The South African Railways Class 34-800 of 1978 is a diesel-electric locomotive. Between August 1978 and December 1979, the South African Railways placed fifty Class 34-800 General Motors Electro-Motive Division type GT26MC diesel-electric locomotives in service. In 1979 one more of the same type was placed in service by Iscor in Newcastle and between April and July 1980 a further eight of these locomotives were delivered to the South African Railways. Manufacturer The Class 34-800 type GT26MC diesel-electric locomotive was designed by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and built for the South African Railways (SAR) and Iscor by General Motors South Africa (GMSA) in Port Elizabeth. The first fifty were delivered between August 1978 and December 1979, numbered in the range from 34-801 to 34-850. In 1979, one more of the same type was placed in service by Iscor. Between April and July 1980, a further eight of these locomotives were delivered to the South African Railways, numbered in the range from 34-851 to . Distinguishing features Of the GM-EMD Class 34 family of locomotives, Classes and locomotives are visually indistinguishable from one another, but they can be distinguished from the Class by the thicker fishbelly-shaped sills on their left sides compared to the straight sill on the left side of the Class . Rebuilding and modification Class 39-000 The Class 39-000 type GT26CU-3 diesel-electric locomotives were to be rebuilt from Class , and locomotives. The project commenced in 2005, using suitable frames from wrecked locomotives. Rebuilding was done at the Transwerk shops in Bloemfontein between 2006 and 2008. It was intended to produce one hundred Class but in spite of the technical success of the project, rebuilding was halted after completing the first five locomotives due to higher than anticipated cost. Two of these five were rebuilt from Class locomotives. It was decided, instead of rebuilding old locomotives, to rather build fifty new Class locomotives from imported and locally produced components. Traction motor upgrade In 2010, a project commenced at the Koedoespoort Transnet Rail Engineering shops to upgrade Class locomotives by, amongst other modifications, replacing the GM-EMD D29B with GM-EMD D31 traction motors, thereby improving their performance to the standard of the Class . The upgraded locomotives could initially be distinguished by the running board mounted handrails which were installed on the right side only during the upgrade. Service South African Railways In SAR, Spoornet and Transnet Freight Rail (TFR)