South African Class 22E
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Transnet Engineering
| South African Class 22E | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 No. 22-020 at Pyramid South on 22 September 2015 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Transnet Freight Rail Class 22E of 2015 is a South African electric locomotive.
On 10 April 2015, the first Class 22E dual voltage six-axle locomotive for Transnet Freight Rail was rolled out by the CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Company in China.[1][2]
The first forty Class 22E dual voltage 3 kV DC and 25 kV AC Co-Co locomotives for Transnet Freight Rail were built in China by Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Company, a subsidiary of the China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corporation (CSR). The roll-out ceremony of the first locomotive, no. 22-002, took place at the factory on 10 April 2015. The rest of the order for 359 locomotives are being built locally at the Koedoespoort shops of Transnet Engineering in Pretoria.[1][2]
The acquisition of the Class 22E forms part of the largest-ever locomotive supply contract in South African history and the single-biggest investment initiative by a South African corporation. It consists of contracts for the construction of 1,064 locomotives by four global original equipment manufacturers:[3][4]
- CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Company, for 359 Class 22E dual-voltage electric locomotives.[3][4]
- Bombardier Transportation South Africa, for 240 Class 23E dual-voltage electric locomotives.[3][4]
- General Electric South Africa Technologies (a unit of the U.S.-based GE Transportation), for 233 Class 44-000 diesel-electric locomotives.[3][4]
- CNR Rolling Stock South Africa (Pty.) Ltd., for 232 Class 45-000 diesel-electric locomotives.[3][4]
The builder's plates on the Chinese-built locomotives are inscribed with the year 2015, but for an unknown reason the plate on no. 22-041, the first of the South African-builts, is incorrectly inscribed "2014".
The Class number
In the 1930s, during the steam era of the South African Railways, a heavier mainline version of the Class 21 2-10-4 steam locomotive, the Class 22 2-10-4, was proposed, but never built. The Class 22E is therefore the first locomotive in South Africa to receive this class number.[5]
