Vossloh to supply Euro Dual locomotives to PRASA

[John Ashworth]

South African Vossloh locos set for April launch

[Oliver Krapp]

Where are they supposed to run? Are they for the trains to PE and EL or will Shosholoza Meyl be diesel-hauled in the future?

[Malcolm Wilton-Jones]

As of the end of February 13 of the Euro 4000's had left the factory by road for Portugal and one shipment of 4 should have arrived by now.

[Malcolm Wilton-Jones]

Production of the 20 diesel only locomotives is now complete, bar a few finishing touches such as remaining decals on No 20.
Production is now well under way on the Euroduals and the UKduals (class 88) and UKlights second batch (class 68s).
The first Euroduals are expected to appear shortly as is another batch of Euro 4000s for European customers, and the class 68s should commence delivery in October followed by the 88s early next year.

[Craig Duckham]

Malcolm, have you caught a glimpse of the prasa eurodual yet?

[Malcolm Wilton-Jones]

Hi Craig, nothing seen as yet. They are often very secretive about the first member of a new build until one is presented to the customer, and that is usually the second one, the first being in plain white livery and loaded on to a low-loader, covered over, and taken to a test location such as Velim. Not sure if Velim has Cape gauge facilities but they could fit different bogies for the tests. Even one of the traversers has a full cover including end screens so that they can be moved between buildings without being seen. After the presentation they all appear outside! I will check again in the next few days as quite a few new locos are expected during the coming weeks.
Interestingly, it appears that in South Africa these locomotives are being called AFRO 4000s and AFRO Duals. The official model designation as documented by Vossloh has the current batch as Euro 4000HP, AFRO only appearing as a prefix to the number, although the first one initially appeared as AFRI4000 and all the photos I have of it show that number. When they first appear they just have a printed paper on the cabside showing the model number, loco sequence number, order number and customer

[Craig Duckham]

Thanks Malcolm for the interesting reply. I look forward to seeing your sneak review pictures when you finally spot one.

Cheers
Craig

[Malcolm Wilton-Jones]

So nothing has happened here at all, but I have been pointed to this wiki page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Afr ... _Afro_4000 Is anyone able to comment further on this?
This seems to tie in with our earlier thoughts, and the fact that further deliveries have been suspended, with the last 7 AFRO4000 units still in Valencia and no sign of the AFRODuals at all.
The factory is now producing more Euro 4000 locomotives for European customers and also more UKLights which appear to be ahead of the earlier published schedules. The new UKDuals are also expected to appear in the near future with production deliveries scheduled for spring/summer 2016. Perhaps South Africa would have been better off ordering this model also, or at least a derivative of it. The first 15 diesel versions are performing "better than expected" on both passenger and freight services and another 17 have already been ordered in addition to the 10 Dual versions.

[Malcolm Wilton-Jones]

A new locomotive has been sighted, it looks like a Eurolight but it has been said that the new AFRODual will be based on the Eurolight body. There is no sign of a pantograph on the roof, which is all that has been visible so far. Several new buildings are going up in the yard so it is likely that more work will be done under cover thus fewer chances to see them.

[John Ashworth]

SPANISH LOCO BRAKES

[John Ashworth]

WATCH: Prasa trains struggle to enter workshop

WATCH: Leaked video shows oversized Prasa trains narrowly missing workshop entrance

[Steve Appleton]

That clearance is very close which is something we already know about.Certainly not a "struggle". The slow speed would be quite normal when entering a confined space like this. Sensational journalism at its worst.

[Malcolm Wilton-Jones]

The same thing is happening all over the world - it's called progress.
When railways are electrified with overhead wires this brings a new dimension into play and a new loading gauge comes into play. If necessary, doorways need to be modified, bridges need to be raised, or the tracks lowered as has to happen in many tunnels, and much more has to be done. New locomotives can be designed to fit these routes, be they steam, diesel or electric If the track is laid properly then track gauge is not an issue.
All routes have a Route Availability code as does all stock, and tests have to be made to check clearances whenever something new comes on the scene. These locomotives were ordered for specific routes. If someone else wants to run them on other routes they have to ensure that those other routes are compliant first. If routes are non-compliant with revised gauges then these routes require infrastructure modification to meet that compliance.
Malaysia is running European size locomotives (Blue Tigers) on metre gauge without any problems, though they are banned from secondary routes where the infrastructure has not been modified for their use.

[Malcolm Wilton-Jones]

At long last things have started moving again. A few AFRO4000 have been worked on then stored at the back again, there are still 7 here. The good news is that a new locomotive appeared this morning on the test track. It is called PRASADUAL No 1.
I was going to add pictures but it says they are too big, over 200K, but one is 178K and the other 192K. Is there aphysical size limit also?

[John Ashworth]

Thanks, Malcolm. As far as I know those pictures should load. We did put a "voluntary" limit of 130K in the early days of the Forum when many people, especially in Africa, were still on very slow dial-up modems. We still don't want massive multi-mega-whatever photos, but I have often uploaded photos of 200-400K without any problems. Please give it a try.