The MTR fleet of Metro Cammell EMUs has been conveying passengers on Hong Kong’s East Rail line for over 30 years, having originally been purchased by the Kowloon-Canton Railway in 1982 to serve the newly electrified route. In that time they received a mid-life refurbishment, which resulted in ‘new’ and ‘old’ trains running together.
As originally built, each Metro Cammell EMU was a standalone three-car train with a driving cab at each end, capable of being coupled up into trains of six cars (two EMUs), nine cars (three EMUs) to 12 cars (four EMUs).
Photo by Joseph K.K. Lee / gakei.com
Refurbishment of the trains was completed between 1996 and 1999, and saw the progressive removal of these three-car trains from service and their reformation into fixed 12-car long trains.
On at least one occasion the unusual sight of a single train made up of the two types of carriage ran – this photo by John Shum dated February 1999 shows a original EMU set coupled up to the tail end of a less than 12-car long refurbished train.
HKRail.NET/John Shum, Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0
I’m curious as to why the movement occurred – I’m going to assume that it was carried out without passengers.
Footnote
You can find a further photo of the two trains coupled here.
Lack of shunters maybe? Or maybe there was passengers on board and it was just the KCR’s attempts to keep as many usable train cars as possible on the line to avoid disruption?
Both valid theories – pity we can’t find a time machine to go back and find the answer. (plus take more photos) 😛
I have been travelling onto such trainset with front 6 coaches being the refurbished stock and the last 6 coach was the old stock.
My understanding is that the refurbishment took place every 6 cars.
Thanks for the observation!
That does not look very safe to me – hopefully KCR did something about that open gangway end!
I wonder if the end doors via the cab were for passenger use, or staff only?
I recall from very hazy childhood memories the end doors in the cab were emergency exits. The unrefurbished train compartments at the time had emergency signs pointing towards them. Presumably in an emergency, the trains would not be moving. A similar arrangement is found in older London Underground and current Glasgow Subway trains, where there would be signs warning not to use the door when the train is in motion and it is only for emergency use.
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