South African Class 35 400

Manufacturer

The Class 35-400 type GE U15C diesel-electric locomotive was designed by General Electric (GE) and built for the South African Railways (SAR) by the South African General Electric-Dorman Long Locomotive Group (SA GE-DL, later Dorbyl). The first batch of fifty locomotives was delivered between March and December 1976, numbered in the range from 35-401 to 35-450. These were followed by a second batch of fifty between October 1978 and May 1980, numbered in the range from 35-451 to 35-500.

GE and GM-EMD designs

The Class 35 locomotive family consists of five sub-classes, the GE Classes 35-000 and 35-400 and the General Motors Electro-Motive Division (GM-EMD) Classes 35-200, 35-600 and 35-800. Both manu­fac­turers also produced locomotives for the South African Classes 33, 34 and 36.

The locomotive has interlinked bogies, hence the "Co+Co" wheel arrangement classification. The linkage is usually hidden from view by the saddle-shaped fuel tank.

Distinguishing features

With the GE type U15C Class 35 locomotives, the Class 35-000 and 35-400 are usually visually indistinguishable from each other. A visible modification which was done during major overhauls, was the addition of a saddle hood astride the hump on the long hood behind the cab on Class 35-000 locomotives. By 2013 this modification had been done on a large number of Class 35-000 locomotives, but not on any of the Class 35-400s.

South African Railways

The Class 35 family is South Africa's standard branchline diesel-electric locomotive. The GE Class 35-400s were designed for light rail conditions and they work on most branchlines in the central, western, southern and southeastern parts of the country. In the Western Cape, they work out of Bellville Depot in Cape Town on the branchlines to Bitterfontein, Saldanha and Caledon, and out of Worcester to George.

NLPI Ltd.

NLPI Limited, abbreviated from New Limpopo Projects Investments, is a Mauritius-registered company which specialises in private sector investments, using the build-operate-transfer (BOT) concept. It had three connected railway operations in Zimbabwe and Zambia, which formed a rail link between South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In Zambia, the RSZ locomotive fleet included former Zambia Railways locomotives, but the rest of the locomotive fleet of all three operations consisted of South African GM-EMD Classes 34-200, 34-600 and 34-800 and GE Classes 35-000 and 35-400 locomotives, supplied by Transnet Freight Rail (TFR). These locomotives were sometimes marked as either BBR or LOG or both, but their status, whether leased or loaned, was unclear since they were still on the TFR roster and still often worked in South Africa as well. The locomotives did not appear to be restricted to work in any one of the three operations sections and have been observed being transferred to and fro across the bridge at Victoria Falls between Zimbabwe and Zambia, as required. Class 35-400 locomotives which serve with NLPI, include the locomotives annotated "NLPI" in the "leased or loaned" column in the table below.

Zambia Railways, the state-owned holding company, resumed control of the Zambian national rail network on 11 September 2012. This followed the government’s decision to revoke the operating concession which had been awarded to RSZ, after Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda claimed that RSZ had "blatantly disregarded the provisions of the agreement" and had been "acting in a manner prejudicial to the interests of Zambians”.

Tanzania Railways

Ten Class 35-400 locomotives were leased to Tanzania Railways, where they were regauged to Metre gauge. Locomotives which serve, there include the ones annotated "Tanzania" in the "leased or loaned" column in the table below.

Zaire

Class 35-400 locomotives were also leased to Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Zaïrois (SNCZ) in Zaire and were occasionally used by Zambia Railways on their journey north through Zambia. This was done with the agreement of SNCZ, who stipulated that they could only haul transit traffic for Zaire. Class 35-400 locomotives which were noted in such service through Zambia were, amongst others, two unidentified locomotives at Kabwe in August 1981, no. 35-464 at Choma in May 1985, no. 35-451 at Lusaka in February 1986, and another unidentified locomotive at Lusaka in May 1990, all under power on northbound goods.

Works numbers

The Class 35-400 builder’s works numbers and known international deployment are listed in the table.

Illustration

The main picture shows no. 35-406 in Spoornet orange livery, on a not excessively long train between Stikland and Bellville on 13 March 2007. Other liveries which were applied to Class 35-400 locomotives, are illustrated below. The last picture displays the roof of a Class 35-400 U15C locomotive. It was involved in a major derailment near Moorreesburg on 7 June 2007, when the track roadbed was washed away during heavy rain and flooding.