South African Class 35-600

The South African Railways Class 35-600 of 1976 is a branch line diesel-electric locomotive.

Between September 1976 and June 1978, the South African Railways placed one hundred Class 35-600 General Motors Electro-Motive Division type GT18MC diesel-electric locomotives in branch line service. In 1977, one more Class 35-600 locomotive was built for Columbus Stainless in Middelburg, Transvaal.

Manufacturer
The Class 35-600 type GT18MC diesel-electric locomotive was designed by General Motors Electro-Motive Division (GM-EMD) and built in two batches for the South African Railways (SAR) by General Motors South Africa (GMSA) in Port Elizabeth. Fifty were delivered between September 1976 and May 1977, numbered in the range from 35-601 to 35-650, and another fifty between May 1977 and June 1978, numbered in the range from 35-651 to 35-700.

In addition, another single Class 35-600 GT18MC locomotive was built new in 1977 for Columbus Stainless, a large stainless steel plant which was established in Middelburg, Transvaal in 1965.

Distinguishing features
Of the GM-EMD Class 35 locomotives, the Class 35-200 and 35-600 are visually indistinguishable from each other.

Service
The Class 35 family is South Africa's standard branch line diesel-electric locomotive. The GM-EMD Class 35-600s were designed for light rail conditions and they work on most branch lines in the central, eastern, northern and northeastern parts of the country. A number of them also saw service in Richards Bay working the Golela line.

Works numbers
The Class 35-600 builder's works numbers are listed in the table.

Liveries
The Class 35-600 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 them began to be repainted in the Spoornet orange livery with a yellow and blue chevron pattern on the buffer beams. Several later received the Spoornet maroon livery. In the late 1990s many were repainted in the Spoornet blue livery with outline numbers on the long hood sides. After 2008 in the Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) and Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) era, many were repainted in the TFR red, green and yellow livery and at least one was repainted in the PRASA blue livery.