South African Class 34-600

The Class {{nowrap|34-600}} type GT26MC diesel-electric locomotive was designed by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and built for the South African Railways (SAR) by General Motors South Africa (GMSA) in Port Elizabeth. One hundred locomotives were delivered between December 1974 and July 1976, numbered in the range from {{nowrap|34-601}} to {{nowrap|34-700}}.{{Middleton-SA Loco Guide|pages=38, 41, 46-47}}{{Paxton-Bourne|page=141}}

File:Class 34 (600) Number Plate (34-672).jpg

Of the GM-EMD Class 34 family of locomotives, Classes South African Class 34-200 and {{nowrap|34-600}} units are visually indistinguishable from one another, but they can be distinguished from the South African Class 34-800 by the thicker fishbelly shaped sills on their left hand sides compared to the straight sill on the left hand side of the Class {{nowrap|34-800}}.[http://grela.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1848395 Class 34-600 sill] (Accessed on 11 June 2017)[http://grela.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=590262 Class 34-800 sill] (Accessed on 11 June 2017)

The Class 39-000 type GT26CU-3 diesel-electric locomotives were to be rebuilt from Class {{nowrap|34-600}}, South African Class 34-800 and South African Class 37-000 locomotives. The project commenced in 2005, using suitable frames from wrecked locomotives. Rebuilding was done at the Transwerk shops in Bloemfontein between 2006 and 2008.Information supplied by staff at Transnet Rail Engineering, Bloemfontein and Koedoespoort

It was intended to produce one hundred Class {{nowrap|39-000}} locomotives but in spite of the technical success of the project, rebuilding was halted after completing the first five locomotives due to higher than anticipated cost. It was decided, instead of rebuilding old locomotives, to continue the program by building fifty new South African Class 39-200 locomotives from imported and locally produced components. Three Class {{nowrap|34-600}} locomotives, numbers {{nowrap|34-620}}, {{nowrap|34-635}} and {{nowrap|34-674}}, were rebuilt to Class {{nowrap|39-000}} before the rebuilding project was halted.[http://www.railwaysafrica.com/blog/2008/12/the-class-39-diesels/ The Class 39 Diesels] (Accessed on 11 June 2017)

In 2010, an upgrading project commenced at the Koedoespoort Transnet Rail Engineering shops to upgrade Class {{nowrap|34-600}} locomotives by, amongst other modifications, replacing the GM-EMD D29B with GM-EMD D31 traction motors, thereby improving their performance to the standard of the Class {{nowrap|37-000}}.

Locomotives that are known to have undergone this upgrade are annotated "D31 TM" in the "Leased, rebuilt or sold to" column in the table.

In SAR, Spoornet and Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) service, the Class {{nowrap|34-600s}} worked on most mainlines and some unelectrified branch lines in the central, eastern, northern and northeastern parts of South Africa.

From at least 1988 until at least 1992, the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) hired type GT26MC Class {{nowrap|34-600}} locomotives from the SAR and later Spoornet. Locomotives which were observed to be working on the NRZ between April 1988 and September 1992 are annotated "NRZ" in the "Leased, rebuilt or sold to" column in the.Spoornet Diesels Leased to ZR 1978-1993. P.F. Bagshawe.

NLPI Limited, abbreviated from New Limpopo Projects Investments, a Mauritius-registered company, specialises in private sector investments by using the build-operate-transfer (BOT) concept. It had three connected railway operations in Zimbabwe and Zambia which formed a rail link between South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

• The Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway (BBR), commissioned on 1 September 1999, operates the Beit Bridge to Bulawayo line in Zimbabwe.
• Since February 2004, NLPI Logistics (NLL or LOG) operates between Bulawayo and Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe-Zambia border.
• Since February 2003, the Railway Systems of Zambia (RSZ) operated on the former Zambian Railways (ZR) from Victoria Falls to Sakania in the Congo.

In Zambia, the RSZ locomotive fleet included former ZR locomotives, but the rest of the locomotive fleet of all three operations consisted of South African GM-EMD Classes South African Class 34-200, {{nowrap|34-600}} and South African Class 34-800 and GE South African Class 35-000 and South African Class 35-400 locomotives from Spoornet and later TFR. These locomotives were sometimes marked or branded as either BBR or LOG or both, but their status, whether leased or loaned, was unclear since they were still on the TFR roster and still often worked in South Africa as well.

Class {{nowrap|34-600}} locomotives which served with NLPI include the locomotives annotated "NLPI" in the "Leased, rebuilt or sold to" column in the table.

