New South Wales U set

The U sets are a class of electric multiple unit (EMU) that were operated by the New South Wales Government Railways and its successors between September 1958 and November 1996. They were colloquially nicknamed "U Boats" after the German Submarine of the same name.^[1]

The New South Wales Government Railways began planning the electrification of the Main Western line over the Blue Mountains from 1949, and with that plan in full swing by the early 1950s, called tenders for 80 cars (40 motor, 20 trailer and 20 first with buffet trailer), with the contract being awarded to Commonwealth Engineering, Granville, in 1954.^[2]

Electric traction equipment was supplied by the Metropolitan-Vickers, Manchester and were the final electric trains in New South Wales to have their tractive power supplied from them before they liquidated in 1960.

However, before construction began the order was amended with the twenty planned first with buffet cars built as full first class seating cars, after a review of the New South Wales Government Railways conducted by American firm Ebasco Services Incorporated in the mid-1950s who recommended the change. Had the change not been aproved, these cars were going to be numbered RT6601-RT6620. These carriages would instead become first class carriages, which were given a doorway in the middle of the saloon to create both smoking and non-smoking compartment inside the carriages.^[1][2]

The U sets were a bit different compared to the suburban single decked trains that were delivered at the same time. They were the first EMUs in NSW to feature stainless-steel construction using technology from the Budd Company, improving train acceleration and giving the trains lower maintenance costs and a longer usable life. Additionally, they were slightly thinner than their suburban counterparts.

The U Sets started to be delivered from June 1957, and the first sets made their first public appearances that same year. The first appearance took place on 22 June 1957 when they were hauled by electric locomotive 4625 as part of the first official electric train to travel on the newly electrified Blue Mountains line. Normal services began on 15 September 1958, and all were in service by March 1960.^[1]

The cars were numbered as:

The U sets initially entered revenue service on 15 September 1958 this being a Sydney Terminal to Mount Victoria service which was then known as "The Fish" which first served as a nine car set but eventually was increased to ten cars for future services.^[2]

Most services were made up of 4 car sets but some were 6-8 cars set during peak hours.

In 1961, a U set trailer was borrowed for the Canberra Monaro Express and Goulburn Day Train that was taken by two 1100 class railcars and was sandwiched in-between the two diesel railcar carriages. This was due to the urgency of needing new carriages for the service that they were taking and at the time only had two motor cars. This U set car would be put back into regular service with its counterparts when the 1100 trailer was built.^[3]

The U sets initially operated on the Main Western line as far as Bowenfels which was the limit of the electrified system at the time. This was cut back to Lithgow in 1974. As the electrified network expanded they began to operate to Gosford (23 January 1960), Wyong (April 1982), Newcastle (June 1984), Port Kembla (February 1986) and Dapto (January 1993). The U sets were supplemented by V set double deck sets from 1970.

First class travel was abolished on 1 September 1974. This saw the removal of the word "Second" on all carriages and also allowed non-first class passengers to enjoy the benefits of non-smoking carriages for the first time.^[2] From the mid-1970s many had their original lift-up windows replaced by Beclawat sliding windows. The interiors were originally in brown and green, but some would receive two-tone green interior repaints.

Between 1973 and 1993, some carriages were damaged in accidents beyond repair and scrapped.

Withdrawals due to accident damage include:

• 11/1/1973: CF5034 and ETB6033 burnt while stabled at Gosford, scrapped in March 1976
• 3/1978: CF5038 and TF6018 damaged in a shunting incident at Flemington car sheds, scrapped in August 1981
• 11/1/1982: CF5016 damaged at Gosford, cut up on site
• 27/10/1983: CF5002 damaged in a shunting incident at Flemington, scrapped at Chullora
• 25/12/1989: CF5009 damaged in a shunting mishap at Flemington Maintenance Facility and cut up on site during May 1990
• 22/7/1993: CF5032 collided with electric locomotives 8627 and 8612 at Lithgow and cut up at Lithgow Maintenance Facility

Official withdrawal of the sets began in 1994 as new Tangara G sets began replacing them. The first Tangara G sets entered service in June 1994 and as they were progressively put into service through to late 1995 the U sets were progressively withdrawn. The final run of the U sets on the Main Western Line for Blue Mountains services was in late February 1996 after which they only performed revenue services on the Northern Line between Sydney and Newcastle.

The very last U Sets were withdrawn in early November 1996.^[4] The final revenue service performed by a U set was on Friday afternoon 1 November 1996 – a four car set operating a Newcastle to Sydney service. The cars on the final passenger service were CF5008 TF6004 TF6020 CF5022 on set U3.^[5][6] The final U set to run under its own power was a Sydney Electric Train Society Farewell tour two days later on Sunday, 3 November, 1996, performed by an eight car set led by motor carriage CF5005. Many carriages would be scrapped following withdrawal.

A number of U set carriages have been preserved.^[7] The Hunter Valley Railway Trust had five cars including class pioneer CF5001. The others were ETB6023, ETB6032, CF5011, and CF5005. All were scrapped in 2013, except CF5001 which was purchased by the Sydney Electric Train Society. Richmond Vale Railway lost cars TF6001, TF6002 and ETB6026 in a bushfire in 2017. However, they still have second class trailers TF6008, TF6009, TF6011, TF6012, and TF6019 in storage.^[8]

The Sydney Electric Train Society owns six carriages. Aside from the aforementioned class leader, they own motor carriages CF5003, CF5021 and CF5022 with trailers TF6010 and ETB6037 which were purchased on 9 September 1998 from RailCorp.^[2] These five were stored at Goulburn before they were displaced.^[9]

CF5003 and CF5021 remained at Hornsby until 2009 when they went on display at the Junee Roundhouse Museum before 17 June 2018, when along with locomotives 4615 and 8606 were transferred to Lithgow by Locomotive 8230.^[10] The rest of SETS U set fleet are stored on an unknown property.

Motor carriages CF5004 and CF5024 remain coupled together and stored at the Dorrigo Steam Railway and Museum. The Glenreagh Mountain Railway has cars ETB6031, ETB6035, TF6004, TF6005 and TF6014 which were all used as steam locomotive hauled carriage stock.^[2]

Transport Heritage NSW has six carriages with Valley Heights Railway Depot and Museum having custody of ETB6039 on static display, while Historic Electric Traction are making efforts to restore the other five to traffic for charter services. These cars are CF5015, ETB6029, TF6013, CF5017 and CF5035. This set will be targeted as "U2" bridging the gap between the target numbers of heritage suburban single deck sets F1 and W3.^[11][12][13]

The surviving carriages are as follows:

• Some carriages were modified for usage in the 1999 SCI-FI film The Matrix where they are used by the protagonist Neo to run over his adversary Agent Smith. These carriages still retained their City Rail logo but the power carriage in the set was given lighting reminiscent of the Brown Line (CTA) used in Chicago, Illinois.^[14]
• Trailer TF6011 was featured in numerous scenes of Like Minds (2005).
• A preserved U set carriage appeared in Guy Sebastian's "Standing with You" music video in 2020.

On 24 November 1998, five carriages were purchased by members of the Sydney Electric Train Society. All five cars are stored at Molong. These were motor cars CF5006, CF5010 and CF5027 with trailers TF6006 and ETB6038. The latter is the only carriage to retain its original lift up windows.^[2] 31 other cars including ETB6034 have been purchased for private usage.

• SETS article on the U sets