Build: Sydney Trains Oscar

PavløvA_YT

Above: Look what X-12 dragged in!

Today saw the construction of a train from my home city of Sydney, Australia.

This is a Sydney Trains Oscar, repainted into orange, as the new suburban loop ones have been repainted like this.

These trains started life as intercity trains, running up to Newcastle, down to Wollongong and a short way to Kiama.

This would last for about 19 years, from 2006-2025, when some Oscars were repainted from CityRail yellow into TFNSW Orange (Tangerine)

Like all trains on the Sydney RER, these trains are double deck, they initially ran in 4-car trains, and even sometimes 8-car sets (Double Oscars), although a 12-car consist ran once.

Oscars, unlike regular Sydney RER stock, feature toilets in one motor car. They are arranged as OD-ON-ONL-OD (Driving Trailer-Motor-Motor with Lavatory-Driving Trailer)

Power comes from 8 270hp Mitsubishi 3-phase AC traction motors with 2-level Mitsubishi IGBT-VVVF traction inverters, that give Oscars a very distinct screaming sound upon departure (arguably one of the better sounding Sydney trains)

 

Recently, these trains were refurbished, and removed from intercity lines; they will spend the last 25-35 years of their life on exclusively suburban running, with eventually full replacement on intercity services by D Sets.

Oh, and yes, there is a protogen driving this... 

This is what an orange one looks like in real life, by the way. Note, however, that there are multiple variants of the orange livery, H48 does not have orange front (driver/guard) doors, some trains have a blue destination board, and some have a Transport For NSW logo on the side of the car (in between top and bottom windows), but some lack it.

This is what they original livery was:

Also: here is a photo of what the trains were initially going to look like, thank heavens they changed the design: