INTRO: Murray Hughes reports from the 6th IHHA Congress in Cape Town
VISIT the 861 km iron ore artery in South Africa, and you will see signs that the railway has suffered badly. Spoornet executives admit that the line nearly closed when the iron and steel market plummetted in the mid-1980s. Operations Manager Frans Bruwer refers to a time when ’it was a dying business’, and spending was dramatically curtailed.
Failure to keep the 1065mm gauge track in best condition and neglecting the need to maintain wheel and rail profiles led to serious bogie hunting that in the worst locations caused 11 to 12 mm of side wear on the rails. Now Spoornet’s Sishen - Saldanha line management and engineering team is working hard to bring the infrastructure back to top-class condition to cope with traffic that is once again buoyant and rising.
Khutso Mampeule, Spoornet’s Executive Manager for the Sishen - Saldanha export line, now called Orex, says the line carried a record 22 million tonnes in 1995-96, and this year’s total is likely to be 21 million. Although 15 to 17 million tonnes moved over the route in 1978-80, traffic slumped to around 8 or 9 million tonnes in 1986-87, and for much of the time until 1989 tonnage was mainly below 15 million. Spoornet’s projections suggest that ore exports could recover and grow to 36 million tonnes by 2010.
According to Bridget Haig, Chief Administrative Official, Business Analysis, Orex, the steel market is booming in the hot Asian economies: China, Malaysia, the Philippines and South Korea. In 1995 the world market absorbed 325 million tonnes of seaborne fine ore, plus 77 million of lump ore and a further 14 million traded by other modes. In 1996 the seaborne total fell slightly to 392 million tonnes. Up to 50 million tonnes is also produced and consumed locally. Haig says that the Sishen ore’s 65 to 66% iron content means that it is currently in high demand.
Mampeule says the Sishen - Saldanha route is managed as ’a ring-fenced business unit responsible for its own bottom line’ and suggests that Spoornet’s iron ore export business is now well into the recovery. Spoornet has commissioned a new digital dragging equipment detection system on the line and is rebuilding several Class 9E locomotives withdrawn in the 1980s to provide spares and cut costs. Only one unit in the fleet of 31 remains to be completed, and this should be in traffic by the end of the year.
Substantial cost savings have been achieved by negotiating different electricity tariffs and scheduling trains so that the busiest period is at times of low cost power. This process has included ensuring that loaded trains pass over sections with the steepest grades at these times; if trains have to climb at times of peak electricity demand, they are sometimes scheduled for diesel haulage.
Part of Spoornet’s fleet of GE diesels is allocated to the line because the 9Es are stretched to capacity at 18 million tonnes. The diesels have given the line the ability to carry an extra 3 to 4 million tonnes. While running diesels under the wires is economic in the short term, Bruwer considers that more electric locos may be required in the medium to long term if capacity is increased.
One problem that has taxed the line’s track engineers is alkali aggregates reaction in the sleepers, which has caused severe cracking. One difficulty is that the reaction ’sleeps’ for 10 years before it is evident. Bruwer says it is being treated by spraying a hydrophobic coat of silicon material round the sleepers to prevent moisture penetration and lower the relative humidity to stop the reaction. Around 650000 of the route’s 1·4 million sleepers are being treated over the next five years and another 60 to 65000 replaced.
A rail planer is being operated to treat 12 to 13 km of track a month in the 80h of possession time available, but 250 km of track needing planing means that the planer will be in full use for some time. o
’Spoornet’s iron ore export business is now well into recovery’
Khutso Mampeule
Executive Manager, Orex
CAPTION: Delegates from the 6th IHHA congress rode a special train to inspect track and equipment on the Sishen - Saldanha line. Up to 12 mm has been worn off the gauge face of the rail head in curves (below left), whilst cracking of alkali concrete sleepers is proving a major problem (below)
