100 locomotives for Angola

[MEC407]

The railways in Angola have ordered 100 GE locomotives.

From allAfrica.com:

The deal becomes immediately effective and provides for the purchase of about 100 locomotives, technical assistance to them, to those needing repair...
. . .
He added that the locomotives are of the type five, much advanced, incorporate environmental needs and are adapted to the African continent.

Read more at: http://allafrica.com/stories/201302160011.html

[Allen Hazen]

A hundred units over a short period? I'm not sure how many locomotives Angolan railways have in total, but that's certainly high proportion! Then again, the railways suffered badly during the lengthy civil war (I think the main one was largely out of service), and rebuilding them would be a great step in rehabilitating the country's economy. (There was, I think, a good deal of export mineral traffic on the main railway.)
---
I think units similar to those currently being supplied to South African railways would be suitable use in Angola, so these may be close to a "standard design" GE for southern Africa.

(Thanks for posting the news!)

[clutch]

What is the rail gauge in Angola. Do they use American style couplers or buffers.

[Allen Hazen]

Clutch--
Angola's railways include three, non-connected, lines. I don't know about the two smaller ones, but the most important, running East-Westacross the middle of the country, connecting at the Congo border with Congolese lines and so potentially a carrier of export mineral traffic from the Congo (former province of Katanga--if you have a long enough memory you will recall that Katanga was the part of the former Belgian Congo which, because of its mineral wealth, was economically strongest at independence) is the Benguela Railway:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benguela_railway
It was built to the "Cape Gauge": 3'6" (1.067 metre) track gauge, the same as South African Railways. Not sure of the coupling system.

[Allen Hazen]

More on that...
At least some of Angola's railways were originally built to metre gauge (in a Portuguese colony, probably backed by Belgian money: metre was perhaps a more likely choice than the "English" 3'6"!) and later rebuilt to 3'6" gauge: doubtless in the hope of integration with other railways in southern Africa.
Before service was interrupted by the Angolan civil wars, freight service on the Benguela Railway apparently had a certain "North American" look to it: a train might have included interchange freight cars from Congolese and Zambian railways!

And, in answer to the question about couplers: photos, in A.E. Durrant's "The Garratt Locomotive," of steam locomotives built in the early 1950s and earlier show what seem to be American-style couplers, and no buffers.

As to the size of a 100-unit order relative to the total locomotive population of Angola's railways, the entry on Angolan railways in the 1986 "Jane's World Railways" claimed a bit over 100 diesel units and a similar number of steamers for all the country's railways combined.

[renrut44]

In all likelihood will be supplied out of Brazil

The South African Assembled 43 Class are 126 tonne AC/AC, probably a bit heavy and too sophisticated for Angola

More likely the southern African mainline standard of 111 Tonnes

May be C30-EMP similar to 20 supplied to South African loco hire contractor Sheltam, these units currently on hire in Katanga and Mozambique
http://www.sheltam.com/open_big_news.as ... 30-EMP.jpg
GE do Brazil have just compleyed a similar (5'6" gauge) batch for Vale for phosphate haul in Argentina

http://jonathansworldlyimages.com/wp-co ... 2-7059.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/youthwith/ ... 615966313/
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 79&nseq=43

The C25-EMP as supplied to Nigeria are probably a bit underpowered for the Lobito to Katanga run, but probably OK for the other 2 Systems
http://pmnewsnigeria.com/wp-content/upl ... ailway.jpg
http://nimg.sulekha.com/others/original ... 4-0-51.jpg
http://www.channelstv.com/home/wp-conte ... /Train.jpg

The little C20-EMP that currently under construction for Indonesia will be too light
http://files.ecomagination.com/wp-conte ... 44x680.png

Angola is running a fair number of newish Chinamen, do not seem to be all that reliable
CKD8F
http://www.whatsondalian.com/news_image ... 20Ango.jpg
http://native.cnr.cn/city/201207/W02012 ... 779868.jpg
And a large number of SDD6
http://img.tjskl.org.cn/pic/z18832e9-60 ... motive.jpg
plus SDD6A
http://img.tjskl.org.cn/pic/z189ed42-0x ... motive.jpg

[renrut44]

To North American eyes, the only thing strange about Southern Africa railways will be the brakes, apart from heavy haul iron ore and coal in South Africa, and Vale and Rio Tinto coal in Mozambique, breaking is generally vacuum.

South African wet hire loco contractors range throughout the southern continent, South African charter company Rovos Rail runs "hotels on wheels" luxury charters from SA up to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, using Sheltam and RRL Grindrod as the hook and pull contractor. Rail is so chaotic in Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Tanzania that these charters pull a diesel bowser. Zimbabwe rail is technically bankrupt, but the north-south link that stretches up via Zimbabwe to the Congo (and again connects with Angola) is operated by the South African company LOG. LOG (NLPI Logistics) is one of the operating companies of NLPI http://nlpi.net/group-overview/45-2/

For an overview on South African locos http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_So ... ve_classes

Draw a line from Dar es Salaam on the east coast to Pointe-Noire on the west coast. To the south you will find hired, leased, or second hand South African 33, 34, and 35 Class diesels on almost all systems. Angola has tended to do its own thing, having a Commo style centrally planned and controlled government. Now that the lines are again connected expect to see a lot of Katangan and Zambian Copper Belt traffic using the Port of Lobito. There are now ex Queensland 1720 and 2600 class locos leased from RRL Grindrod (under a World Bank guaranteed scheme) with SNCC in the DRC

South Africa has some heavy haul mineral lines, In the above link you will note that the 15E Class electrics weigh 180 tonnes, used on block trains of 41,400 tonnes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sishen%E2% ... ilway_line

[MEC407]

Photo by mtnclimberjoe:

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/596493/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;