Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK has a series titled ‘香港衝線’ (‘HK – Crossing the Finish Line’) and the 13 October 2014 edition features the maintenance crews who come out after dark to keep the MTR running.
Unfortunately everything is in Cantonese, with no subtitles, but here is a quick synopsis.
- 00:35 stock train footage
- 01:08 opening the doors for the first train
- 02:03 lowering the station doors at closing time
- 02:56 crew board a works train at Shau Kei Wan station and head off into the tunnels
- 04:19 moving cranes into place to lower new rails
- 04:31 uncoupling the locomotive from the works train
- 04:35 at work in the tunnel replacing a worn length of rail
- 06:30 onto the next job
- 06:48 preparing new rail in the workshops
- 07:48 flashbutt welding lengths of rail
- 08:45 moving welded rail into the yard and loading it onto trains
- 09:35 headed out for another job, this time at Central
- 09:50 walking down to the work site, and replacing more rail
- 11:20 delays to passengers on the MTR
- 11:47 emergency works to the overhead on the MTR East Rail line
- 12:00 driving through the train wash in the depot
- 12:23 taking a train over the inspection pit in the depot, and looking over the interior, roof and undercarriage
- 15:10 setting up a mobile crane outside Sha Tin Wai station
- 16:25 looking over platform extension works on the Ma On Shan line
- 17:05 parked taxi delays the crane lift, so the police are called
- 19:10 tow truck arrives to take away the taxi
- 19:30 mobile crane removes a smaller mobile crane from the Sha Tin Wai worksite
- 21:00 credits
