In 1970 and 1971 the South African Railways placed eighty Class 6E electric locomotives in mainline service, numbered in the range from E1146 to E1225. Two more were built for the Sishen iron ore mine. It was designed and built by Union Carriage and Wagon in Nigel, Transvaal, with the electrical equipment supplied by Associated Electrical Industries and English Electric. Compared to the Class 5E1, the Class 6E had improved traction motors and was equipped with electronic wheel slip detection.
In the 1990s the Bellville Depot was authorised to repaint eight Class 6E locomotives, numbers E1171 to E1178, in Blue Train livery. In the process three locomotives that were considered to be better candidates, numbers E1146, E1157 and E1223, unofficially exchanged running numbers with numbers E1172, E1177 and E1174 respectively.
See also the Wikipedia article on the South African Class 6E. |