Richards Bay Coal Line

Richards Bay Coal line
Uphill, empty 100-car train south of Vryheid .
Route length:	Ermelo – Richards Bay: 588 km
Gauge :	1067 mm ( cape track )
Power system :	north of Ermelo: 3 kV = south of Ermelo: 25 kV 50 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	15.2  ‰
Minimum radius :	550 m
Top speed:	80 km / h
Legend Lephalals ↓ Diesel operation 249 Thabazimbi ↓ 25 kV 50 Hz ~ ↑ diesel operation 24 Pyramid South ↑ 25 kV 50 Hz ~ ↓ 3 kV = Rbf Sentrarand 61 Welgedag to Johannesburg Beginning of 26 t axle load 69 Sundra 74 Eloff 84 Delmas Leeuwpan Coal Mine Delmas Coal Mine, Samquartz Silica 93 Dryden 103 Argent 111 Arbor 119 Kendal Phola coal washing 129 Ogies 137 Minaar 142 Saaiwater Landau Rapid Loading Terminal Anglo American Greenside coal mine 145 Blackhill End of 26 t axle load 146 Kromklip 154 Bezuidenhouts 156 eMalahleni 164 Van Dyksdrif 151 Middelburg 200 Wonderfontein 174 Blinkpan Pullenshope coal mine, Hendrina power station Pullenshope Beginning of 26 t axle load 183 Broodsnyersplaas Driefontein Gelukplaas Halfgewonen Forzando North Coal Mine Webbsrus to Estancia ( Swazi Rail Link ) 201 Davel to Johannesburg Hamelfontein Rietvleirus Majuba Rail Project for the Majuba Power Plant by Machadodorp Ermelo ↓ 25 kV 50 Hz ~ ↑ 3 kV = 0 Ermelo South 8th Anthra Camden Power Station 10 Camden 19th Witpuntspruit Vaal 24 Over-Vaal Overvaal tunnel 3970 m 29 Mooispruit 37 Maviristad 47 Sheepmoor 56 Ngwempisi 64 Panbult 74 Iswepe 93 Wild edge 103 Kemp 113 Piet Retief Assegaai 123 Mkondo 126 Breitenstein 137 Moolman 145 Spiesdal 151 Confidence 162 Commondale Phongolo, Mpumalanga - KwaZulu-Natal border 173 Hlungwana 179 Knightgale 186 Paulpietersburg Tunnel 780 m 192 Dumb 196 Mahulumbe Bivane 245 m 206 Bivane 213 Mqwabe Tunnel 2148 m 220 Zungwini 229 Heine Tunnel 560 m / 640 m 232 Bernica Tunnel 600 m 236 Tendeka to Hlobane Sikame Vryheid to Glencoe , 3 kV = Vryheid East Tinta's drift Dassieshoogte Ishoba Bridge 100 m Lenyanedrif Ngogweni Komvoorhoogte Ndlovane River Bridge 195 m Bloubank Tunnel 1337 m Nhlazatshe Tunnel 310 m Bridge 140 m Tunnel 180 m Bridge 160 m Tunnel 490 m Bridge 240 m Izolof Umfolozi 250 m 125m 146 m / 130 m 155 m 72 m Eqwasha 282 m / 610 m 196 m / 185 m 1750 m / 2875 m Uloliwe Ulundi 907 m 2890 m 530 m Ilangakazi 670 m 500 m 287m 314 m Intshamanzi 203 m 280 m 257 m 250 m Zululand Anthracite Colliery Engolothi White Umfolozi River 487 m 300 m 1500 m Umunywana 890 m / 2440 m Isangoyana Emakwezini Idondotha Cwaka Kruisplek Elubana from Lavumisa in Swaziland Richards Bay Nsese Mandlazini to Durban Industry Richards Bay-Alton Bhizolo BHP Billiton Hillside aluminum smelter , FOSKOR phosphate products , Shincell wood chips BHP Billiton Bayside aluminum hut Bayview Terminal Sandy Point Harbor Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT)

With Richards Bay Coal Line , German about Richards Bay Coal Railway , formerly Witbank Richards Bay Coal line , one is South African railway line referred to by Transnet is operated with priority to the transport of thermal coal from the mining regions in the interior to the Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) serves in Richards Bay Harbor . In addition, steel products , ferrochrome , granite , grain and wood are also transported.

