And the reason why F1 still exists today!
Why does Sydney have a 90 year old electric train that still works?
Well for the answer to that, we have to once again go back in to the past. Not so far this time.
By the late 1970’s, the NSW Railways were in the process of steadily replacing its ageing rolling stock. Over various contracts, new double deckers would roll off the production line as old single deckers met their final call. At the same time the network was growing, with the introduction of the Eastern Suburbs line and electrification to Newcastle and Riverstone and soon with East Hills to Glenfield. So the ratio of “one new for one old” didn’t quite cut it. Two new for one old, was a more realistic ratio.
Overhauls for the “old reds” were stopped in 1978, anticipating that they would be all withdrawn within around 5 years.
Then something happened. The Tangara project.
This ambitious and politically driven project was to develop a completely new concept of suburban train nothing like what had come before. An artistic masterpiece it may have been. But it also quickly became an engineering headache!
At the same time, the existing contracts for delivery of new trains ground to a stop. With no more new carriages being delivered, the Railways had no choice but to start up some sort of overhaul programme again for the old reds once more.
Initially some of them were farmed out to private contractors for overhaul. This process though, proved very expensive. In some cases well over $200k per car, to rebuild what were effectively still 60 year old rolling stock with results that often didn’t really impress.
Months of design work on the Tangara turned into years. With no new rolling stock deliveries coming through to replace the old reds, it became clear that the first Tangara wasn’t going to roll off the production line until mid 1988. There wouldn’t be any new significant carriage deliveries until well into the 1990’s. Meanwhile, the old reds were fast becoming a real maintenance headache. Most of them had not seen an overhaul for over 10 years. Some not within 20.
So to prevent the system from grinding to a complete halt, the Redfern Overhauls programme was commenced in 1986. This programme established a separate publicly owned workshop at Eveleigh (near Redfern) with the specific task of taking selected red set motor cars and giving them a complete rebuild. This would equip them to last another 10 years or so while the Tangara project caught up.
The Redfern Overhaul cars were out shopped very different to the way they went in. To the casual observer they looked and worked just like another manual doors, red rattler carriage. In every way mechanically and electrically compatible with their original 1927 built cousins.
However underneath, they were bursting with 1980’s technology. A set of 50 brand new motor bogies were manufactured with new wheel sets and coil springs, known as the “F87” type. Brand new switchgear from Mitsubishi was installed inside the old switch group boxes underneath. Other components such as master controllers and reversers were completely rebuilt from newly manufactured parts.
The original, sixty year old Metropolitan Vickers 360hp motors were completely broken down, rewound and reassembled with new windings, bearings and brush assemblies to make effectively brand new motors. It was all connected together with new wiring, pulled through the old conduits. Original compressors and motor generators were given similar treatment by local specialist contractors. In some cases (such as under preserved F1 car C3426) compressors were replaced with new “double deck” style units.
Above the floor, the interiors were also given a spruce up with new “Formica” ceilings and walls and modern fluorescent lighting. In most cases the old “lift up” windows were replaced with the modern and more maintenance friendly Beclawat type, similar to those being used on the double deckers. On top, the cars received brand new “airmate” double deck style pantographs.
The result was effectively a fleet of “brand new”, fully restored red rattler motor cars which then filtered back out in to the system, effectively replenishing the fleet as delivery of the 1970’s stainless steel double deck contracts ground to a close.
A total of 49 Red Set motor cars went through the “Redfern Overhaul” process. This prolonged the existence of the red rattlers in the Sydney system. Meanwhile the ambitious Tangara project continued to wrestle with its many engineering challenges and struggled to get up to speed.
The most notable of the “Redfern Overhauls” here in 2017 is of course F1 “Harbour Bridge” car C3426, which went through the workshop in 1987. It should also be noted that another F1 car (C7396) was overhauled by a private contractor as part of the preceding project in the early 1980’s. The result is that while we look at F1 today and clearly identify it as still being a 1920’s vintage “red rattler”, it is in fact much newer underneath!
Red Set F1 car C3426 – a fine example of a “Redfern Overhaul” car
The Redfern Overhauls program, while costing slightly less than the private overhauls one that preceded it, never the less was still very costly, exceeding $20 million over the three years it ran.
So one would have expected this investment of public money to have been “taken advantage of” by the NSW Railways. However! Once again political influence was to play its hand. By January 1992, less than five years after most of these cars had been out shopped in virtually new condition, they were all placed on a one way trip to the scrappers’ yard.
This left the system desperately short of rolling stock. A time when public perception of the system plummeted, spawning chronic overcrowding and infrequent services. It took the following two years before final delivery of the Tangara project enabled it to “catch up again”.
There was one “silver lining” winner left as a result of the Tangara project and the Redfern Overhauls programme that came out of it. Electric Train Heritage. In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, Sydney’s Red Sets found a new and very young crowd of passionate rail fans. Their definition of that “true freedom” experience had been found in the No. 1 end of a two motor Red Set car as it battled the grades from Wynyard and over the Harbour Bridge. They weren’t about to lay down and just let their toys be taken away.
When the red rattlers were forcibly withdrawn in 1992/93, they were arguably in better condition than they had ever been since the pre war period in the 1930s. This meant that there was an excellent array of cars to choose from in good running order when it came time to make the tough choices as to which ones would be preserved and which ones would not.
That’s not to say the process was still easy though. In many ways the “story” of the preservation of Sydney’s red set cars eclipses that of the cars themselves. Full of politics, innuendo, disagreement and passionate effort of the few. Battling constant and chronic oppression from those in power. A time when a game of “cat and mouse” ensued. Enthusiasts and “middle management” on a quest to hide cars from the scrapper Vs the railways’ head offices in a valiant attempt to save them from imminent death.
A story perhaps best saved for another blog.
Unlike most other preservation projects, there was no real need to “restore” Sydney’s Red Set F1 cars, because that had already been “done” just prior to their withdrawal from traffic. Cars C3426 and C7396 today are in virtually the same condition they were in back in 1992 when they were withdrawn from traffic. Due to their low mileage from that point, they can be expected to last decades in heritage service before needing another major overhaul.
Even C3218, the oldest “original” red set car in F1, was still overhauled in 1974 and has a modern, cast “F” type roller bearing motor bogie underneath it. Certainly though, this car continues to receive the lions’ share of attention here in the 21st century. It has had new wheel sets under its No. 1 end and a reconstructed pantograph here in 2017 and more major work is pending.
So next time you see and ride on a Tangara, give her a pat on the chair rest. Say thanks. Thanks for giving us something the rest of the world never had. Sydney’s Vintage Electric Train, Red Set : F1.