#4352
South African Class Experimental AC
🇿🇦 South Africa ·built by Union Carriage & Wagon· from 1978· class of 1 South African electric locomotive
1 photo from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. SAR Class ExpAC E1600 R: Col André Kritzinger· CC BY-SA 3.0
what is it?
The South African Railways Class Experimental AC of 1978 is an electric locomotive. In 1974 and 1975 the South African Railways placed 100 Class 6E1, Series 5 locomotives with a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement in mainline service. In 1978 one was withdrawn from revenue service for use as an experimental 25 kV AC locomotive.
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 48 years ago, in 1978.
- 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
- 1978
- in service from
- 1978
- number built
- 1
- kind
- Electric
- traction
- electric
- origin
- 🇿🇦 South Africa
- builders
- Union Carriage & Wagon, Transwerk
- designer
- Union Carriage & Wagon
- operators
- Transnet Freight Rail, South African Railways and Harbours Administration
- top speed
- 113 km/h
- power
- —
- gauge
- 1,067 mm Cape gauge
- electric system
- 25 kV 50 Hz AC catenary
- weight
- 85.5 t
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q7565620, Wikipedia: South African Class Experimental AC (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.