The area within Transnet Freight Rail that deals with the business field of coal transport is called COALlink , which, in addition to operating the Richards Bay Coal Line, also deals with the export of coal via the ports of Durban and Maputo and imports coke from Zimbabwe .

route

The heart of the Richards Bay Coal Line is the Cape-gauge heavy-duty railway line from the Ermelo region in the Mpumalanga province to the port of Richards Bay . It runs from the coal mines in the Highveld , where more than 80% of South African coal is mined, through rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal to the port of Richards Bay.

Northern part

The route has no actual northern end point. It begins as a network of rail connections from 44 coal mines with a focus on the region north and northwest of Ermelo. The line has been expanded from Welgedag, Blackhill and Pullenshope to Richards Bay for 26 t axle load, with a third track for 26 t axle load being built between Welgedag, Blackhill and Ermelo in addition to the existing double track for 20 t axle load. Feeder lines with an axle load of 20 t are used for general freight traffic and come from the metropolitan areas of the Gauteng province , including from the Sentrarand marshalling yard , from where coal trains from Lephalale brought in via the Waterberg line are also taken over. 100-car trains loaded at the coal mines arrive at the Ogies and Welgedag marshalling yards . In Ermelo , more coal trains from 46 sidings will be merged and the 100-car trains for the journey to Richards Bay will be combined into 200-car trains.

In the northern part of the route, the decisive maximum gradient is 10 ‰.

Southern part

From Ermelo, the trains use the heavy haulage route to Richards Bay, which was built in 1974 and is 588 km long, with the trains overcoming an altitude difference of 1700 meters. The loaded downhill trains use a track with a decisive gradient of 6.25 ‰, the empty uphill trains one with a 15.2 ‰ gradient. The double-track line is signposted and electrified for track change operation .

About 25 kilometers after Ermelo, the trains pass through the 4-kilometer-long Overvaal tunnel (west portal:, east portal:) , which is only passable on a single track and thus restricts the capacity of the route. In order to remove this bottleneck, the aim is to build a second tunnel, which would be about 20 meters south of the previous tunnel. For long-term planning, Transnet is also examining the possibility of a new route that would dispense with the tunnel entirely.

The existing route was expanded until shortly before Kemp, after which the route follows a new route built in 1974. Shortly before the border between Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal, the railway body of the double-lane line splits for the first time into a route for trains traveling downhill and a route for trains traveling uphill. The two tracks cross the Phongolo river on separate bridges and only meet again after 30 km at Mahulumbe south of Paulpietersburg . At Mqwabe the routes separate again into one for uphill and one for downhill trains, with the routes crossing three times on the approximately 30 km long section to Vryheid .

After Vryheid the route follows the White Umfolozi River on its northern valley slope until it changes to Engolothi on the southern side of the valley before reaching Richards Bay. There are many engineering structures in this section of the route.

business

Loaded with two SAR class 11E locomotives covered with a 100-car train going downhill.

Loaded 200-car train on the way to Richards Bay.

The track is with traffic signals for the way working equipped and is managed by the three remote-control centers in Ermelo, Vryheid and Richards Bay.

The part north of Ermelo is operated with 3 kV direct current. Trains run every 15 minutes, meaning that around 62 trains can be operated daily. In addition to 100-car trains, empty 200-car trains also run.

The Ermelo – Richards Bay line, which is operated with 25 kV alternating current , can theoretically run 48 trains per day, with half of the capacity being reserved for the coal trains and the other half being used by the other freight trains. Due to the limited power supply, the coal trains can only follow each other every hour. The Overvaal tunnel limits the line capacity to 16 trains a day in each direction. In fact, around 16 coal trains and 13 other freight trains run every day.

The trains run at a speed of 80 km / h.

Locomotives

Because the traction current network in the northern part differs from that in the southern part, a locomotive change in the Ermelo marshalling yard is required, which is only omitted for trains hauled by the two-system locomotives of TFR classes 19E or 21E .

SAR class 10E locomotives are used on the direct current section, and SAR class 7E and 11E locomotives on the alternating current section .

