Hi All,

The other day I was waiting for a train at Chatswood when I saw a K set roll in on another platform. I noticed that some of the carriages were power cars with the cabs shut off or removed in a way similar to that of the old ComEng S set power cars. I'm just wondering why this happened? How did they end up with more power cars than there were carriages to go with? Have some been scrapped?

To be fair, the ex-driving trailers have pantographs and they look like power cars to people who don't know the technical details of K sets.

In fact, one of the first K set driving trailers was displayed at the Sydney Easter show with a caption saying it was a power car. At least there you could easily check underneath to see if it had motors, but it had a D40xx number anyway.

What are the two sets numbered?

The two car sets were K1 to K4.

I'd guess K1 and K2 but there might be other influences at work.

M636C

I believe its K98/K99

... Wow. Did I ask at a bad time?

Thanks for the answer though!

What you saw were Trailer Cars which used to have (6 months ago) a full set of guards and drivers controls, so that they could operate as a 2 car K Set despite only having 1 motor car. Seeing as they are no longer needed/used on the Newcastle Line, they have been converted to just trailer cars, and the 4 x 2 car K-Sets are now configured as 2 x 4 car K Sets.

Was there any particular maintenance reason they needed the parts from the cabs or was their removal just shear bloody mindedness to ensure if any one gets the idea of running 2 car sets again, the idea will be quickly nixed when the quote for restoring those cabs comes in.

Was there any particular maintenance reason they needed the parts from the cabs or was their removal just shear bloody mindedness to ensure if any one gets the idea of running 2 car sets again, the idea will be quickly nixed when the quote for restoring those cabs comes in.

Nope. You asked, and hopefully we've answered as informatively as possible and attempted to avoid any further confusion or mistaken identity.

All appears cool to me.

Drivers cabs are still there, just the rest of the area has been modded to accommodate passengers. It wouldn't be too hard a task to reinstate the cab, though I see no reason to, apart from aesthetic reasons in preservation.