C3426

C3426’s historical claim to fame is that it was the leading carriage on the very first electric train to cross the Harbour Bridge at its official opening back in 1932. It stood right alongside Captain De Groot, as he defiantly slashed the ribbon with his sword while on horseback in an incident that has now gone down in Australian folklore.

 

Apart from this, 3426 was very much “just another carriage” until its 1975 overhaul at Elcar. Here, it was fitted with “Beclawat Windows” and re modelled with a large Guards’ compartment. This factor alone made it more desirable as a preservable car, due to its usefulness in smaller four car tour trains.

 

Twelve years later, in 1987 and after having traveled another estimated 600,000 km, Car 3426 was selected to participate in the “Redfern Overhauls” programme. Here, it emerged virtually as new, with interior “Formica” linings and fluorescent lighting. More importantly it also emerged with “brand new” components underneath.

This included wiring, Mitsubishi switchgear, a new “F87” type motor bogie with remanufactured motors and a new “Airmate” pantograph on top. At the time this restoration would easily have been worth well over $200k, or more than half a million dollars in our modern money here in 2017!

 

On 11 January 1992, Car 3426 was one of eight cars included in the very last 8 car “red rattler” to run on the system as part of a special enthusiasts tour only one day after the last “official” single decker had said its goodbyes on Friday 10^th.

 

Upon its return, Car C3426 was one of three cars (also C3104 and C3237) retained by Norm Ronan and John Love at Hornsby Maintenance Centre in conjunction with cooperation from early SETS (Sydney Electric Train Society) members who included Andrew Haviland and Scott Ferris. Norm and John did this without the knowledge of Cityrail Fleet Engineering at the time.

 

The main reason for their selection was the very good operable condition of these cars, all having only undergone overhaul less than five years beforehand. As such, Hornsby refused to allow the three cars to be attached to any scrappers’ train. They shunted them right up the back of No. 3 road (outside) with the excuse that they intended to use them as shunters to replace their old “Bert” and “Ernie”.

At the meeting on 27^th October 1992 at Mortdale, Cityrail Fleet (through Michael Kerry) were finally made aware of the three cars’ existence. It was then decided that C3426 would be included in the official heritage fleet, with a footnote to the fact that this car had featured in the first train across the Harbour Bridge. It was also an excellent example of a recently overhauled car which displayed what the cars looked like in their final years. It had that large guards’ compartment.

 

On 27^th January 1994, C3426 underwent an external repaint at Hornsby in Indian Red. After a general inspection, the car then departed on a trip train for Flemington on 3^rd Feb where it was then attached to 4 car set M1 to run the SETS “Terminating” tour on Saturday 5^th February.

 

The car then returned to Hornsby and underwent more tests, where it was decided to strip its switch groups and give them a “once over” on 10^th April 1994, this being the last significant electrical work the car has ever seen since.

 

C3426 was then next used on another SETS trip on 5^th June 1994, where 4 car set M1 (soon to be renamed F1)  travelled up to Hornsby in order to collect it before conducting the tour to Richmond and then returning it to Hornsby at the end of the day. It was then transferred a few more times around the sheds until eventually the heritage electric cars were aggregated at Redfern.

 

In 1996, F1 was built up to six cars by addition of wooden trailer T4279 for a special anniversary trip celebrating 70 years of electric trains in NSW.

 

In February 1997, the car became one of three other heritage cars to feature in the Alex Proyas’ film “Dark City” in a heavily modified guise travelling to the fictitious “Shell Beach”. As a result of damage to the paintwork during this project, the car underwent another Indian Red repaint in March 1997 courtesy of the film production company.

 

It then operated on one more SETS tour in May 1997, suffering a minor motor failure before being moved to ACDEP for storage for the next 12 months while the “SETS” group underwent a political upheaval. It returned to Flemington for inspection a year later in June 1998 where the problem (commutator flats on the No. 1 Motor) was corrected before it remained stored outdoors for another year. It finally returned to Redfern Carriage works in 1999 under the care of newly formed group HET.

It then remained under cover, having only received a light repaint of the roof by HET in 2000 followed by the whole car (to Tuscan Red, so as to match the rest of Set F1) in 2001. The car then ran in the last six car set ever to run on the system as part of the 75th Anniversary of Electric Trains in March 2001.

 

The yellow buff lines were only added in early 2002, just before the car ran its last trip under the “old” operating agreements which was the “Wedding Train” on 16^th March, 2002. The car then returned back to Redfern, only to emerge from the time capsule a whopping 12 years later on 13^th March, 2015 to become part of the F1 Project.

 

Car C3426 would not exist today, had it not been for the forethought and dedication of the team at Hornsby M/C under Norm Ronan who kept the car away from the scrappers by hiding it away for those critical first two years until the scrapping contract concluded and while the squabbling over which cars were to actually to be preserved, raged on.

 

Thanks Hornsby Maintenance Centre. Your effort paid off.