Circa 1955. This is a scan of an original historical image purchased on an online auction in South Africa – unfortunately the photographer is unknown. Class DE2 No. 1200 (the class leader) pictured at Salisbury in Rhodesia. This locomotive is now preserved and on static display at the Bulawayo Railway Museum. Although not the first class of diesel on the Rhodesian Railways, the DE2 type was the first large main line diesel locomotive in Southern Africa, with the first example entering service in 1955. Two batches of these locomotives were built by English Electric: Nos. 1200 to 1222 by the Dick Kerr Works in Preston, and Nos. 1224 to 1234 by the Vulcan Foundry in Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire (now part of Merseyside), England in 1958. Original image now the property of the SAR Connecta Railway Museum.
