African Railways Class 6E1, Series 6 of 1976 was an electric locomotive.
In 1976 and 1977, the South African Railways placed one hundred Class 6E1, electric locomotives with a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement in mainline service.

Manufacturer

The 3 kV DC Class 6E1, Series 6 electric locomotive was designed and built for the South African Railways by Union Carriage & Wagon in Nigel, Transvaal. The electrical equipment was supplied by the General Electric Company.
One hundred units were delivered in 1976 and 1977, numbered in the range from E1646 to E1745. Unlike Series 1 to 5 units which were all equipped with four AEI-283AZ axle-hung traction motors, the Series 6 units were equipped with AEI-283AY traction motors. UCW did not allocate builder’s numbers to the locomotives it built for the SAR and used the SAR unit numbers for their record keeping.

Characteristics

Orientation

These dual cab locomotives had a roof access ladder on one side only, just to the right of the cab access door. The roof access ladder end was marked as the no. 2 end. A corridor along the centre of the locomotive connected the cabs, which were identical apart from the fact that the handbrake was located in cab 2. A pantograph hook stick was stowed in a tube mounted below the lower edge of the locomotive body on the roof access ladder side. The locomotives had one square and two rectangular access panels along the lower half of the body on the roof access ladder side, and only one square access panel on the opposite side.

Series identifying features

The Class 6E1 was produced in eleven series over a period of nearly sixteen years. While some Class 6E1 series are visually indistinguishable from their predecessors or successors, some externally visible changes did occur over the years.
The Series 6 and Series 7 locomotives are visually indistinguishable from each other, but can be distinguished from all the older series models by the rainwater beading that had been added above the small grilles on the sides aft of the side doors.

Service

The Class 6E1 family saw service all over both 3 kV DC mainline and branch line networks, the smaller Cape Western mainline between Cape Town and Beaufort West and the larger network which covers portions of the Northern Cape, the Free State, Natal, Gauteng, North West and Mpumalanga.

Reclassification and rebuilding

Reclassification to Class 16E

During 1990 and 1991, Spoornet semi-permanently coupled several pairs of otherwise largely unmodified Class 6E1 units, reclassified them to Class 16E and allocated a single locomotive number to each pair, with the individual units in the pairs inscribed "A" or "B". The aim was to accomplish savings on cab maintenance by coupling the units at their no. 1 ends, abandoning the no. 1 end cabs in terms of maintenance and using only the no. 2 end cabs. Most pairs were later either disbanded with the units reverting to Class 6E1 and regaining their original numbers or rebuilt to Class 18E.
Eleven known Series 6 locomotives were part of such Class 16E pairs.
Beginning in 2000, Spoornet began a project to rebuild Series 2 to 11 Class 6E1 locomotives to Class 18E, Series 1 and Series 2 at the Transnet Rail Engineering workshops at Koedoespoort. In the process the cab at the no. 1 end was stripped of all controls and the driver's front and side windows were blanked off to have a toilet installed, thereby forfeiting the locomotive's bi-directional ability.
Since the driving cab's noise level had to be below 85 decibels, cab 2 was selected as the Class 18E driving cab primarily based on its lower noise level compared to cab 1, which is closer and more exposed to the compressor's noise and vibration. Another factor was the closer proximity of cab 2 to the low voltage switch panel. The fact that the handbrake was located in cab 2 was not a deciding factor, but was considered an additional benefit.
The known Class 6E1, Series 6 units which were used in this project were rebuilt to Class 18E, Series 1 as well as Series 2 locomotives. Their numbers and renumbering details are listed in the table. This list is virtually complete with only one unknown remaining, the status of no. E1744 to 18-832 which is shown as “uncompleted” and of which the existence still need to be confirmed by sighting or photographic evidence. The Class 18E rebuilding program was terminated abruptly in late 2014 with about half a dozen units in various stages of completion on the rebuilding line. Some reports indicated that the incomplete units would be forwarded to Danskraal or Durban for completion, but it could not be confirmed that this actually took place.

Count		6E1
no.		Year
built		18E
no.		18E
series		Year
rebuilt		Notes
1E1646197618-14212004
2E1647197618-27712006
3E1648197618-50612009
4E1649197618-39512008
5E1650197618-50412009
6E1651197618-82622014
7E1652197618-20912005
8E1653197618-79922014c. 2014
9E1655197618-38112008
10E1656197618-19012005
11E1660197618-62122010
12E1661197618-64822010
13E1662197618-62322010
14E1663197618-66722011
15E1664197618-72022012
16E1665197618-37312008
17E1668197618-78622014c. 2014
18E1669197618-10012003ex 16-422A
19E1670197618-80322014c. 2014
20E1671197618-68722011
21E1672197618-63022010
22E1673197618-14712004
23E1674197618-63222010
24E1675197618-38012008
25E1676197618-63522010
26E1677197618-61122010
27E1679197618-34912007ex 16-429A
28E1680197618-61422010
29E1681197618-62722010
30E1683197618-35112007
31E1684197618-34512007ex 16-427A
32E1685197618-32312007
33E1686197618-10412003
34E1687197618-12412004
35E1688197618-76822013
36E1689197618-41112009
37E1690197618-29712006
38E1691197618-30012006
39E1692197618-37512008
40E1693197618-14312004
41E1694197618-28712006
42E1695197618-40012008
43E1696197618-31312007
44E16971976-7718-18912005
45E16981976-7718-37212008
46E16991976-7718-16712004ex 16-425A
47E17001976-7718-16912004ex 16-425B
48E17011976-7718-34612007ex 16-427B
49E17021976-7718-71222012
50E17031976-7718-60022009
51E17041976-7718-18212005
52E17051976-7718-38612008
53E17061976-7718-52512009
54E17071976-7718-50812009
55E17081976-7718-75722013
56E17091976-7718-50312009ex 16-422B
57E17101976-7718-14412004
58E17111976-7718-40412008PRASA
59E17121976-7718-39412008
60E17131976-7718-73622013
61E17141976-7718-35012007ex 16-429B
62E1715197718-60222009
63E1716197718-32212007
64E1717197718-62822010
65E1718197718-34712007ex 16-428A
66E1719197718-61922010
67E1720197718-34812007ex 16-428B
68E1721197718-35712007
69E1722197718-35512007
70E1723197718-64422010
71E1724197718-39712008
72E1725197718-51712009
73E1726197718-72822013
74E1727197718-62222010
75E1728197718-63422010
76E1729197718-62922010
77E1730197718-18512005
78E1731197718-51912009
79E1732197718-35212007
80E1733197718-69022012
81E1734197718-38412008
82E1736197718-64522010
83E1737197718-62022010
84E1738197718-40512008PRASA
85E1739197718-61722010
86E1740197718-38812008
87E1741197718-60422009
88E1742197718-16312005
89E1743197718-36712007
90E1744197718-8322Uncompleted
91E1745197718-51812009

Liveries

The whole series was delivered in the SAR Gulf Red livery with signal red cowcatchers, yellow whiskers and with the number plates on the sides mounted on three-stripe yellow wings. In the 1990s many of the Series 6 units began to be repainted in the Spoornet orange livery with a yellow and blue chevron pattern on the cowcatchers. Several later received the Spoornet maroon livery. In the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa era after 2008, at least three were repainted in the Shosholoza Meyl purple livery and one in the PRASA light blue livery.

Illustration