Hi everyone!
On Sunday 2nd December 2018, I stepped out to take a ride and do some photography of Tangara car D 6807 on set T 121 which was returned to service in late September 2018, after more than a decade in storage.
What is so interesting about this car I hear you ask? Not very much would have to be my response but here we go...
Outer Suburban Tangara was first launched on Platform 1 at Gosford on 23rd May 1994, when set G 21 leading G 20 broke through a "Central Coast Tangara" banner across the tracks towards the Sydney end of the platform. OD 6807 lead G 21 on the launch day. This car was involved in two collisions as an Outer Suburban car and was subsequently repaired on each occasion.
Following its repair this car became a spare car held in storage at Maintrain while spare G set car OD 6841 did the rounds of filling in for OD 6811, D 6174, D 6208 and D 6184 and then OD 6807.
In January 2001, OD 6807 was called on to fill in for D 6273 while that car was repaired from a collision it had been involved in early that month.
When that car returned to set T 99 on 6th December 2001, OD 6807 became a spare car again at Maintrain. and was never required back in service for almost 17 years!
In recent years the car has been upgraded to keep it up to date with the Tangara fleet, including installation of vigilance control, data loggers, a full refresh to match the Outer Suburban Tangara fleet and even the updated decals and internal network maps. The car was also recoded to drop the "O" prefix in line with the G set to T set refresh programme.
New smaller blue Guard's LED lights are also fitted and these are being rolled out gradually to all of the Tangara fleet.
The car was also towed to and from Hornsby Maintenance Centre with fellow spare Tangara Driving Trailer D 6148 on the back of a four car Tangara to have the new light weight plug doors and associated equipment fitted.
For reasons not yet known, D 6807 and was placed on to set T 121 attached to its G 21 operating partner N 5804, N 5252 from set T 14 and spare Suburban Tangara car, D 6148. T 14 is now made up of D 6808, N 5854 from T 121 attached to N 5251, D 6251.
These changes occurred in and both sets were released from Maintrain for service in August 2018 and D 6841 and D 6252 have now become spare cars.
D 6807 holds the record for being the longest Double Deck car to be held in storage since Double Deck cars came into being in the 1960's in NSW.
These images along with the photo of D 6808 on T 14 were taken at the conclusion of my day out, at Thornleigh station this afternoon.
Information kindly supplied by Michael McGinty.
Thank you for reading
