South African Class 18E, Series 1

South African Class 18E, Series 1
No. 18-224, Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal, 5 August 2007
Type and origin Power type Electric Designer Union Carriage and Wagon Builder Transwerk Transnet Rail Engineering Model Spoornet 18E Build date 2000-2009 Total produced 446
Specifications Configuration: ​  • AAR B-B  • UIC Bo'Bo'  • Commonwealth Bo-Bo Gauge 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) Cape gauge Wheel diameter 1,220 mm (48.0 in) Wheelbase 11,279 mm (37 ft 0.1 in)  • Bogie 3,430 mm (11 ft 3.0 in) Pivot centres 7,849 mm (25 ft 9.0 in) Panto shoes 6,972 mm (22 ft 10.5 in) Length: ​  • Over couplers 15,494 mm (50 ft 10.0 in)  • Body 14,631 mm (48 ft 0 in) Width 2,896 mm (9 ft 6.0 in) Height: ​  • Pantograph 4,089 mm (13 ft 5.0 in)  • Body height 3,937 mm (12 ft 11.0 in) Loco weight 88,904 kg (196,000 lb) max Electric system/s 3 kV DC Current pickup(s) Pantographs from catenary Loco brake Air & Rheostatic Train brakes Air & Vacuum Couplers AAR knuckle
Career Operators Spoornet Transnet Freight Rail PRASA Class Class 18E Number in class 446 Numbers 18-001 to 18-420 18-500 to 18-525 Delivered 2000-2009 First run 2000

The Spoornet Class 18E, Series 1 of 2000 is a South African electric locomotive.

Beginning in 2000, Spoornet embarked on a program to rebuild Class 6E1 locomotives to Class 18E, Series 1 locomotives. Most of the Class 6E1s which had previously been reclassified or modified to Class 16E or Class 17E respectively were rebuilt to Class 18E as well.

The 3 kV DC Class 6E1 electric locomotive was built for the South African Railways (SAR) by Union Carriage and Wagon (UCW) in Nigel, Transvaal, with the electrical equipment supplied by the General Electric Company (GEC). Eleven series of Class 6E1 were delivered between 1969 and 1984, with altogether 960 units built. UCW did not allocate builder’s numbers to the locomotives which it built for the SAR, but used the SAR unit numbers for their record keeping.

The rebuilding to Class 18E, Series 1 was done by Transwerk, later renamed Transnet Rail Engineering (TRE) and then Transnet Engineering (TE), at its Koedoespoort workshops in Pretoria. The rebuilding to Series 1 locomotives ceased in 2009, with 446 units rebuilt from Class 6E1, Series 6 to 11 locomotives, numbered in the ranges from 18-001 to 18-420 and 18-500 to 18-525.

Since it was probably not intended at the beginning of the project to rebuild virtually the whole fleet of Class 6E1s to Class 18Es, most of the early rebuildings were done on the newest of the Class 6E1 fleet, Series 8 to 11. One of the reasons was that these series, numbers E1896 and up, already had an air equipment frame brake system, commonly referred to as a brake rack, similar to that intended for the Class 18E which would reduce the overall per-unit cost of rebuilding.

Another consideration was possibly that their bodywork usually required less heavy repairs than the older models in terms of rust and other damage, such as bent panels and frames.

Similar considerations possibly also applied when older Class 6E1s of Series 6 and 7 began to be rebuilt in 2003, since these units in the number range from E1646 to E1895, used the same brake valve as that of the Class 18E. The result by 2013, however, was a fleet of already ageing Class 18Es and ancient Class 6E1s, the latter mostly of Series 6 and older models.

The Class 6E1 was a dual cab locomotive and 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 are identical apart from the fact that the handbrake is located in cab 2.