To optimize operations, Transnet bought 110 multi-system locomotives of the TFR class 19E and 100 locomotives of the TFR class 21E . In the future, only these locomotives will be used that are to be serviced in the Richards Bay depot. The Ermelo depot will then only deal with the maintenance of the TFR class 43D diesel locomotives used on non-electrified lines .

dare

Jumbo car CCEW-13 with ep brake from Wabtec , which is expressed by the W in the name.

Small CFR-13 coal wagon with high-performance brake

Over 8,000 coal wagons are used to transport the coal. The cars have the designations CCL or CCR followed by a number, with CCR indicating an improved braking system. The CCL-1 and CCL-3 cars built in the 1970s and 1980s are designed for an axle load of 20 t and are referred to as small cars . They are only used in coal mines, where the axle load of the siding is limited, or for transports to destinations inland. The wagons of this series can transport a maximum of 58 t of coal with an average empty weight of 21 t.

The later built series CCL / CCR-5 and younger have an axle load increased to 26 t and are called jumbo wagons . The wagons of this series can transport a maximum of 84 t of coal with an average empty weight of 20 t.

The wagons are in pairs - with newer wagons also in groups of three or five wagons with fixed couplings. The ends of the wagon, where the rotating coupling for unloading with the rotary tipper is attached, is marked with a white arrow.

Trains

Uphill 200-car train with six SAR class E19 locomotives.

North of Ermelo there are 100-car trains hauled by four class 10E or 19E locomotives. In Ermelo, the trains will be coupled to form 200-car trains and will be pulled by four locomotives of the 11E series or six locomotives of the 7E or 19E series. The locomotives of all the trains mentioned are lined up at the Zugspitze. A coal train takes 17 hours to get to the port. The mainline locomotives are divided into rounds of 58 hours, the wagons into 63 hours. The revolutions of the mainline locomotives are shorter than that of the wagons, as the wagons are loaded by shunting locomotives and thus the mainline locomotives can be coupled to a full train immediately after arrival with an empty train.

The 200-car trains south of Ermelo are 2500 meters long and weigh 20,800 tons. If the train is made up of jumbo coal wagons of the CCL / R series, 16,800 tons can be transported in one train.

Shongololo trains

In addition, Shongololo trains have been in operation since 2013 , which consist of eight 19E series locomotives and 200 cars, with four locomotives at the top and another four locomotives after 100 cars. These trains are equipped with electropneumatic brakes , the control line of which is used for remote control of the locomotives in the middle of the train.

The Shongololo trains made it possible to shorten the turnaround time of the mainline locomotives to 41 hours and that of the wagons to 48 hours, because the shunting movements in Ermelo are no longer necessary.

The name Shongololo , sometimes also written Songololo , denotes a centipede in South African English .

Train stations

COALlink's largest marshalling yards are located in Ogies, Ermelo and Vryheid.

Welgedag

The coal trains to the Tutuka and Majuba power stations are collected in Welgedag . In contrast to the trains with export coal, the trains for the two named power plants from the Ogies and Blackhill area travel northwards and leave the coal railway in Welgedag to reach the power plants south via Springs , Heidelberg and Balfour .

Ogies

In the Ogies marshalling yard, coal trains and freight trains with other freight from the region are brought to the main line. 200-car trains from Blackhill and Minaar as well as the trains from the Landau Rapid Loading Terminal do not use the marshalling yard.

Landau Rapid Loading Terminal

This coal loading facility, which went into operation in 1976, can load up to 8,000 t of coal from the Anglo American coal mines Greenside, Kleinkopje and Navigation, so that the trains can be dispatched within six hours. The coal is fed from the pits via conveyor belts to the loading facility, the conveyor belt from the Kleinkopje pit being the first in South Africa to be laid in a horizontal curve.

Ermelo

Locomotives in the Ermelo marshalling yard - SAR class 19E dual-system locomotives in front

The Ermelo depot is located south of the village and mainly serves to change traction from direct to alternating current and to couple 100-car trains to 200-car trains when traveling south and the other way around when traveling north. The station consists of four track fields A, B, C and D, which are arranged from south to north. Fields A and B are connected to fields C and D via a turning loop, field B is spanned with 25 kV contact line, field D with 3 kV. 100-car trains from the north enter entry group D, where they are coupled to form 200-car trains, pulled through the turning loop and made available in exit group A. Trains from the south enter group B, are pulled through the loop by a shunting locomotive after the locomotive has been uncoupled and made available in exit group C. The turning loop is driven by diesel locomotives, but has been spanned with contact wire since 2014.

