Two diesel locomotives of the SAR Class 33 (GE U20C) are leaving the Messina station with a passenger train. Most of these locomotives survived in mainline and branch line service well into the twenty-first century. Some were later employed as heavy shunting engines. Although some of the locomotives had been sold to other operators over the years, most of the class remained in South African service for more than fifty years. During 2015, when sufficient numbers of new GE-designed Class 43 locomotives had entered service, several of the remaining Class 33 units were sold to, amongst others, TransNamib in Namibia and the Congolese Company for Transportation and Ports in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Most of these locomotives were refurbished in South Africa prior to being delivered to their new owners.
