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South African Class 18E, Series 1
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Beginning in 2000 Spoornet embarked on a program to rebuild Class 6E1, Series 6 to Series 11 locomotives to Class 18E, Series 1 locomotives. Most of the Class 6E1s that had previously been reclassified or modified to Class 16E or Class 17E were rebuilt to Class 18E as well.

Manufacturer

The South African Class 6E1 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 the General Electric Company (GEC). UCW did not allocate builder’s numbers to the locomotives it built for the SAR. While the usual 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.

The rebuilding to Class 18E, Series 1 was done by Transwerk, later renamed Transnet Rail Engineering (TRE), at its Koedoespoort shops 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...

, Gauteng
Gauteng
Gauteng is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. It was formed from part of the old Transvaal Province after South Africa's first all-race elections on 27 April 1994...

. Rebuilding to Series 1 locomotives ceased in 2009 with 446 units rebuilt, the last Series 1 locomotive being number 18-525.

Orientation

The Class 6E1 that it was rebuilt from, is a dual cab locomotive and has 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.

The rebuilt Class 18E locomotive, on the other hand, is a single cab unit since the number 1 end cab was stripped of all controls during the rebuilding, to have additional equipment and a toilet installed to accommodate female crew.

Equipment

The rebuilding includes the installation of Alsthom micro-processor control technology. New equipment in the totally refurbished Class 18E locomotive include the following:
  • A transducer to relay vacuum and compressed air pressure to an electric signal.
  • Dual-purpose main resistance modules that replaced the accelerating resistance system and that are used for motoring and rheostatic braking.
  • A DC current transformer (DCCT) that measures the current flowing to and from certain equipment such as the traction motors, or total overhead line current.
  • A potential divider to measure the voltage in the overhead equipment and traction motors.
  • A main processor unit (MPU), located in high tension compartment 1, used for primary (master) control of the locomotive.
  • Remote input-output modules (RIOM) located in high tension compartment 2, in the low tension panel and the driving compartment, used for secondary (slave) control of the locomotive.
  • Two digital display units (DDU) mounted on the driving console to display, for example, information like speed, current draw and available overhead voltage, current draw of the traction motors in each bogie, rheostatic braking current generated per bogie, as well as performance information about all the locomotives in the consist.
  • Overspeed protection that will automatically open the line switches if any pair of wheels slips and a speed of 95 kilometres per hour (59 mph) is exceeded.

Identifying features

The most obvious visual feature to distinguish the Class 18E from the Class 6E1 is the filled in driver’s windows at the rear end where the toilet is installed. On the first rebuilds, as observed up to number 18-012, the small driver’s side window was left in place as a toilet window, but most of these have since also been filled in. The remaining rear windscreen still has the slanted upper edge of the 6E1 windscreens, but the new front windscreens on the Class 18E are rectangular.

On the sides, obvious visual distinctions from the Class 6E1 are the left one of the two large grilles that was removed, with the opening filled in, two new large grilles that are installed in the centre lower sides to serve as air intakes for the rheostatic braking resistance blowers, and a large access door to one of the high-tension compartments that is installed in place of the rightmost small window that was in the upper side of the Class 6E1. On some Class 18E locomotives one or more of the remaining small windows were slightly enlarged vertically. On the left side, the air intakes for the air conditioner in the cab are installed between the top three steps of the roof access ladder.

Locomotives rebuilt from Class 6E1, Series 6 and 7 have a pipe sunk into a recess that runs along the left half of the lower edge of the body on the locomotive’s right side, the side opposite the roof access ladder side. On locomotives rebuilt from Class 6E1, Series 8 to 11 this pipe could be routed out of sight internally.