In addition to the tracks for the coal trains, there is also an area for the other freight trains with industrial goods from the regions around Rustenburg , Louis Trichardt and Steelpoort .

The Shongololo trains hauled by 19E locomotives do not use the Ermelo marshalling yard. The system change is carried out on the open route.

So far, small amounts of coal are being delivered by rail from the mining areas around Lephalale .

Vryheid

In Vryheid there are two marshalling yards - Vryheid East and Sikame. In Sikame, coal deliveries from Hlobane reached the main line, but operation of the coal mine was stopped in 1998 due to water ingress. The line from Newcastle, which is electrified with 3 kV direct current, also reaches the coal railway here. Significant quantities of raw wood are loaded along this route for transport to the port. In the long term, there are plans to expand the route from Johannesburg via Newcastle to Vryheid also for heavy haulage so that an alternative route from Welgedag via Standerton , Volksrust , Newcastle and Glencoe to the existing coal railway could be operated.

Coal terminal in Richards Bay harbor

Dual-system SAR class 19E locomotives in the Richards Bay depot

At the end of the Richards Bay Coal Line is the Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT), where the coal is unloaded with five tandem rotary tippers and is either transported on conveyor belts to the coal storage area or to the bulk carriers , which transport the coal to ports in Africa, Asia, Transport America or Europe.

The Richards Bay Nsese marshalling yard is in front of the port. From here there are also rail connections via Empangeni to Durban and via Swaziland to Phalaborwa .

future

The Richards Bay Coal Line needs to be expanded further so that the transport capacity of the route matches the loading capacity of the coal terminal in Richards Bay. In 2015, the terminal was designed for the annual loading of 91 million tons of coal, while the railroad could only bring 76 million tons of coal to the port.

Blackhill, Saaiwater, Ermelo and Vryheid train stations will be expanded over the next few years. Additional substations will also be installed and existing ones expanded to improve the line's energy supply. In addition, the planned second Overvaal tunnel is to be built.

Map of Swazilink , the proposed new route for general freight trains

Additional capacity on the route is needed to bring the coal from the Waterberg coal field in Limpopo province and Botswana to the port. In order to increase the volume of cargo in the coal sector, the need has emerged to route other cargo sectors to the port of Richards Bay via alternative routes. In order to better meet this high demand for freight capacity, South Africa and Swaziland agreed to build a new cross-border railway line, which is at the project stage and is called Swazilink . It should be available from 2020.

A trilateral agreement signed in 2014 between South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique provides for the organization of South African coal exports under the management of Transnet with coordinated logistics between the ports of Richards Bay and Maputo. An operations center for the Maputo corridor has been set up, which is jointly managed by Transnet, the rail and port operators in Mozambique and Eswatini Railways .

This step took place after some South African mining companies had already processed their coal exports in cooperation with the logistics company Grindrod via the Terminal de Carvão da Matola (TCM) of the Port of Maputo, after rail transport to the RBCT was not possible due to a lack of capacity on the Richards Bay Coal Line.

