South African Class 5E1, Series 5 - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Between 1966 and 1969 the South African Railways placed two hundred and twenty-five Class 5E1, Series 5 electric locomotives with a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement in service.

Manufacturer

Series 5 of the Metropolitan-Vickers

Metropolitan-Vickers

Metropolitan-Vickers, Metrovick, or Metrovicks, was a British heavy electrical engineering company of the early-to-mid 20th century formerly known as British Westinghouse. Highly diversified, they were particularly well known for their industrial electrical equipment such as generators, steam...

designed Class 5E1 3 kV DC electric locomotive was built for the South African Railways (SAR) by Union Carriage and Wagon (UCW) in Nigel, Transvaal, with the electrical equipment supplied by Associated Electrical Industries

Associated Electrical Industries

Associated Electrical Industries was a British holding company formed in 1928 through the merger of the British Thomson-Houston Company and Metropolitan-Vickers electrical engineering companies...

(AEI) and English Electric

English Electric

English Electric was a British industrial manufacturer. Founded in 1918, it initially specialised in industrial electric motors and transformers...

(EE).

UCW did not allocate builder’s numbers to the locomotives it built for the SAR. While the practice by most other locomotive builders was to allocate builder’s numbers or works numbers to record the locomotives built by them, UCW simply used the SAR running numbers for their record keeping.

Orientation

These dual cab locomotives have a roof access ladder on one side only, just to the right of the cab access door. The roof access ladder end is marked as the number 2 end. A passage along the centre of the locomotive connects the cabs.

Class 5E1 series

The South African Class 5E1 was produced in five series, the Metrovick built Series 1 and the UCW built Series 2 to 5. Between 1959 and 1969 altogether six hundred and ninety of them were built, one hundred and thirty-five Series 1, one hundred and thirty Series 2, one hundred Series 3, one hundred Series 4 and two hundred and twenty-five Series 5.

With the exception of Series 2 and 3, the series distinction between Class 5E1 locomotives was based on the different model traction motors each was equipped with, MV 281 in Series 1, AEI 281 AZX in Series 2 and 3, AEI 281 AX in Series 4 and AEI 281 BX in Series 5. The distinction between series 2 and 3 locomotives appears to have been based only on the grounds of being built on different orders.

Legacy

The Class 5E1 continued the prototype of what eventually became the most prolific locomotive type to ever run on South African rails. The type commenced with the Class 5E in 1955 and continued with the Class 6E and the Class 6E1 from 1969 to 1985, and still later with the rebuilding of Class 6E1s to Class 18Es, a project that started in 2000.

The body design, which had remained unaltered apart from some minor less obvious modifications ever since the first Class 5E (E259) was built in 1955, was changed from rounded corners to squared corners somewhere between the construction of number E941, with rounded corners, and E948 which has squared corners.

Modification

By 2007 two Series 5 locomotives, numbers E1101 and E1102, had been modified extensively. It involved a complete strip down overhaul to rebuild them as prototypes with the object to determine if large scale Class 5E1 rebuilding would be economically viable.

On E1102 visual external differences from the originals were side window screens, higher side doors with a curved rainwater gutter above it (not done on E1101), and reinforcing under the side doors and side windows. On the roof access ladder sides the cutaways on the roof edge were filled in and the locomotives were repainted into the then current Spoornet blue livery with outline numbers, the only Class 5E1s to receive this livery. They were also equipped with drivers consoles similar to those that are being fitted to Class 18Es.

No further such rebuilds were done. By 2010 these two locomotives were being used to push road trainers, which are modified coaches or cabooses with Class 5E1 controls installed in one end, that are used to familiarise drivers with routes.

Private service

Several Series 5 locomotives were sold at auction during 2010, some as scrap. Nine were purchased by Rovos Rail

Rovos Rail

Rovos Rail is a private railway company operating out of Capital Park Station in Pretoria, South Africa. The Society of International Railway Travelers has regularly named the Pride of Africa, as the train is called, as one of the World's Top 25 Trains because of its excellent accommodation, public...

, a private operator of luxury rail tours that is based at Capital Park in Pretoria

Pretoria

Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...

. The Rovos Class 5E1, Series 5 locomotives are E1030, E1044, E1091, E1104, E1105, E1114, E1115, E1123 and E1127.

Liveries

The main picture shows E941 with rounded corners, in SAR Gulf Red and whiskers livery at Ladysmith on 5 August 2007.