South African Class 33-200


The South African Railways Class 33-200 of 1966 was a diesel-electric locomotive.
Between October 1966 and May 1967 the South African Railways placed twenty Class 33-200 General Motors Electro-Motive Division type GL26MC diesel-electric locomotives in service.

Manufacturer

The Class 33-200 type GM-EMD GL26MC diesel-electric locomotive was designed and built for the South African Railways by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and imported. They were delivered between October 1966 and May 1967 and numbered in the range from to 33-220.

Class 33 series

The Class 33-200 was the first GM-EMD diesel-electric locomotive to be placed in service by the SAR. The Class 33 consisted of three series, the General Electric Class 33-000 and 33-400 and the GM-EMD Class. Both manufacturers also produced locomotives for the subsequent SAR Classes 34, 35 and 36.
Of the three series, the Class 33-200 was the only one to be delivered with a high short hood.

Service

South African Railways

The Class 33-200 locomotives spent their entire SAR working lives operating out of East London. After some of the locomotives were sold by the SAR, their dynamic braking equipment, located in the high short hood, was removed by some of the new owners and the short hoods were rebuilt to low noses. In the process their starting power output was reduced from.
Between 1991 and 1992, the remaining Spoornet locomotives were similarly modified and placed in shunting service around East London. All of them were eventually withdrawn and sold by Spoornet and several are still operating in other parts of Africa.

Traxtion Sheltam

Of the original twenty locomotives, eleven were still in service with Sheltam by 2010, two having first served at Douglas Colliery as numbers D8 and D9. Sheltam is a locomotive leasing and repair company. All their serving Class 33-200 locomotives have had their short hoods modified to low noses.
Three more locomotives were bought by Sheltam for spare parts and are believed now to be scrapped. Sheltam initially numbered all their locomotives from no. 1 upwards, but have since renumbered them according to their horsepower.

Other operators

Of the remainder, four locomotives went to SitaRail in Côte d'Ivoire, one to the Sudan Railways and one to the Nkana mine of Mopani Copper Mines in Zambia.

Works numbers

The Class 33-200 builder's works numbers and disposition are listed in the table.

SAR No.		GM-EMD
works no.		Post-SAR
owner		Post-SAR
no.		Sheltam
new no.
33-20131191SheltamSpare parts
33-20231192SitaRailCC 2001
33-20331193Sheltam12001
33-20431194SitaRailCC 2003
33-20531195Sheltam142008
33-20631196Sheltam82004
33-20731197D8
33-20831198SheltamSpare parts
33-20931199SitaRailCC 2004
33-21031200Sheltam152009
33-21131201D9
33-21231202Nkana1
33-21331203Sheltam132007
33-21431204SitaRailCC 2002
33-21531205Sheltam122006
33-21631206Sheltam32003
33-21731207Sheltam22002
33-21831208Sheltam162010
33-21931209Sheltam172011
33-22031210Sudan Ry

Illustration

The main picture shows Class 33-200 no. 33-212 on 8 January 1970 with its original high short hood and in the SAR Gulf Red livery, leading General Electric-built Class no. 33-023 on a passenger train near Vincent, Eastern Cape. The following pictures show some of these locomotives with low short hoods in various liveries.