A few pics of 6E1's in Worcester

[Morne Bothma]

I visited Worcester today, windy as hell there. I took these pics of a couple of 6E1's in the area. The 6E's is definetly one of my favorite loco's. They sound awesome when those resistance blowers kick in!

[Stefan Andrzejewski]

Yes Morne you are right. Those Resistance Blowers make an awsome noise. On a quite day they can be heard from far away. Your photos are great. Looked like a busy Worcester.

[Ashley Peter]

Hey Morne - great to see my old home town's trains again! Looks like most of the pics may have been taken at Worcester North Yard. The loco in the foreground of the first pic appears to be a 6E (judging from the 5E1 type bogies) whilst the rest as 6E1's -and yes, they all make that most distinctive noise, which I am beginning to enjoy only now that they are becoming rarer in the Durban area. I was always an avid 5E1 fan as they sounded so quietly purposeful compared to the "raucous" 6E/6E1's whistling fans! Now that the 5E's are all gone, and most of the 6E1's here have become 18E's (with very different sounding blower fans) - I guess that the 6E1's are starting to creep into my heart...

I must admit that I don't know if I will ever get to like the rudely imposing hiss of the 10E's!

I understand that at least one of the new purple Shosholoza Meyl class 6E1 units has recently been spotted in the Western Cape. Anyone got its number yet?

[Morne Bothma]

I am glad you enjoy the pics. Hopefully I will track down that purple 6E soon. Only spotted it from a distance so could not see the number. I will certainly post more pics in the near future!

[fanie kleynhans]

Question, about a month or 2 ago i went past Worcester and always stop there to check whats going on. Since it was a Sunday not much, only 2 trains were parked both facing Cape Town, like the one in the pics above. Now why would that be, i thought it would be best to get trains to the end destination as quick as possible or are there set departure times from Worcester to Cape Town?

[Ashley Peter]

Hi Morne & Fanie -

Firstly, I believe that the purple 6E1 has been tentatitively identified as E1377 and it was spotted on the Cape Town-bound Premier Classe on Friday - observed whizzing through Kraaifontein at 17:45 (running about 2 hrs late).

With respect to the trains shut down over weekends, the current policy of Transnet Freight Rail appears to be to shut down virtually the entire freight network on Sundays to save on Sundaytime. Most goods trains come to a halt on Saturday afternoons and only move again on Monday morning. About the only regular exceptions to this rule are the Orex, Coallink and Natal Main Lines. And yes, there are set schedules, even for goods trains. It helps with planning the staff roster and ensures booked crossings with passenger and other trains - although they don't always adhere to the booked schedules!

[Chris Janisch]

There are definitley freight movements on the Pyramid- Polokwane line on Sundays..but only 2 trains normally. Around Pretoria on Sundays there is some freight moving, but not much.

[Ashley Peter]

And of course, these are the "critical core lines" on which preservation groups are prohibited from running trains, just in case they should delay the intensive freight services...!