South African Class 37 000

Manufacturer

The Class 37-000 type GT26M2C diesel-electric locomotive was designed for the South African Railways (SAR) by General Motors Electro-Motive Division (GM-EMD) and built by General Motors South Africa (GMSA) in Port Elizabeth. Equipped with later model GM-EMD D31 traction motors instead of the earlier GM-EMD D29B, it is a more powerful version of the GM-EMD type GT26MC Classes 34-200, 34-600 and 34-800.

Service

The Class 37-000 locomotives work on mainlines in the northern and northeastern parts of the country. Most of them are shedded at Ermelo and Lydenburg in Mpumalanga and at Empangeni in KwaZulu-Natal. They work on the Belfast-Steelpoort line and on the manganese route between the Mpumalanga Lowveld and KwaZulu-Natal, from Komatipoort through Swaziland to Empangeni and Richards Bay.

Rebuilding to Class 39-000

In 2005, a project commenced to rebuild new Class 39-000 type GM-EMD GT26CU-3 diesel-electric locomotives for Spoornet from Classes 34-600, 34-800 and 37-000 locomotives, using suitable frames from wrecked locomotives. Two companies were invited to produce prototypes for the project.

Number 39-251

One of these companies was Electro-Motive Sibanye, a joint venture between the newly established Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) and Sibanye Trade and Services, a South African Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) company dealing with locomotives and spare parts. The Sibanye venture produced only one locomotive, rebuilt from Class 37-000 no. 37-010 in 2008 and numbered 39-251. However, the locomotive was tested and rejected by Transnet, reportedly due to poor quality. Furthermore, when serious tender irregularities came to light, the locomotive rebuilding deal between Transnet and Electro-Motive Sibanye was cancelled.

Although it was initially painted in the red Transnet Freight Rail livery, no. 39-251 never worked for Transnet and was later reported as sold to RRL, a company which came about out of the abortive joint venture between EMD and Sibanye. RRL, based at a workshop in the old Pretoria Steel Works complex and with several of its locomotives active in the gold fields around Welkom in the Free State. The locomotive remained in the possession of Sibanye Trade and Services and was renumbered STS 001. It was later hired or leased to the Khumani iron ore mine in the Northern Cape and renumbered again to LC9-1.

Numbers 39-001 to 39-005

The other company was Transwerk (later Transnet Rail Engineering and then Transnet Engineering), who produced five locomotives in its shops in Bloemfontein between 2006 and 2008, rebuilt from three Class 34-600s and two Class 34-800s. These were tested and approved by Transnet and placed in service as the Class 39-000, numbered in the range from 39-001 to 39-005.

End of project

It was intended to produce one hundred Class 39-000s, but in spite of the technical success of the Transnet Rail Engineering part of the project, rebuilding was halted after completing the first five locomotives, due to higher than anticipated cost. It was decided, instead of rebuilding old locomotives, to rather continue the program by building fifty new Class 39-200 locomotives from imported and locally produced components. Only one Class 37-000 locomotive was therefore rebuilt.

Works numbers

The Class 37-000 builder’s works numbers and the one rebuilding are listed in the table.

Illustration

The main picture shows no. 37-014 in Spoornet orange livery, at Capital Park on 16 May 2013. Other liveries which were applied to Class 37-000 locomotives are illustrated below.