#4521
South African Class 8E
🇿🇦 South Africa ·built by Union Carriage & Wagon· from 1983· class of 107 South African electric locomotives
1 photo from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. SAR Class 8E E8002: Col André Kritzinger· CC BY-SA 3.0
what is it?
The South African Railways Class 8E of 1983 is an electric locomotive. Between 1983 and 1985 the South African Railways placed one hundred Class 8E centre-cab electric locomotives with a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement in shunting service. Seven more were built for the mining industry.
who runs it
base stats
Bars compare against all trains: 600 km/h (maglev), 1,700 seats; power, weight and number built on a log scale up to 20 MW, 1,000 t and 20,000 built.
fun facts
- First built 43 years ago, in 1983.
- Weighs about as much as 14 African elephants (~6 t each).
electric locomotive: Draws power from overhead wires or a third rail and pulls separate carriages.
spec sheet
- built
- 1983–1985
- in service from
- 1983
- number built
- 107
- kind
- Electric
- traction
- electric
- origin
- 🇿🇦 South Africa
- builders
- Union Carriage & Wagon
- designer
- BBC-Siemens
- operators
- Transnet Freight Rail
- top speed
- 75 km/h
- power
- —
- gauge
- 1,067 mm Cape gauge
- electric system
- 3 kV DC catenary
- wheel arrangement
- Bo'Bo'
- weight
- 82 t
- nicknames
- Cockroach
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q7565593, Wikipedia: South African Class 8E (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.