SAR class 9E
| SAR 9E, series 1 | |
|---|---|
 E9016 in Saldanha, Western Cape, July 26, 2009
|
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| Numbering: | 5546-5570 |
| Number: | 25th |
| Manufacturer: | Union Carriage & Wagon |
| Year of construction (s): | 1978-1979 |
| Axis formula : | Co'Co ' |
| Length over buffers: | 21,132 mm |
| Width: | 2,900 mm |
| Trunnion Distance: | 16,290 mm |
| Service mass: | 166.30 t |
| Wheel set mass : | 28 t |
| Top speed: | 90 km / h |
| Hourly output : | 4,140 kW |
| Continuous output : | 3,840 kW |
| Starting tractive effort: | 570 kN |
| Power system : | 50 kV AC |
| Number of traction motors: | 6th |
| Brake: | Electromotive brake |
The SAR class 9E , is one of the General Electric Company developed (GEC) and Union Carriage and Wagon (UCW) in Nigel built electric locomotive , which, before the iron ore trains on the electrified with 50 kV 50 Hz Sishen-Saldanha railway line is used. The first series built from 1978 to 1979 comprised 25 locomotives, the second series built from 1982 to 1983 had six. The locomotives were procured by the state-owned South African Railways (SAR), which was later renamed Spoornet and then Transnet Freight Rail . The 25 machines of the first series have the company numbers E9001 to E9025, those of the second series E5595 to E5600.
Constructive features
The locomotive body only has a driver's cab on one side , which is equipped with air conditioning . At the opposite end, the roof of the locomotive has been lowered so that the very high insulators of the electrical roof equipment required for the 50 kV contact wire voltage could be installed. This consists of a current collector , a high-voltage transformer , the vacuum - the main switch , the surge arrester as well as the high-voltage bushing of the traction transformer .
Due to the frequent large voltage drops between the substations , the locomotive was designed for operation with a contact wire voltage between 25 and 55 kV. The battery boxes and the main air tanks are mounted between the bogies under the frame. Another underfloor box contains a small motor scooter that the locomotive crew can use to drive along the iron ore trains, which are up to four kilometers long.
commitment
The 9E locomotives will be used exclusively on the 861-kilometer Sishen-Saldanha railway line, which runs from the iron ore mines in Sishen in the Northern Cape Province to the Saldanha Port in the Western Cape Province . Most of the route runs in the very hot and dry North Cape. The last 75 km of the route to Saldanha Bay run parallel to the mostly fog-shrouded Atlantic coast. The salty sea air in this section affects the technology of the locomotives.
The railway line from Sishen to Saldanha has some special features for South Africa. The line was not built by SAR, but by the South African Iron and Steel Corporation ( ISCOR ) Construction , which initially operated the line with diesel locomotives. The line was only taken over by SAR in 1977 and electrified with the rarely used power system of 50 kV alternating current - a traction current system that, apart from this line, is only used on three industrial railways in the USA and on the Tumbler Ridge, which was discontinued in 2000 Subdivision of the British Columbia Railway was used. The Sishen – Saldanha railway is by far the longest line in the world powered by this electricity system.
Use in mixed traction
On the Sishen – Saldanha railway line, there is an extraordinarily mixed use of electric and diesel locomotives in front of the ore trains. The locomotives of the series 9E and 15E are used together with the diesel locomotives of the series 34 and 43 in front of the 4.1 km long iron ore trains consisting of up to 342 wagons, which can weigh up to 41,000 tons. The trains consist of three 114-car trains coupled together, each pulled by an electric locomotive and one or two remote-controlled diesel locomotives; the train is also pushed by two diesel locomotives or one electric locomotive. A total of nine to a maximum of twelve locomotives are used per train.
Before the 15E series locomotives were deployed in 2010, the trains only had 216 cars. Each of the three lined up train parts consisted of 72 cars that were carried by a 9E locomotive together with one or two class 34 diesel locomotives. With this train configuration, however, there were derailments, which is why two diesel locomotives were lined up at the end of the train. In the future, there are plans to transport the trains with five 15E series electric locomotives - two at the Zugspitze, one each in front of the associated train section and one at the end of the train.
See also
literature
- Leith Paxton, David Bourne: Locomotives of the South African Railways. A Concise Guide. C. Strui (Pty) Ltd., Cape Town 1985, ISBN 0-86977-211-2 .
- John N. Middleton: Railways of Southern Africa. Locomotive guide. 5th edition. Beyer-Garratt Publications, Rickmansworth 1994, ISBN 0-620-18548-1 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ UCW - Electric locomotives . The UCW Partnership. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved September 30, 2010.
- ↑ a b Paxton-Bourne, pp. 129-131
- ^ John N. Middleton: Railways of Southern Africa: Locomotive Guide. - 2002 (corrected with Combined List No. 4, January 2009). Beyer-Garratt Publications, England; Pp. 50, 62
- ↑ Actom Divisions News, July 22, 2010 ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 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.
- ↑ Willem Kuys: Heavy Haul Operations in South Africa. (PDF) Transnet, 2011, archived from the original ; accessed on April 9, 2016 .
- ^ André Kritzinger: Sishen-Saldanha Iron Ore Export Line (OREX). In: Railroad Picture Archives.NET. Retrieved April 9, 2016 .
