South African Class 8E

The South African Railways Class 8E of 1983 is an electric locomotive.

Between 1983 and 1985, the South African Railways placed one hundred Class 8E centre-cab electric locomotives with a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement in shunting service. Seven more were built for the mining industry.^[1][2]

Manufacturer

As a result of the gradual withdrawal of steam locomotives from service, many of which had been employed as shunting engines, and in addition to the Classes 36-000 and 36-200 diesel-electric locomotives, a growing need arose for a modern electric shunting locomotive for the South African Railways (SAR), especially for use in yards in the large 3 kV DC electrified centres, where the Class ES and Class 1ES locomotives were also due to be withdrawn.^[3]

The Class 8E electric shunting locomo­tive was designed for the SAR by a consortium consisting of Brown Boveri of Switzerland and Siemens of Germany. It was built by Union Carriage and Wagon (UCW) in Nigel, Transvaal, who also fabricated the mechanical components.^[2][4]

One hundred locomotives were delivered by UCW between 1983 and 1985, numbered in the range from E8001 to E8100. Another seven locomotives were built by UCW for the mining industry. UCW did not allocate builder’s numbers to the locomotives it built for the SAR, but used the SAR unit numbers for their record keeping. The locomotives which were built by UCW for industry, on the other hand, were allocated works numbers.^[1][2]

Orientation and features

No. 1 end

No. 2 end

The centre cab Class 8E has large grilles on the sides of both hoods on one side, and a grille on the side of only the left hand hood, when viewed from the other side. The no. 1 end will be at the viewer's left when observing the locomotive from the side with grilles on both hoods.^[1]

The pictures alongside, of no. E8008 with both hood covers removed, illustrate the different equipment installed inside the two ends of the locomotive.

The locomotive has solid state electrical control circuitry, with a thyristor controlled chopper supply­ing the four traction motors. Since the conventional accelerating resistors which are used on mainline electric locomotives, could be omitted, considerable energy saving was accomplished on heavy shunting duties.^[3]

The bogies are based on those of the Class 6E, but with a rubber secondary suspension system, which provides maximum adhesive force to the locomotive when starting from rest. The locomotive was designed to be operated by a crew of one and has two driving stations in the cab.^[3]

Service

The Class 8E was initially placed in service on the Witwatersrand, but a large number of them were later allocated to Durban and to other locations in Natal. Some are also employed at Beaconsfield in Kimberley, at Postmasburg in the Northern Cape and at Nelspruit in Mpumalanga. Apart from a short period in the early 1980s, when one served as the station pilot in Cape Town, working between the mainline platforms at Cape Town station and the passenger carriage yard at Culemborg, the Class 8E is unknown in the Western Cape.^[3]

They are powerful shunters and popular with their drivers, even though problems are sometimes experienced with start-up or failures, while working at coastal centres such as at Umbilo in Durban. This is attributed to the damp climate, which causes start-up contacter failures. Beginning in 2007, they were gradually equipped with air conditioning units, similar to those installed in the Class 18E, for added crew comfort. The air conditioning unit is mounted on the running board to the right of the cab on the right side of the locomotive.^[1]

Industrial use

At the same time that the Class 8E locomotives were being built for the SAR, another seven were built for the mining industry.

• Three were built for Driefontein Consolidated Gold Mine (Dries) near Carletonville, numbered in the range from 5 to 7 and with builder’s works numbers in the range from 449145 to 449147. Of these, Dries no. 5 was withdrawn and scrapped after an accident, with the remains dumped at the mine.
• Four were built for the Impala Platinum mine (Implats) at Phokeng near Rustenburg, numbered 11, 12, 14 and 15, with builder’s works numbers 449143, 449144, 449148 and 449149. In addition to these, seven SAR Class 8E locomotives, numbers E8005, E8006, E8019, E8026, E8042, E8050 and E8060, were later sold to Implats.^[2]

Illustration

The main picture shows numbers E8002 and E8007 at Mandini Station on 13 August 2007. Liveries which were applied to Class 8E locomotives are illustrated below.

• 
  No. E8062 in SAR Gulf Red and whiskers livery at Beaconsfield, Kimberley, 17 September 2009
• 
  No. E8001 in Spoornet maroon livery at the Sentrarand loco depot in Gauteng, 8 October 2009
• 
  No. E8004 in Spoornet blue livery with solid numbers at the Sentrarand depot in Gauteng, 22 September 2009
• 
  No. E8013 in Spoornet blue livery with outline numbers at Capital Park, Pretoria, 1 October 2009

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to South African Class 8E.

Locomotives of South Africa
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Electric	Amcoal Class E38 SAR Class ES SAR Class ES1 SAR Class Exp-AC SAR Class 1E SAR Class 2E SAR Class 3E SAR Class 4E SAR Class 5E s1 SAR Class 5E s2 SAR Class 5E s3 SAR Class 5E1 s1 SAR Class 5E1 s2 SAR Class 5E1 s3 SAR Class 5E1 s4 SAR Class 5E1 s5 SAR Class 6E SAR Class 6E1 s1 SAR Class 6E1 s2 SAR Class 6E1 s3 SAR Class 6E1 s4 SAR Class 6E1 s5 SAR Class 6E1 s6 SAR Class 6E1 s7 SAR Class 6E1 s8 SAR Class 6E1 s9 SAR Class 6E1 s10 SAR Class 6E1 s11 SAR Class 7E SAR Class 7E1 SAR Class 7E2 s1 SAR Class 7E2 s2 SAR Class 7E3 s1 SAR Class 7E3 s2 Spoornet Class 7E4 SAR Class 8E SAR Class 9E s1 SAR Class 9E s2 SAR Class 10E SAR Class 10E1 s1 Spoornet Class 10E1 s2 SAR Class 10E2 SAR Class 11E SAR Class 12E Spoornet Class 14E Spoornet Class 14E1 TFR Class 15E Spoornet Class 16E Spoornet Class 17E Spoornet Class 18E s1 TFR Class 18E s2 TFR Class 19E TFR Class 20E TFR Class 21E TFR Class 22E
Gas-electric	SAR Gas-electric
Diesel	3' 6" gauge Diesel-electric PRASA Class Afro 4000 SAR Class DS SAR Class DS1 SAR Class 31-000 SAR Class 32-000 SAR Class 32-200 SAR Class 33-000 SAR Class 33-200 SAR Class 33-400 SAR Class 34-000 SAR Class 34-200 SAR Class 34-400 SAR Class 34-500 SAR Class 34-600 SAR Class 34-800 SAR Class 34-900 SAR Class 35-000 SAR Class 35-200 SAR Class 35-400 SAR Class 35-600 TFR Class 35-800 SAR Class 36-000 SAR Class 36-200 SAR Class 37-000 Spoornet Class 39-000 TFR Class 39-200 TFR Class 43-000 TFR Class 44-000 2' gauge Diesel-electric SAR Class 91-000 3' 6" gauge Diesel-hydraulic SAR Class 61-000 3' 6" gauge Electro-diesel Spoornet Class 38-000
List of South African locomotive classes South African locomotive numbering and classification