High-value electrical rotating equipment manufacturer Reid & Mitchell’s (R&M’s) traction his­tory goes back many years. The busi­ness was formerly owned by multinational conglomerate General Electric (GE) and supported GE prod­ucts in South Africa. About 50% of the older Transnet diesel-electric (DE) loco­motives were made by GE, with the balance procured from Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD), and all were fitted with direct current (DC) traction technology.

R&M, a division of electro-mechanical equipment manufacturer Actom, had a licence agreement with GE for many years related to traction, and directly repaired motors, generators and alternators for custom­ers, such as South Africa’s former rail transport company Spoornet, to GE standards.

The business was one of the Spoornet centres of excellence (CoE) for traction rotatables, supporting the depots with the overhauls and heavy repairs of equipment, particularly 761 traction motors, 581 generators, GTA11 and AR10/D14 alternators, as well as auxiliary equipment such as auxiliary generators and cooling blowers.

Even though R&M had no technol­ogy link with EMD, as the CoE, the business also repaired EMD products, which internally were considered other original-equipment manufacturer parts, with great success.

The R&M ties with GE have proven resilient over the years. When GE (now Wabtec) won orders for a new alternating current (AC) DE locos fleets, they approached R&M concerning the new AC traction motors as part of the locomotive lo­calisation strategy. Although ultimately unsuccessful in the bid to build new motors, R&M’s sweet spot in after-market repairs proved to be a winner, and it developed processes along with Wabtec to repair the new GEB24 AC traction motors and GGB type alternators.

The development included invest­ment in specialised equipment, with R&M currently performing repairs for Wabtec on all the new AC loco electri­cal rotating equipment.

In the past five years, R&M’s traction activities with the major railway opera­tors reduced owing to the downturn in local freight operations and other railway operators, such as Botswana Railways, also experiencing challenges.

In contrast to the decline in State-owned enterprise work, the development of private traction companies, such as Traxtion (Sheltam) and Grindrod, has been very encouraging over the last few years. These companies have fleets operat­ing in various countries and locations outside the local parastatal railway operations. The growth in this area is certain to expand once the third-party access to Transnet infrastructure takes off to unlock the great potential of the South African rail network.

In addition, R&M has recently been pleased to see the return of some Transnet business, led by its commutator manufacturing depart­ment, one of the last such facilities still standing in the local market after years of manufacturing decline. R&M is helping Transnet re-build some of its older, but maintainable, DC electric loco fleets and is standing ready to provide more assistance when needed as the fleets return to service.

“We see a very positive future for traction, so much so that we are creating a new traction CoE at our Cason Road facility, with aspirations to de­liver world-class overhauls and repairs in a dedicated facility based on our fundamentals of safety and quality. Customer satisfaction will be improved by greater efficiencies and quicker deliveries. Our R&M skilled resources are up to the challenge,” says R&M divisional CEO Mike Shaw.