In 1973 and 1974 the South African Railways placed one hundred Class 6E1, Series 4 electric locomotives in mainline service, numbered in the range from E1446 to E1545. It was designed and built by Union Carriage and Wagon in Nigel, Transvaal, with the electrical equipment supplied by the General Electric Company (GEC). In 1978 E1525 was modified for experiments in high speed traction by re-gearing the traction motors and installing Scheffel bogies and a streamlined nose cone. In this configuration it reached a speed of 245 kilometres per hour (152 miles per hour) on 31 October 1978, a still unbeaten world speed record on Cape gauge. Apart from the narrower stirrup step below the side doors of Series 3 number E1345 and earlier locomotives, Series 3 to Series 5 locomotives are visually indistinguishable from each other.
See also the Wikipedia article on the South African Class 6E1, Series 4.
E1540 re-entered service in 2013 as Class 18E, Series 2 number 18-746 after being rebuilt. See the Wikipedia article on the South African Class 18E, Series 2. |