Source: Anon. 1972. $17 m New Carriages". The Daily Telegraph, July 14: 3.
1972 saw the delivery of the first carriages of the famous S set trains that would operate for 47 years on Sydney's rail network.
The new carriages were built to boost capacity on the rail network and allow more passengers to be accomodated on each service.
509 carriages were built by Comeng and later Goninan with the last carriages entering operation in 1980. Some carriages were built with an amended design.
Source: Anon. 1973. "New Carriages for City". The Sydney Morning Herald, November 20: 3.
Initially, driver cars were built with trailer cars added in future orders.
Trains promised to "increase capacity and comfort", yet they were not air-conditioned which caused discomfort either on cold winter days or hot summer days.
Tulloch trailer cars (carriages) were also used to form either four, six or eight car sets until 2004, when they were phased out ensuring that S-set trains comrpised of S set carriages only.
The introduction of trains that were entirely double-decker marked the beginning of the end of single deck trains on the Sydney rail network as they gradually replaced the red rattler trains. By the end of 1993, the entire Sydney rail network comprised of double-decker carriages. The opening of the Sydney Metro (independent of the main rail network) marked the return of single decker trains.
During the 1990's the carriages were renovated as part of the Citydecker program with new windows and the installation of electronic destination boards on the driver cars.
The S Set trains were phased out from service between 2012 and 2019 as the Waratah Trains were introduced across the network (Excluding the T4 line). The last line that operated the S Sets was the T7 Olympic Park line.
No comments:
Post a Comment