Waking up in Geelong

Most of the time electric trains are pretty mechanically simple – a pantograph on the roof is used to collect electricity from the overhead wires, which is then used to power the train. But what happens if something goes wrong with the overhead, destroying the pantograph? A few weeks ago Metro Trains Melbourne had this very problem, right at the core of the suburban network.

The drama begins

The story starts on the morning of Monday 8 January 2024, when a Siemens train departs Flinders Street Station bound for Sandringham, when it encountered a damaged section of overhead near Richmond station, which caused all four pantographs on the train to be damaged.

Due to the number of nearby tracks and the need the keep trains moving on other lines, the decision was made to keep the defective train there until the last train of the night had departed.

Trains on the Sandringham line being replaced by buses for the day.

Getting to work

That night, Metro Trains could then turn off the overhead power to the adjacent tracks, and send in the overhead crew to inspect the damage wires.

And the damage to the pantographs.

Climbing onto the roof of the train with a ladder.

Cutting away the broken pantographs with an angle grinder.

Then throwing them down from the roof.

So they could be stashed away inside the passenger saloon.

A call for help

With the pantographs gone, an electric train isn’t able to move by itself, so Metro Trains called up V/Line to borrow a diesel locomotive, who were able to send a Y class shunter from Southern Cross to help out.

But there was one gotcha – suburban electric trains have ‘multifunction’ couplers that combine electrical, air brake and mechanical links between trains.

While diesel locomotives have old fashioned knuckle couplers, which require separate air brake hoses to be connected.

But the incompatible couplings aren’t a dealbreaker – each suburban train carries a ‘transition coupler’ that adapts the ‘multifunction’ coupler to a standard knuckle coupler.

Recovery time

With the coupling situation sorted.

Y156 slowly closed in on the disabled Siemens train.

CLUNK!

Time to connect up the transition coupler, along with a set of backup chains.

The braking system of the Siemens train then needed to switched into a fallback air braking mode.

And an emergency brake application tap connected as a backup for that.

Y156 could then set off with the disabled electric train.

Towing it through to a spare track at Flinders Street Station.

Leaving it there until another suburban train could drag it to the workshops for repair.

And then Y156 could head back home to Southern Cross.

Footnote: turns out it’s happened before

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen a Siemens train need to be rescued by a V/Line diesel – back in 2023 a Powercor 22kV power line fell across the railway line at Laverton, causing a power surge on the 1500V DC traction power supply, bringing down the overhead, and cooking two Siemens trains. The next day V/Line locomotive N456 was out sent to assist, recovering the stranded Siemens trains as individual 3-car sets.

And I saw a similar move back in 2019 as well a Siemens train encountered damaged overhead wiring outside Laverton, disabling the train. Again, the pantographs had to be cut away, and diesel locomotives from V/Line sent out to drag the suburban train away.

Liked it? Take a second to support Marcus Wong on Patreon!