South African Class 34-500 - Serial Plate

 (First 34-500 in service) SA

Serial No:35261

South African Class 34-500 

The South African Class 34-500 of 1974 is a South African diesel-electric locomotive from the South African Railways era.

Between 1974 and 1977 the state owned South African Iron and Steel Corporation, now Kumba Iron Ore, placed forty-four General Electric type U26C diesel-electric locomotives in service on its 1974-built Sishen-Saldanha iron ore line and as heavy shunters at the Sishen mine. In 1977 another two locomotives were built for the Douglas Colliery near Witbank. Also in 1977, thirty-nine of the Iscor locomotives were transferred to the South African Railways, where they were initially designated Class 34-400 ex Iscor and later became commonly known as Class 34-500.

Manufacturers

The South African Class 34-500 type GE U26C diesel-electric locomotive, also known as Class 34-400 ex Iscor, was designed by General Electric and was built for the South African Iron and Steel Corporation (Iscor) by the South African General Electric-Dorman Long Locomotive Group (SA GE-DL, later Dorbyl). Altogether forty-four locomotives were delivered to Iscor on three orders:[1][3][4]

Twenty-two were delivered between 1974 and 1975, of which twenty were numbered in the range from 1D to 20D and geared for mainline service while two were numbered G01 and G02 and geared for shunting work.
Twenty more were delivered between 1976 and 1977, numbered in the range from 21D to 40D and geared for mainline service.
Another two were delivered in 1977, geared for shunting and numbered G03 and G04.
In 1977 two locomotives were also built for the Douglas Colliery near Witbank in Transvaal, numbered D5 and D6. Thirty-nine of the Iscor mainline locomotives were transferred to the South African Railways in that same year.[1]

The Iscor locomotives were delivered with a 7,000 litres (1,800 US gallons) fuel tank in order to cope with the long distances between refuelling points on the Sishen-Saldanha line. To facilitate the larger fuel tank, the inter-bogie linkage found on all other South African U26C models was omitted on these locomotives.[1]

Characteristics

GE and GM-EMD designs[edit]
The Class 34 locomotive family consists of seven series, the GE Classes 34-000, 34-400, 34-500 and 34-900, and the General Motors Electro-Motive Division (GM-EMD) Classes 34-200, 34-600 and 34-800. Both these manufacturers also produced locomotives for the South African Classes 33, 35 and 36.[3]

Distinguishing features[edit]
As built, the GE Class 34-000, 34-400 and 34-900 locomotives were visually indistinguishable from each other. The Class 34-500 locomotives could be visually distinguished from the other series by the air conditioning units mounted on their cab roofs and initially, when it was still a feature unique to them, by their running board mounted handrails. At some stage during the mid-1980s all Class 34-000, 34-400 and 34-500 locomotives had saddle filters installed across the long hood, mounted just to the rear of the screens behind the cab on the sides. Since then Class 34-900 locomotives could be distinguished from the older models by the absence of the saddle filter.[5]

MORE INFO ON 10E: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Class_34-500

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