South African Class 10E - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

In 1985 and 1986 the South African Railways placed fifty Class 10E electric locomotives with a Co-Co wheel arrangement in main line service.

Manufacturers

The Class 10E 3 kV DC electric locomotive was designed for the South African Railways (SAR) by Toshiba

Toshiba

is a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...

of Japan and built by Union Carriage and Wagon (UCW) in Nigel, Transvaal

Transvaal Province

Transvaal Province was a province of the Union of South Africa from 1910 to 1961, and of its successor, the Republic of South Africa, from 1961 until the end of apartheid in 1994 when a new constitution subdivided it.-History:...

. Toshiba supplied the electrical equipment while UCW was responsible for the mechanical components and assembly. Fifty locomotives were delivered by UCW in 1985 and 1986, numbered 10-001 to 10-050.

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.

Characteristics

The Class 10E was introduced as a new standard 3 kV DC heavy goods locomotive. With a continuous power rating of 3090 kW, four Class 10E locomotives are capable of performing the same work as six Class 6E1.

Brakes

The locomotive makes use of either regenerative

Regenerative brake

A regenerative brake is an energy recovery mechanism which slows a vehicle or object down by converting its kinetic energy into another form, which can be either used immediately or stored until needed...

or rheostatic braking, as the situation demands. Both traction and electric braking power are continuously variable, with the electric braking optimised to such an extent that maximum use will be made of the regenerative braking capacity of the 3 kV DC network, with the ability to automatically change over to rheostatic braking whenever the overhead supply system becomes non-receptive.

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.

Identifying Features

In visual appearance the Class 10E can be distinguished from the later model Class 10E2 by the roof ends and the sills. The Class 10E has riffled roof ends and parts of the sill protrude slightly past the bottom edge of the body sides. The Class 10E2 has smooth unriffled roof ends and no part of the sill protrudes past the bottom edge of the body sides.

Service

The Class 10E is employed chiefly to haul ore trains on the line between Kimberley and Hotazel in the Northern Cape and it also works between Kimberley and the Witwatersrand. Most are shedded at Beaconsfield near Kimberley, with several also at Welgedag near Springs.

Liveries

The main picture shows 10-044 in Spoornet blue livery with outline numbers.