The South African Railways Class of 1976 is a diesel-electric locomotive. Between March 1976 and May 1980, the South African Railways placed one hundred Class General Electric type U15C diesel-electric locomotives in branch line service. Manufacturer The Class type GE U15C diesel-electric locomotive was designed by General Electric (GE) and built for the South African Railways (SAR) by the South African General Electric-Dorman Long Locomotive Group (SA , later Dorbyl). The first batch of fifty locomotives was delivered between March and December 1976, numbered in the range from 35-401 to 35-450. These were followed by a second batch of fifty between October 1978 and May 1980, numbered in the range from to 35-500. Distinguishing features The locomotive has interlinked bogies, hence the "Co+Co" wheel arrangement classification. The linkage is usually hidden from view by the saddle-shaped fuel tank. With the two GE U15C Class 35 models, the Class can be distinguished from the Class by the length of the humps on their long hoods, the Class having a hump that is more than twice as long as that of the Class . An externally visible modification which was done during major overhauls is the addition of a saddle hood astride the long hump of the Class . By 2013 this modification had been done on a large number of long-humped Class units, but no similar modification was done on any short-humped Class . Service South African Railways The Class 35 family is South Africa's standard branch line diesel-electric locomotive. The GE Class was designed to operate on light rail and they work on most branch lines in the central, western, southern and southeastern parts of the country. In the Western Cape, they work out of Bellville Depot in Cape Town on the branch lines to Bitterfontein, Saldanha and Caledon, and out of Worcester to George. Since the Ceres branch was reopened during 2012 in terms of an agreement between the Ceres Rail Company and Transnet, they also work fruit container trains in that line during the fruit season. NLPI Ltd. NLPI Limited, abbreviated from New Limpopo Projects Investments, is a Mauritius-registered company which specialises in private sector investments, using the build-operate-transfer (BOT) concept. It had three connected railway operations in Zimbabwe and Zambia that formed a rail link between South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Beitbridge Bulawayo Railway (BBR) was commissioned on 1 September 1999 and operates