History

Union Carriage (UCW) was established in 1957 as a partnership between Commonwealth Engineering of Australia with the Budd Company of the USA and Leyland. Construction of the factory at Nigel commenced in June 1958 and occupation took place in January 1959. Orders had been given for SAR Artisan Coaches and this was followed by an order for main line and suburban coaches. During 1963 UCW received its first orders for main line electric locomotives, the Class 5E1. As such, they were the first locally constructed electric locomotives; the first being
handed over to the SAR in January 1964.

Between 1964 and 1984 UCW constructed some 4 400 main line and 4 450 suburban coaches, as well as staff coaches of various types. The suburban coaches were based on the 5M2 design, 349 units which were imported from the UK between 1958 and 1961. These coaches were all-steel, with four sliding-doors and consisted of various configurations of Motor Coaches and Trailer Coaches, for 1st and 3rd Class passengers. The UCW production began with a number of Staff coaches and was followed by more of the 5M2 type, which became the Class 5M2A type. Up until 1985, 4 447 such coaches of 12 internal configurations were constructed, of which nearly 400 were powered Motor Coaches.

Construction of Mainline coaches began in 1961 and by 1985 some 4 099 such coaches had been constructed. They comprised 1st, 2nd and 3rd Class types, Lounge cars and Dining Cars, Kitchen and Staff cars, Baggage cars and two Blue Train coach sets comprising 32 vehicles in 1972 - a highlight of the UCW construction programme.

After building over 500 Class 5E-l electric locomotives to 1969, production began on the more powerful 6E and 6E1 locomotives in 1970. By 1985 a total of 1 047 locos had been built, constituting the most numerous single class of electric locomotives constructed in the world. One 6E1 loco, with minor modifications, established a world speed record of 245 km/hr on the 1 065mm gauge.

UCW began building diesel locomotives for industrial services in 1962 and 149 locomotives of various types were constructed to 1983. This included the four-wheel Diesel- hydraulic Pegasus, Titan and Zeus types, named from Greek mythology. Larger locomotives followed, including the six-wheel diesel hydraulic Achilles, Ajax, Atlas and Hector types. Larger types included the double-bogie (Bo-Bo) Hannibal, Hercules and Olympus Diesel electric types.

While UCW was known for its locomotive and passenger coach construction, the company built a number of goods wagons, including frameless tank cars for anhydrous ammonia, liquefied petroleum gas, steel slab and coil wagons, refrigerator wagons and other types.

UCW entered the international field in 1974 when it received export orders for passenger coaches for Angola and Zambia. It was also awarded an export contract for electrical equipment for a batch of AC electric locomotives supplied to Taiwan by GEC/Alstom. Between 1975-6 UCW secured a contract from the "50-cycle Group" for the construction of the 7E AC locomotives on the Richards Bay Coal Line. They were then the most powerful 1065mm gauge locos in the world but were soon superseded by the Class 9E locomotive for the Sishen – Saldanha ore line.

During the 1980s UCW was successful in obtaining orders from the Taiwan Government Railways for the construction of 64 electric multiple-unit suburban train sets. This was achieved in spite of strong overseas opposition.

During 1986 UCW became a sub-contractor to Mitsui/Toshiba and GEC/Altsom for the supply of 175 Class 10E and 10E1 electric locomotives for the Richards Bay coal line.

In 1990 UCW was awarded a sub-contract to Siemens for the supply of 50 Class 38 dual electric/diesel electric locomotives for Spoornet. A number of these locomotives were supplied in electric only configuration for Anglo Platinum later on.

After the South African railway industry declined in the 1990's, UCW secured contracts to upgrade the original 5M2A suburban train sets. Upgraded, they are now classed the 10M4, utilising the latest modular technology.