Web links

Commons : Richards Bay Coal Line  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Mpumalanga to Richards Bay Freight Coal Line, South Africa. In: Railway Technology. Retrieved October 4, 2015 . 
• Rail Development Plan 2014. In: Railway Technology. Transnet, p. 8 , accessed on October 4, 2015 (English, Section 3.1 Coal System). 
• High capacity coal trucks used on Richards Bay Coal line.jpg. In: Mpumalanga Province Freight Data Base . Retrieved on October 13, 2015 (English, picture of a jumbo coal wagon of the CCR-7 series built in the late 1980s. Technical data - empty weight: 20.25 t, load: 84 t, axle load: 26 t). 
• Riding 11E035 Ermelo to Vryheid. November 28, 2003, accessed on October 13, 2015 (English, report from the cab drive in the Vryheid region). 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Railways Africa: Richards Bay Coal Line. Retrieved September 20, 2015 . 
2. ^ R 2 995-m for SATS, SAPO capex (1985) | RRA. (No longer available online.) In: www.rra.co.za. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015 ; accessed on September 20, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ ^{a b} Coal. In: Transnet Freight Rail. Retrieved October 4, 2015 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Transnet invests in heavy-haul capacity. In: IRJ. January 25, 2012, accessed October 3, 2015 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b} Transnet: Rail Development Plan 2014. 3.1 Coal System, (b) Welgedag to Ermelo . on www.transnet.net, PDF document p. 8 ( Memento of the original dated December 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) 
6. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Willem Kuys: Heavy Haul Operations in South Africa. Transnet, June 19, 2011, archived from the original ; accessed on September 20, 2015 . 
7. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Transnet Freight: Overview Coal Business Unit. Transnet, accessed October 3, 2015 . 
8. ^ Terence Creamer: Transnet's 'Project Shongololo' raises coal export channel's capacity to 81Mt. Retrieved October 2, 2015 . 
9. ^ Environmental Impact Assessment for the Proposed new Overvaal Tunnel. Environmental Impact Management Services (Pty) Ltd, accessed September 20, 2015 ( link source ). 
10. ↑ Engineering News: Train condition-monitoring on track . Posted November 11, 1999 on www.engineeringnews.co.za (English)
11. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Request for proposal for the provision of FEL-2 study on the technical and operational requirements for the sustainable implementation of Project Shongololo on the Coal Line for a period of seven (7) months. (No longer available online.) Transnet, November 25, 2014, archived from the original on October 5, 2015 ; accessed on October 3, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
12. ↑ ^{a b c} Paul Ash: Transnet plays catch-up to boost coal capacity. In: IRJ. Retrieved October 4, 2015 . 
13. ^ Mpumalanga to Richards Bay Freight Coal Line - Railway Technology. In: www.railway-technology.com. Retrieved October 13, 2015 . 
14. ↑ ^{a b} Extra capacity to Richards Bay at lower cost. In: Railway Gazette. April 1, 1997, accessed October 13, 2015 . 
15. ↑ ^{a b c} South Africa's Rolling Stock - 60 Number Range. In: Railroad Picture Archives. Retrieved October 13, 2015 . 
16. ↑ ^{a b} Transnet adds trains to raise coal volumes. In: Business Day Live. Retrieved October 3, 2015 . 
17. ^ 150 Years of Rail in South Africa. Transnet Freight Rail, 2010, accessed October 3, 2015 . 
18. ^ ECP Interoperability Information and Requirements for Spoornet Rolling Stock. Spoornet, June 22, 2009, accessed October 3, 2015 . 
19. ↑ Songololo. In: Dictionary.com. Retrieved October 3, 2015 . 
20. ↑ Shongololo. In: Dictionary.com. Retrieved October 3, 2015 . 
21. ^ Transnet Freight Rail: Operational areas . on www.transnetfreightrail-tfr.net (English)
22. ^ ^{A b} Mpumalanga Province Freight Data Bank: Marshalling Yards . on www.safiri.co.za (English)
23. ↑ RH Roberts, M .C. Andrews: Three generations of coal loading control. Safiri, 2003, accessed October 4, 2015 . 
24. ^ Dormant Operation - Hlobane Colliery. (No longer available online.) Exxaro, archived from the original on March 5, 2016 ; Retrieved October 3, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
25. ^ Rail Development Plan. Transnet Freight, 2010, p. 22 , accessed on October 4, 2015 (English). 
26. ↑ RBCT website at www.rbct.co.za (English)
27. ^ RBCT Richards Bay Coal Terminal. In: www.rbct.co.za. Retrieved October 4, 2015 . 
28. ↑ Calls for an inland terminal to boost local coal sales. Business Day, October 1, 2015, accessed October 4, 2015 . 
29. ^ Transnet initiates Waterberg rail studies. In: Engineering News. July 15, 2014, accessed October 4, 2015 . 
30. ↑ Transnet opens Maputo joint center. September 23, 2014, accessed October 4, 2015 . 
31. ^ Maputo / Richards Bay coal rail deal. (No longer available online.) September 2014, archived from the original on September 23, 2015 ; accessed on October 4, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
32. ↑ Grindrod raising coal terminal capacity. February 27, 2013, accessed October 4, 2015 . 
33. ^ Andre Kritzinger: SAR Class CC-7 (Side B). In: South Africa's Rolling Stock - 60 Number Range. RR Picture Archives , August 15, 2007, accessed on October 13, 2015 .