Lineage identification

All features that distinguished Class 6E1, Series 6 to Series 11 locomotives from each other are still present on the Class 18E rebuilds, making it possible to visually determine the Class 6E1 origin of Class 18E locomotives. Examples are shown in the gallery below.
  • The smooth sides of ex Series 6 and 7 locomotives and, on the Class 18E, the recessed pipe on the right side.
  • The large hatch door on each side, below the second small window to the right of the side door on the roof access ladder side, and below the first window immediately to the right of the door on the opposite side, on ex Series 8 to 11 locomotives.
  • The rain water downpipe drainage holes on the lower sides of ex Series 9 to 11 locomotives. As on the pre-rebuilt locomotives, these holes are usually covered by so-called buckets, but these covers are absent on several units.
  • The end doors that are flush with the doorframes on ex Series 6 to 8 locomotives, and recessed into the doorframes on ex Series 9 to 11 locomotives;
  • The squared corners with a weather strip at the bottom on all doors on ex Series 6 to 8 locomotives, and the rounded corners and no weather strips on all doors on ex Series 9 to 11 locomotives;
  • The side doors with:
  • mid door mounted door handles on ex Series 6 to early Series 7 locomotives;
  • low mounted handles with a mid door drawer pull
    Drawer pull
    A drawer pull or simply pull is a handle to pull a drawer out of a chest or other furniture piece.A drawer pull often consists of a plate to which a handle is fastened. The handle may swing from one or two points , making a drop drawer pull. The handle may also be fastened to the plate with...

     type handle at mid door level on ex late Series 7 to Series 8 locomotives; and
  • two interconnected latch handles on the outside, one handle mounted near floor level and the other at mid door level, on ex Class 6E1 Series 9 to 11 locomotives.

Table of rebuilds

The table shows the original Class 6E1 number for each Class 18E, Series 1 locomotive, as well as the date on which it was released back into service after being rebuilt.

Rebuilt from Series 6



Rebuilt from Series 7



Rebuilt from Series 8



Rebuilt from Series 9



Rebuilt from Series 10



Rebuilt from Series 11



See also

  • South African Class 6E1, Series 6
    South African Class 6E1, Series 6
    Between 1975 and 1977 the South African Railways placed one hundred Class 6E1, Series 6 electric locomotives with a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement in main line service.-Manufacturer:...

  • South African Class 6E1, Series 7
    South African Class 6E1, Series 7
    Between 1977 and 1979 the South African Railways placed one hundred and fifty Class 6E1, Series 7 electric locomotives with a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement in main line service.- Manufacturer :...

  • South African Class 6E1, Series 8
    South African Class 6E1, Series 8
    Between 1979 and 1981 the South African Railways placed one hundred and five Class 6E1, Series 8 electric locomotives with a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement in main line service.- Manufacturer :...

  • South African Class 6E1, Series 9
    South African Class 6E1, Series 9
    In 1981 and 1982 the South African Railways placed eighty-five Class 6E1, Series 9 electric locomotives with a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement in main line service.-Manufacturer:...

  • South African Class 6E1, Series 10
    South African Class 6E1, Series 10
    Between 1982 and 1984 the South African Railways placed fifty-five Class 6E1, Series 10 electric locomotives with a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement in service.-Manufacturer:...

  • South African Class 6E1, Series 11
    South African Class 6E1, Series 11
    In 1984 and 1985 the South African Railways placed forty-five Class 6E1, Series 11 electric locomotives with a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement in main line service.- Manufacturer :...

  • South African Class 16E
    South African Class 16E
    During 1990 and 1991 Spoornet semi permanently coupled several pairs of otherwise unmodified Series 3 to Series 9 Class 6E1 electric locomotives, reclassified them to Class 16E and allocated a single shared running number to each pair, with the individual locomotives in the pairs inscribed "A" or...

  • South African Class 17E
    South African Class 17E
    During 1993 and 1994 Spoornet modified several Class 6E1, Series 7, Series 8 and Series 9 locomotives to improve their braking and traction reliability for service on the Natal main line...

  • South African Class 18E, Series 2
    South African Class 18E, Series 2
    Beginning in 2000 Spoornet embarked on a program to rebuild Class 6E1, Series 6 to Series 11 locomotives to Class 18E, Series 1 locomotives. Most of the Class 6E1s that had previously been reclassified or modified to Class 16E or Class 17E were rebuilt to Class 18E as well.The rebuilding of Class...

  • Electric locomotive numbering and classification
  • List of South African locomotive classes
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