DKM V set air con

minifhncc · Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 10:58 am

Hello,

Last week I was on a DKM V set, and it seems that the air con was off, and not blowing any air at all. The carriage I was in was filled with cigarette smell and it was just staying there. Obviously some moron had been smoking, but yesterday again I was on a V set (DKM again), and it seems there was the same problem. No air flow and the carriage stinking of smoke.

I ended up moving to another carriage (DJM) where there was air flow on the air con.

How come on DKM's there is no air flow with the air con? Since the V's have no openable windows doesn't that mean they need to provide ventilation or something?

Also on a side note, on another V set that I took back to Sydney Terminal yesterday (was a DIM), the doors on both sides seemed to be unlocked when the train terminated. Was this just a mistake by the guard, or does this normally happen, and I've just not been noticing it?

Thanks

Comeng · Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 12:29 pm

Doors unlocked on opposite side of the platform is normal. V set doors are designed to unlock when the guard removes the bell plug at a terminating station, they have always been like this.

It allows the staff who fill up the water tanks for the toilets/handbasins to climb back up through the carriages to the platfrom when they have finished doing their job.

As for the Air/Con problem on DKM's, they are generally quite reliable. If you noticed the smell of moke throughout the whole carriage, it most likely is a case of the iar con is working, someone is smoking and cos it is ducted air/con, it will stink the whole carriage out.

Was the carriage dead quiet otherwise when stationary If so, it means the air con units were completely shut down for some reason. When the air/con is operating, it seems quiet, but then when they shut down it is really dead quiet and you can almost hear peoples minds tick over.

In the case of the air/con not working, the smoke would not waft through the carriage as much.

Their is a possibility you may have got on the same DKM car on the second train ride. By way of a suggestion, if you encounter such a problem again, tell the guard on the train who can come and check the status of the air con and attempt to rectify, or deal with the smoking offender!

I hope this helps!

comeng301M · Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 12:40 pm

Sounds like a simlar thing I had on my Frankston train home Monday. Had some paint sniffing feral get on at Richmond. Between Richmond and South Yarra the person was asking everyone near the Driver Cab end of the Siemens "Who is going to Frankston?".

Between South Yarra and Caulfield they sniffing paint on the train infront of a peak hour trainload of passengers.

As the train was express to Cheltenham. The person lit up a smoke in the carriage. Once the train got into Cheltenham serveral passengers got off and alerted the driver. The got onto Radio and alerted Train Control. Police were alerted to meet the train at Mordialloc (3 Station past Cheltenham towards Frankston)

The train arrived at Mordialloc with no police waiting for the train. Because the Signal Pannel at Mordialloc was switched in at the time the Signalman didn't lower Boom Barriers on the down end of Mordialloc station to "Delay the train" untill Police arrived. The train sat at Mordialloc for 10min without any Police/Authorised Officers attending the train. This caused delays to the All stations train right behind the train in the platform as they couldn't put the All Station into the City Platform as they had a Empty Cars go through then another Empty come to shunt into the sidings.

With the train sitting there with the doors wide open. The feral get off and pick up the Rubbish bin on the platform and throws it at the side of the 3rd carraige of the train and exits the station. I wish Connex had a security Hotline to alert the Authoritys.

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FieldShunt74 · Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 1:17 pm

minifhncc · Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 1:54 pm

Yeah, the carriage was dead quiet, and there was no air coming out of the vents. When I went into another carriage, I could hear the air con working, it was much more noisy.

I think with the smoke, someone had smoked there a while back, and since there is no air flow/fresh air being pumped into the carriage, it just remained there. Although there are the vents at the doors of the V set, but I don't think they do much.

Goose · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 8:08 am

Comeng · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 12:28 pm

Fieldshunt and Goose, when the V sets were sent to Gonninan's in the late 1990's /early 2000's, they were fitted out with about half the equipment required for traction interlocking but this was never switched on except for during the testing fphase.

Part of these modifications included a "Door Standing" push button,m which was placed only on the guards console that houses the bell plug.

The idea behind this button was that when the train arrived at it's destination such as a depot, the guard would remove the bell plug and all doors on the train would automatically close in similar vain to the S and K sets.

If it was not desired for all doors to close the guard, when removeing the bell plug, would press the Door Standing push button and all doors would stay open and unlocked until the next command was given by a train crew member.

For reasons unknown, this feature has not been activated and in fact, some buttons have been removed and used elsewhere on other cars that have a need for push buttons to be replaced! DVA and Traction Interlock was activated full time on V sets in mid 2007, and all were active full time by the end of April 2008.

I hope this information helps!!

JatzCrackers · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 10:46 pm

minifhncc · Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 12:03 am

Ahh I see...

One quick last question, I know what a bell plug does, but what does it looks like or actually do on a train? [eg. Complete the circuit?] And do the guards take it with them when they leave?

Thanks alot in advanced.

neety · Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 12:23 pm

neety · Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 12:25 pm

neety · Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 12:31 pm

Speed · Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 1:23 pm

Was there any additional safety features fitted when the "Stand Clear - doors closing" bulletins were installed? I thought that those messages were being installed together with traction-interlocking.

I realise that they could install traction-interlocking on suburbans and just install those bulletins on inter-urbans. Given that V-sets are designed to be quiet within the saloon, I'd have thought that they were better without those bulletins.

1979 · Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 1:25 pm

minifhncc · Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 2:01 pm

Well, I'd doubt that there is anything that the guard can do in terms of fixing the a/c unit, and it would be looked at at the depot (wouldn't it?), so I didn't really tell the guard. Plus I don't like to bother them for little matters like that.