Dummy railway track and overhead for training MTR staff

Hong Kong is a busy city and any issue with the rail network that serves it causes massive delays. For this reason heaving well trained staff is critical, but there is one problem – it can’t be safely carried out when trains are running. For this reason a number of short pieces of dummy railway track and overhead have been built across Hong Kong, allow this training to be carried out without danger.

Signals at the Tung Chung end of Sunny Bay station

Kowloon Bay depot

At the MTR Kowloon Bay depot I found this short piece of track.

Training rig at Kowloon Bay depot

It consists of a short piece of disconnected track, a set of points, and dummy overhead wiring erected lower than normal to allow for easy access by staff.

Training rig at Kowloon Bay depot

East Rail at Tai Wai

I found another length of disconnected track and overhead parallel to the East Rail line north of Tai Wai station, just off Man Lai Road.

Training track parallel to the East Rail main line at Tai Wai

Again, overhead wires have been strung above the tracks.

Mockup overhead wires close to ground level for staff training purposes

Along with a set of dummy traction power feeders and circuit breakers.

Mockup overhead wires close to ground level for staff training purposes

And an emergency overhead support post, used to hold up the overhead wires following any damage to the lineside posts.

Emergency overhead support in place on the training track at Tai Wai

East Rail at Ma Liu Shui

Another training facility on the East Rail line, this time north of University station. It consists of two short parallel tracks, linked by two sets of points and a catchpoint, but with no overhead wires.

MTR East Rail training track north of University station

Apparently both these training facilities on the East Rail line are out of use – replaced by trackage more conveniently located elsewhere at Ho Tung Lau Depot.

Light Rail at On Ting

I spotted a curious German language note on this 1996 diagram of the MTR Light Rail network, near the loop marked ‘Yau Oi’:

das gleis stuck in der schleife dient zur schulung bei der oberleitungsmontage. die hohe der oberleitung liegt hier bei etwa 1.5 meter

Which translates to:

The track within in the loop is used for training in the catenary mounting. The high of the catenary here is approximately 1.5 meter

Today the reversing loop and overhead poles is still in place, as is a rectifier station that powers the light rail network, but the wiring itself has been removed.

Rectifier station R3, overhead training facility, and abandoned reversing loop - MTR Light Rail at On Ting

Further reading

And some Google Maps links:

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4 Responses to Dummy railway track and overhead for training MTR staff

  1. Alan says:

    The dummy tracks outside Ma Liu Shui (and very likely the Tai Wai one as well) are actually preserved bits from the pre-electrification era.

  2. A Meow Cat says:

    Hmm, at the Tai Wai facility am I looking at Minecraft-style minecarts on the rails? 🙂

  3. Pingback: Powering the MTR Light Rail network - Checkerboard Hill

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