Beginning in 2000 Spoornet embarked on a program to rebuild dual cab Class 6E1, Series 2 to Series 11 locomotives to single cab Class 18E, Series 1 locomotives that were renumbered in the ranges 18-001 to 18-434 and 18-500 to 18-525. The rebuilding included the installation of Alsthom micro-processor control technology and was done by Transwerk (later Transnet Rail Engineering and then Transnet Engineering) at its Koedoespoort shops in Pretoria, Gauteng. In the process their number 1 end cabs were stripped of all controls in order to have a toilet installed.
18-523 was rebuilt from Class 6E1, Series 7 E1865 and commissioned in 2009.
See also the Wikipedia article on the South African Class 18E, Series 1. |