I found an interesting photo recently – multiple KCR ‘yellow head’ trains lined up in the sheds at the MTR’s Kowloon Bay Depot. So what were they doing there?
Well, Chinese-language Wikipedia has come to the rescue.
After the first batch of trains arrived in Hong Kong on 12 April 1981, they were assembled at the MTR Kowloon Bay Depot, then the assembled trains were transported to the Kowloon Canton Railway Kowloon Depot (now Hung Hom Depot) by trucks.
And over on the “Hong Kong Discuss Forum” (香港討論區) a poster shared some photos of these road movements, reproduced from a 1987 edition of KCRC’s internal publication “Voice of Railways”.
Footnote: an abandoned connection
At the time the Mass Transit Railway was being built, it was proposed that a temporary connection to the Kowloon Canton Railway would be built at Kowloon Tong Station for the transport of trains between the two systems. However the connection was never completed, the only trace being a small stub in the westbound Kwun Tong line tunnel.
Mass Transit Railway Protection Plan, Shek Kip Mei to Kowloon Tong – Drawing MTR/RP/11
How long ago was this photo taken? Was it recent?
Heather Coulson was active photographing infrastructure projects in Hong Kong for 18 years from 1971 to 1988.
https://heathercoulson.com/about/
So I suspect it was be the first batch of trains delivered in 1981.