Sydney Trains K set

The Sydney Trains K sets are a class of electric multiple unit operated by Sydney Trains in New South Wales. The carriages are of stainless steel, double deck construction, and the oldest in the Sydney Trains fleet.

Design & construction
The K sets were the first New South Wales suburban trains to be air conditioned and have headlights.

Two orders were placed for the K sets with all manufactured in 1981–85 by A Goninan & Co, Broadmeadow:


 * Order 1
 * Order 2

The first order featured low mounted upper deck windows, cream and brown interiors, and unpainted fronts. The second order featured higher mounted upper deck windows, yellow and mustard interiors and State Rail Authority candy livery fronts.

The first four trailers were built as driving trailers allowing them to operate in two-car formation, although in practice they were formed into four carriage sets and often ran together as one eight-car set until 1988. These also differed in the subsequent deliveries in being fitted with air conditioning from new, rather than pressure ventilation. To provide a spare, C3550 & T4216 were also built with air conditioning. All ten carriages were fitted with different windows, being sheet glass with small opening hoppers. This was replaced with sheet glass in 1993.

To accommodate the air conditioning and associated equipment, the pantograph had to be shifted to the adjacent trailer car to which the power car is semi-permanently coupled with high voltage cables connecting the two cars. Although some power cars and trailers have been broken up and married with others during periods of heavy maintenance, many original combinations remain.

In service
All the K sets were delivered to either Hornsby or Punchbowl depots. With the trials on the ten experimental carriages judged successful, in 1986 a programme commenced to retrofit air conditioning to the second order. This saw the Beclawat windows replaced with sheet glass. It would be July 1990 before the programme was completed.

In April 1989, K sets commenced operating peak-hour services via the North Shore line to Gosford. This was extended to Wyong in January 1992. In September 1990, all Punchbowl based sets were transferred to Hornsby.

In January 1991, four sets were transferred to Flemington Maintenance Depot to operate peak-hour Illawarra line services to Port Kembla.

To replace U sets on stopping services between Gosford and Newcastle, the sets with driving trailers were remarshaled as two-car sets from October 1996.

Following the delivery of the outer suburban Tangara sets in 1994, the K sets ceased operating the Central Coast and Illawarra services.

During the late 1990s, all were refurbished by A Goninan & Co as part of the CityDecker program. This saw the interiors refurbished with white walls and ceilings, grey floors and blue seats. Power cars received a destination indicator and had yellow applied to the lower half of their fronts. Sliding Beclawat windows on the pressure ventilated cars were replaced with hopper windows and doors painted yellow. The first order was finally retrofitted with air conditioning just prior to the Sydney 2000 Olympics. These cars retained the hopper windows until the late 2000s, but were sealed shut with an adhesive to avoid the loss of air conditioning.

After the introduction of a new timetable in 2009, most K sets were allocated to Hornsby to operate North Shore, Northern & Western line services, operating in 8-car formations. This was due to the noise levels inside trains when operating on the Epping to Chatswood segment. Older S sets lack sufficient sound insulation for passengers, while newer Tangara sets don't have sufficient cooling in the regenerative braking system to deal with extended shuttle runs through the tunnel.

In April 2012, the new Waratah trains began operating on the North Shore, Northern & Western lines with some K sets transferred from Hornsby to Flemington resulting in their resumption of service on the Airport, Inner West & South, Bankstown, Carlingford and Olympic Park lines. K60 to K86 were previously running these lines, based out of Flemington Depot. Prior to 2017, K87-99 continued to run part-time on the T1 North Shore, Northern & Western lines.

In October 2013, the 2 car K Sets (K1-4) were withdrawn from NSW TrainLink Gosford to Newcastle services. The four driving trailers were converted to ordinary trailers at Hornsby and the sets returned to service on Sydney Trains services in March 2014 as K98 and K99. The existing K98 was renumbered K91. The driver cabins in these carriages were stripped of controls however the actual walls were kept intact. The doors to the driver cabin are kept locked and the blinds are kept down. There are no passenger seats where the crew compartment used to be. Also, unlike converted S set cars, the round window on the crew compartment doors were removed and covered with a metal plate.

In July 2017, asbestos was found in the circuit breaker panels, which is inside the driver compartment of the K sets, with all withdrawn for inspection. After the introduction of a new timetable in November 2017 all K sets were transferred to Sector 2.

K sets operate on the following lines:
 * T2 Inner west and Leppington Line: Leppington or Parramatta to City Circle via Granville
 * T3 Bankstown Line: Liverpool or Lidcombe to City Circle via Bankstown
 * T6 Carlingford Line: Clyde to Carlingford
 * T8 Airport and South Line: Macarthur to City Circle via Airport or Sydenham