Talk:South African Class 6E

Move

Moved this page from "South African Class 6E" to current title to make it clearer that it's a type of railway equipment; since SAR operwas the company that introduced it, I think that this is an appropriate name. If anyone disagrees, feel free to revert and/or drop a note at my talk page. C628 (talk) 22:55, 25 September 2010 (UTC)

The first SA locomotive page I created was for the new Class 15E, at present being commissioned by Transnet Freight Rail. So I used "Transnet Freight Rail" in the title. I then continued with the old Class 1E, 3E and 4E and used "South African Railways" in the titles.

Then I reached the Class 5E's, commissioned by the South African Railways and still in use when SAR became Spoornet and later TFR, and some are even now still in use with Rovos Rail while others were recently sold at auction. The liveries they wear tell the story. The same with the 6E, all eleven of the 6E1 series, 7E's and so on, up to 12E. All of them are still in use, but in SAR, Spoornet, Shosholoza Meyl and TFR liveries, until some new corporate chief gets a new bright idea next week and add another new name. You can add TransNamib and Traction and Tracao and some Brazilian railroad for the diesels. Same with steam, there's some ex SAR narrow gauge locos working at Sandstone Estates in the Free State and some in Wales.

So I decided to stick with "South African" for the lot, since that covers all, even locomotives in mine service such as at Landau Colliery and with Sheltam Grindrod. The same thing happens in the private sector - Landau owners Amcoal is now Anglo Coal. For all I know, next month it'll be Billiton....

After all, the focus of these articles is on locomotive type, not owner.

André Kritzinger 18:49, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

Operation - South African Classes 6E, 6E1, 16E, 17E and 18E

Phil du Plessis commented on Jaco Holtzhausen's photo in Suid-Afrikaaanse Spoorweë / SA Railways / Ulolwe
Phil du Plessis 9 February 19:14
Quinton Truter, The 18E / 6E/1 is controlled via resistors over which the voltage is dropped in a configuration of series and parallel electrical circuits. On start off (low notches) the major part of the voltage will be dropped over the resistors banks and al four traction motors will be in series. As the driver notched up, some the resistor banks is short circuited via switches etc. and the voltage across the traction motors become higher. Power, approximately is voltage x current or the total resistance x the square of the current and the more resistors that is cut-out as you notch higher, the more power is developed by the traction motors. Eventually all resistors is cut out and you then operate the loco in full-field. Around 22 to 28 km/h (depending on wheel diameter which is selected by the EMF of the rotating motor) the 18E switches to a parallel combination where you now have 2 traction motors per bogie in an electrical series circuit and the two bogies in parallel, less kN in this configuration because kN is a function of kW versus speed. The higher the speed the less the kN. These switches, switch under very high power and voltage, you need very special switches to blow out the "flames" when the copper contacts close or open and ionise the surrounding air to avoid burn-ups and flames that can start a fire. These switches are all pneumatically operated (for insulation purposes) and air is required to open/close the switch actions. Air is also used for the weakfield cam switch that also switches under very high currents. When the traction motors operate in full-field then the loco is performing flat-out. The only way toe increase the kW is to force more current through the field circuits. This is achieved by placing resistance in parallel with the fields to lower the overall resistance the field "see" and increase the current flow through the field to increase the magnetic flux to get more power from the DC traction motor. The weakfield cam switch is also operated by pneumatics. The loco is also equipped with a mini compressor to raise the pantograph when there is no main air in the system. In the older 6E/1s a pantograph hookstick was used to push up the pantograph to get the high voltage auxiliary motor to drive the alternator, to supply 110V to start-up the compressor. Once there was enough air, the pantograph hook stick could be dropped because the main air would then keep the pantograph in the raised position. This is a very simple explanation.
Facebook comment, posted here as reference by André Kritzinger (talk) 19:29, 9 February 2014 (UTC)