South African Class ES1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| South African Class ES1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Class ES1 shunting locomotive, c. 1930 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The South African Railways Class ES1 of 1924 was an electric locomotive.
In 1924, the South African Railways placed a single Class ES1 battery-powered shunting locomotive in service at the construction site of the Colenso power station. In 1927, the power station and the locomotive were sold to the Electricity Supply Commission and in 1937 the locomotive was purchased back for use at the Daimana (Danskraal) locomotive depot.[1][2]
During the electrification of the Glencoe to Pietermaritzburg section of the Natal mainline, a mountainous single-track line which carried heavy mineral traffic towards the port of Durban on an alignment with severe gradients and tight curves, the Colenso power station was built by the South African Railways (SAR) to supply the power for this line.[3]
A single battery-powered electric shunting locomotive, the only battery-powered locomotive to ever see service on the SAR, was purchased from English Electric in 1924 for use at the power station construction site.[1][4]
