Never before seen in Auckland: A breeding pair of EMUs
Thing One on the left and Thing Two on the right:
full set:
… and from behind:
…with the depot building
Very nice and a credit to the specifying team in NZ and all the people at CAF both here and back at the factory in Beasain:
Above: The factory nestled in the beautiful Basque countryside, and below the town just outside the gates
… more soon.
All photographs ©Patrick Reynolds 2013
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A breeding pair! It’d be cute if they could make little baby trains… Or trams!
Or MOAs? Haven’t yet figured out what this could stand for.
Nice one – oops two, Patrick
Another two are already in transit too, should be here soon.
And in a few years time young kids will look at you and ask “haven’t the trains always been like this” to which you will reply,
Well………………………………….
Maybe we can preserve a DMU at MOTAT, and then kids can marvel at the noise and the smell when it gets revved up.
Well I have a more generalised theory about this which I’m sure many won’t be able to see but:
I believe in a surprisingly near time our current fume filled streets will seem such a weird and distant thing, exactly like we might consider the horse-shit and coal smoke streets of the 19th C. Kids will marvel at old movies and our tales of these incredibly unpleasant places and indeed need to go to MOTAT to wonder at the horrible kit we had.
Central London and Paris are getting so close to being completely private car free all it will take is for the taxis, buses, and delivery vehicles to go electric and those environments will be completely transformed. Overrun with bloody hipsters on bicycles of course [and everyone else]; Transit, walking, cycling and e-vehicles.
It is already happening; when I lived in London in the 80s at the end of the day if you blew your nose what came out was black; that has already gone with the improvement in vehicle emissions and the reduction in their number.
Only question is how long it takes us to work out how much better it will be when we stop fighting this inevitability and swim with the tide for once…..
Right now, there seems to be a horrible doubling-down by the motorway faction. I can only hope that it is a “it’s always darkest just before the dawn” moment. But the last couple months scare me.
“And in a few years time young kids will look at you and ask “haven’t the trains always been like this”
But of course the warning sign at the Asquith Avenue level crossing will STILL show a steam locomotive even then…
Steam trains on signs gets me every time as well!
AT also said at the board meeting that the trains are only about 1km/h off setting the NZ record for rail speed and they think they will break that soon with a few tweaks to the trains.
Is that because they’re the fastest trains in NZ or because they’re the only ones allowed to do that speed?
Because they’ll be the fastest in NZ, won’t run that fast in service though
I think officially the speed record is still the 125.5 km/h set by the vulcan railcar in the 1940s
I had heard they got a Matangi up to 121 on the P’Pram straight during testing,
But given the much higher power/weight ratio of the new Auckland EMUs it should not be too hard to get them up to that sort of speed, providing there is enough straight track
At about 0100hrs on Thursday 11th October 1990, I was in a Silver Fern railcar travelling overnight from Palmerston North to Auckland (the Northerner). Going into the 9km straight at Tangiwai, the LE open the throttle fully, and shortly after, we crossed the bridge at Tangiwai in about 1.5 seconds, meaning we were travelling at approximately 150km/h. Probably the best cabride I’ve ever had. Had lengthy stops along the way, as we kept getting well ahead of schedule.
I’m surprised some of the existing diesel fleet couldn’t get up to those kind of speeds on a long straight stretch. What is the max speed for the matangis?
In theory 120Km/h, but I understand the traction power is programmed to cut out above 110Km/h
Are they the fastest in NZ? The Silver Ferns top out at about 140km/h on level track.
Have they ever been officially measured, or are you going off counting the time to cross a bridge? As with all speed records getting the official record requires a high level of scrutiny.
I’m going to back Geoff on this one. Many years ago when they were first testing “black box” recorders on rail in NZ, secret testing revealed that Silver Fern drivers were regularly driving “north” of 130 km/ph, with the highest speed clocked by the equipment being 149 km/ph. Unfortunately this was never officially disclosed, quite possibly to protect the driver’s job!
Kind of irrelevant discussion anyway, as the speed of the train is but one factor determining the capability of a network to function at a set speed. It would be nice if an electrified Papakura – Pukekohe track is in future maintained to a level that may allow scheduled 120 km/ph operations with Auckland EMUs, both summer and winter. Now that would be something to brag about 🙂
TAIC report # 93-129, investigating a collision between the Kaimai Express and a vehicle near Ruakura, mentions that the black box recorded the speed of the railcar at 130km/h as it approached the crossing. I would regard a black box recording as “official”.
But it’s well established that they’ll do 140km/h on level track. Get a long and straight downhill grade, as I did at Tangiwai, and you get up around 150km/h fairly easily. I suspect they have reached that speed many times in their lives, at least before that kind of driving became more of a no-no than it was back then.
So the EMU’s have a way to go, to match the ferns.
All good, just sounded like you were going of counting seconds between landmarks.
It would be a great selling point, the fact that the fastest land legal vehicle in Nz is going to be a train (as it is everywhere)
Spectacular photos, Mr Reynolds!
Awesome photos too. Do the pantographs retract when not in use? Cant see on the photo. I notice here in syd they’re kept up at all times. Minor point but just curious.
Yep they retract them, at least in the depot
If the activation key is removed the EMU will automatically revert to stabled mode after 10 minutes which includes lowering the pantograph, closing doors etc. This time limit is under review and will more than likely be different buy the time they enter service.
They had one zipping up and down between Wiri and Otahuhu all last weekend. Looked really good.
Fast Track those Emu’s across the Hauraki Plains to their Old cage at Thames Foundary….
Went past the old silver fern carriages today….gee one can only weep.
Anyone know if the new trains have one or two pantographs?
If only one hopefully there will be a really excellent maintenance regime in both for the pantograph contact strip and the overhead contact wire.. having a second pantograph is standard practice in most countries so that in the event of a problem with one, the train driver can switch to the alternate. Trains can work with only one of course, though the consequences of a failure are obviously worse because the train is stuck. In which case hopefully there’s an operating procedure whereby the following train can come along and hook up and the two units run along connected. Is that perhaps on reason why the couplers are so prominent?
There’s one pantograph per three-car unit. I don’t know if they use both pantographs if two units are coupled together, though.
Thanks Steve.. and a good question too.
They will have to – unless one unit is failed.
Assume they will begin testing in a six car set soon.