RailPictures.Net Photo: 11-012, 11-015, 11-027, 11-032 Transnet Freight Rail Class 11E (GM5FC) at Ermelo, Mpumalanga province, South Africa by Eugene Armer
Forty five of the class 11E Co-Co 25kV AC locomotives were built between 1985 and 1987 by General Motors South Africa. They have a single cab and were specifically designed to operate over the Ermelo - Richards Bay coal line, where four of these locomotives can handle 200 wagon trains, as opposed to six 7E's or 19E's. On a freezing winter morning four 11E's are emerging from a bank of early morning fog, heading to Ermelo with their train of 200 empty coal hoppers. Photo taken on the last day of Tanago's 2013 South Africa tour.
An exclamation attributed to TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson, it is this eponymous expression of which certain images convey man and machine versus nature . . .
Classes 7E, 9E, 11E, 14E, 15E, 19E, 20E and 21E.
7E & 11E are 25kv AC locos. 9E & 15E are 50kv AC locos and the remainder are dual-voltage (25kv AC & 3kv DC).