Zambia Railways, the state-owned holding company, resumed control of the Zambian national rail network on 11 September 2012. This followed the Zambian government's decision to revoke the operating concession awarded to RSZ after Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda claimed that RSZ had "blatantly disregarded the provisions of the agreement" and had been "acting in a manner prejudicial to the interests of Zambians".[http://www.railwaygazette.com/fileadmin/user_upload/railwaygazette.com/indexes/index-railwaygazetteinternational-2012.pdf ZRL in charge as RSZ concession revoked. Railway Gazette International, 13 September 2012]

One of the Class {{nowrap|34-600}} locomotives, no. {{nowrap|34-640}}, was sold to Sheltam, a locomotive hire and repair company based at the Douglas Colliery near Witbank in Mpumalanga which undertakes complete operating contracts and maintenance contracts. By the turn of the millennium, Sheltam locomotives were operating at Randfontein Estates Gold Mine in Gauteng, in Mpumalanga at Douglas and Vandyksdrift Collieries and at SAPPI, Ngodwana. They also operated on Spoornet's Newcastle-Utrecht branch in KwaZulu-Natal and on Kei Rail in the Eastern Cape. Outside South Africa, they operated on the BBR, NLL and RSZ lines through Zimbabwe and Zambia and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.SA Rail, Volume 46, Number 2, April 2008, p3-7, ISSN 1026-3195

Six Class {{nowrap|34-600}} locomotives were leased to the Congolese railway, the Chemin de Fer Congo-Ocean (CFCO), where they were renumbered in the range from CC801 to CC806.

Six more locomotives which were at one time erroneously believed to have also gone to CFCO in the Congo, are now believed to have gone to Camrail in the Republic of Cameroon in about 2002, where they were renumbered in the range from CC2601 to CC2606. The order of their renumbering is not known.

Five Class {{nowrap|34-600}} locomotives went to Ferrovia Centro Atlântico (FCA) at Divinipolis in Brazil, where they run on {{RailGauge|metre|al=on}}. While they were initially part of Spoornet Traction's leasing scheme, they were later renumbered onto the FCA roster in the number range from 8226 to 8230.

Ten Class {{nowrap|34-600}} locomotives went to Ferrovia Sul Atlântico (FSA) at Curitiba in Brazil, where they also run on Metre gauge. While they were also initially part of Spoornet Traction's leasing scheme, they were later renumbered onto the FSA roster in the number range from 8231 to 8240.

The builder's works numbers of Class {{nowrap|34-600}} locomotives as well as their known disposal and deployment are listed in the table.

The Class 34-600 were all delivered in the SAR Gulf Red livery with signal red buffer beams, yellow side stripes on the long hood sides and a yellow V on each end. In the 1990s many of the Class 34-600 units began to be repainted in the Spoornet orange livery with a yellow and blue chevron pattern on the buffer beams. Two known locomotives, numbers {{nowrap|34-651}} and {{nowrap|34-652}}, were painted in Spoornet's orange era Blue Train livery. Some later received the Spoornet Traction maroon livery. After 2008 in the Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) era, some were repainted in the TFR red, green and yellow livery.[https://sites.google.com/site/soulorailway/home/system-7-1/south-eastwards-as-far-as-volksrust-2nd-section-wattles-to-union-junction-by-les-pivnic Soul of A Railway, System 7, Western Transvaal, based in Johannesburg, Part 9. South-Eastwards as far as Volksrust (2nd part) by Les Pivnic. Caption 4.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210724042106/https://sites.google.com/site/soulorailway/home/system-7-1/south-eastwards-as-far-as-volksrust-2nd-section-wattles-to-union-junction-by-les-pivnic |date=24 July 2021 }} (Accessed on 11 April 2017)

Depicted below is no. {{nowrap|34-652}} in Spoornet's Blue Train livery, incorrectly numbered as a Class {{nowrap|84-000}} on the cabside. The error was corrected later. Other liveries which were applied to Class {{nowrap|34-600}} locomotives are also illustrated.[http://grela.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1847563 Class 34-651 livery] (Accessed on 11 June 2017)

File:Class 34-600 no. 34-660.jpg|No. 34-660 in SAR Gulf Red and whiskers, Dabuka, Zimbabwe, 22 February 1992

File:SAR Class 34-600 84-652.JPG|Blue Train no. 34-652 at Capital Park, 2 October 2006, incorrectly numbered 84-652

File:Class 34-600 34-694.JPG|No. 34-694 in Spoornet orange with NLPI LOG emblems, Capital Park, 10 May 2013

File:Class 34-600 34-650.JPG|No. 34-650 in Spoornet maroon with NLPI LOG emblems, Capital Park, 6 May 2013

File:Class 34-600 34-601.jpg|No. 34-601 with TRAÇÃO markings for Brazil, Pyramid South, 22 September 2015

File:TFR Class 34-600 34-610.jpg|No. 34-610 in Transnet Freight Rail livery, Koedoespoort, Pretoria, 20 May 2011

{{Commons category|South African Class 34-600|position=left}}

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