Between 1959 and 1961 the South African Railways placed one hundred and thirty-five Class 5E1, Series 1 electric locomotives with a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement in service.

Manufacturer

The first series of the Class 5E1 3 kV DC electric locomotive was designed and built for the South African Railways (SAR) by 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...

 (Metrovick) at its Bowesfield Works

Bowesfield Works

Bowesfield Works was a railway locomotive manufacturing plant in Stockton-on-Tees. The works was operated by a joint venture company called Metropolitan Vickers-Beyer Peacock from 1949 until 1960.-Works history:...

, 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). It was virtually identical in outward appearance to the forerunner Class 5E, but with more powerful traction motors and with a new bogie design that gave a smoother ride.

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 Union Carriage & Wagon (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.

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 was continued with the Class 6E and the Class 6E1 from 1969 to 1985, and still later with the rebuilding of Class 6E1 to Class 18E locomotives, a project that started in 2000.

Liveries

The locomotives were placed in service in a bottle green and yellow whiskers livery. Beginning in 1960, a Gulf Red and yellow livery gradually replaced the green and yellow.

In the SAR and Spoornet eras, when the official liveries were Gulf Red and whiskers for the SAR, and initially orange and later maroon for Spoornet, some selected electric locomotives and some diesel-electrics were painted blue for use with the Blue Train

Blue Train (South Africa)

The Blue Train travels an approximately journey in South Africa between Pretoria and Cape Town. It is one of the most luxurious train journeys in the world...

, but without altering the layout of the various paint schemes. Blue Train locomotives were therefore blue with yellow whiskers in the SAR era, blue with the Spoornet logo and "SPOORNET" in Spoornet’s orange era, and blue with the Spoornet logo but without "SPOORNET" in Spoornet’s maroon era. In Spoornet’s blue era there was no need for a separate Blue Train livery, while in the Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) era the Blue Train was relegated to the very bottom of the railway’s business priority list.

During the 1970s eight Class 5E1, Series 1 locomotives, E441 to E448, were painted blue with yellow whiskers for use with the Blue Train between Cape Town and Beaufort West in the Cape Western region. By 1981 they were all back in pool service and gradually repainted to Gulf Red and whiskers again.

Service

The Class 5E1 served on all 3 kV DC electrified main lines country wide for almost forty years, but by the early 2000s the Series 1 locomotives were all retired. Apart from numbers E397 and E461, whose shells have been converted to a club room at Sentrarand Depot, none of the Metrovick built Class 5E1s are known to have survived. While these two shells are now painted in the SAR Blue Train livery, neither locomotive wore the blue livery while still in service.

Gallery

The main picture shows E464 at the Salt River Depot, Cape Town, on 7 January 1966.

See also

• South African Class 5E1, Series 2
  South African Class 5E1, Series 2
  In 1963 and 1964 the South African Railways placed one hundred and thirty Class 5E1, Series 2 electric locomotives with a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement in service...
  
  
• South African Class 5E1, Series 3
  South African Class 5E1, Series 3
  In 1964 and 1965 the South African Railways placed one hundred Class 5E1, Series 3 electric locomotives with a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement in service.-Manufacturer:...
  
  
• South African Class 5E1, Series 4
  South African Class 5E1, Series 4
  In 1965 and 1966 the South African Railways placed one hundred Class 5E1, Series 4 electric locomotives with a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement in service.- Manufacturer :...
  
  
• South African Class 5E1, Series 5
  South African Class 5E1, Series 5
  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 :...
  
  
• Electric locomotive numbering and classification
• List of South African locomotive classes