Kawasaki Heavy Industries C151 cars

Infobox EMU
name = Kawasaki C151 Cars

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imagesize = 300px
caption = An unrefurbished Kawasaki Heavy Industries C151 train approaching Ang Mo Kio station.
Manufacturer = Kawasaki Heavy Industries (with Nippon Sharyo, Tokyu Car, and Kinki Sharyo)
Operator = SMRT Corporation
Formation = 6 per trainset
Built = 396
LinesServed = North South Line and East West Line
InService = 1987/1988/1989 - Current
Refurbishment = Ongoing, 2006 - 2008
CarLength = 23 m
CarWidth = 3.2 m
CarHeight = 3.7 m
Weight = 35 t
Capacity = 1920 passengers
MaxSpeed = 80 km/h
Gauge = 1,435 mm
Traction = Chopper control
Voltage = 750 V DC 3rd railThe Kawasaki Heavy Industries C151 cars form one of the four types of rolling stock found on Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit system. These are the oldest trains on the system, which have been running since the MRT system's inception in 1987, and are still in operation today. These trains are owned by SMRT Corporation, and run on the North South and East West Lines, both of which are operated by SMRT Corporation. A major overhaul program is being planned for the trains. 66 trainsets consisting of 6 cars each were purchased at a cost of S$581.5 million.

These trains were manufactured from 1986 to 1989 in three batches, headed by Kawasaki Heavy Industries (21 trainsets), collaborating with Nippon Sharyo, Tokyu Car Corp and Kinki Sharyo as a Japanese consortium. No visible difference can be found in any of these batches, being built to agreed specifications. The trains are now undergoing refurbishment and due to be completed by 2008.

Unrefurbished

Interior

The interior of these trains consists mostly of plastic, with glass partitions separating the seating areas from the passenger doors and metal grab poles. Straps line the middle of every car. The colour scheme of the interior are also different. The cab cars (trailer cars at the ends of the train) have an orange colour scheme. The second and fifth motor cars sport a blue interior, while the middle two motor cars use a green colour scheme. These trains have no visual passenger information systems, but have an automatic built-in audio announcement system. There are 9 seats between 2 doors, compared to the 7 in the refurbished C151s.

Miscellaneous

Trainsets 001/002 and 003/004 were built with interiors installed with frames over priority seats for purposes of placing signage, which remained all the way up to the point of refurbishment.

LCD monitors were installed in carriage number 3132 in the late 90s as part of a pilot program for TV Mobile trial runs. They have since been removed.

A four-car unit was further built by Kawasaki to serve its rounds as a money train. It has since been de-commissioned and put out of service.

On November 2006, the doors of three cars (carriage number 3006, 1006 and 2006) have each been installed with a dynamic in-train system displaying station information for testing, similar to the ones in use by Hong Kong MTR, but they have been removed before the end of the year without entering in service. SMRT Corporation will be commencing trial operations for this “Active Route Map Display System” on 1 train later this year, before progressively extending this onto all other SMRT trains from 2009 onwards.

Refurbishment

SMRT Corporation is currently refurbishing the C151 trains and this will be completed by around 2008. On 14 February 2006, Mitsui & Co, RM Transit Technology, Lexbuild and Rotem Company received an order to refurbish all 396 carriages costing S$142.7 million. The renewal works include the refurbishment of seats and other interior fixtures, allocation of space for wheelchair personnel, the upgrading of onboard telecommunications equipment, and the improvement of the internal appearance of the cars.

The exterior of refurbished trains resemble that of C751B cars very closely. The train wall and door panels are all white, as in the C751 cars, and the seats are red in cars 1 and 6, blue in cars 2 and 5, and green in cars 3 and 4. The end of each row of seats has two darker colored seats, which are the priority seats. Seats of the new cars were increased in length from 43cm to 48cm, having four seats from each seven seats to have a dark version of the corresponding colour of each car and the rest of the seats in every seven seats with a lighter one. The number of seats per row now 7 down from previously 9, was a decision which found unpopularity among commuters due to less seating capacity. Extra standing area has also been provided to increase the capacity of the refurbished cars.

The engine components have been retained, having performed better than expected. The wheelchair space is available only on the end of two middle cars nearest to the lifts in above ground stations. LED displays that blink when doors are closing were introduced except that it is positioned in the upper middle section of the door. More speakers and advertisement panels were also introduced. Hand grips were moved to the support bars of the seats on the ceiling and grabpoles are now located near the doors and at both ends of each carriage. The air-conditioning system has been changed to match the system used similarly by the C751Bs. The run number displays of refurbished trains remain unchanged. The announcement system has also been changed to match the ones used in the C751B cars (in mid 2008, the announcement system has been changed again after the new series had been introduced across the network).

SMRT Corporation has also cited reasons of wear and tear of important components over the past two decades of service and water leaks from the air-conditioning system of some trains. The company chose this option in favour over new rolling stock, which would have cost S$792 million. On 5 November 2006, the first refurbished train began revenue services. Refurbishment of other trains will take place at the rate of 21 days per train and as of 15 September 2008, 50 refurbished trains had entered revenue service.

Car numbers

The car numbers of the trains range from x001 to x132, where x depends on the carriage type. Individual cars are assigned a 4 digit serial number by the rail operator SMRT.
* The first digit depends upon whether the car is the first, second or third car from either end of the train, where the first car equals 3, the second equals 1 & the third equals 2.
* The other 3 digits is the train identification number. A full length train of 6 cars have 2 different identification number, one for the first 3 cars, and the same number plus 1, for the other three. The smaller number is always an odd number. For example, a train would consist of 6 cars with serial number 3033, 1033, 2033, 2034, 1034, 3034 respectively.
** Kawasaki Heavy Industries built sets 001 - 020, 051 - 062, and 093 - 102.
** Kinki Sharyo co-built sets 021 - 030, 063 - 072, and 103 - 112
** Nippon Sharyo co-built sets 031 - 040, 073 - 082, and 113 - 122
** Tokyu Car Corp co-built sets 041 - 050, 083 - 092, and 123 - 132

Technical specifications

*Length of train : 138 m (23 m per car)
*Width of car : 3.2 m
*Height of car : 3.7 m
*Weight of car : 35,000 kg (35 tons)
*Car body: Aluminium-alloy double-skinned construction
*Number of passengers seated per train: 372 (Unrefurbished), 294 per train (Refurbished) + 2 Wheelchair spaces
*Number of passengers standing : 1,428 (Unrefurbished), 1,626 per train (Refurbished)
*Maximum passenger load : 1,920 or 320 per car
*Average speed : 45 km per hour
*Maximum speed : 80 km per hour
*Track gauge : 1,435 mm
*Track voltage : 750 volts DC third rail
*Train formation : Two sets of three-car Electric Multiple Units (EMUs) which are permanently coupled, providing for driving cabs at either end of trains and four motorised cars in the middle.

Further reading

* Mass Rapid Transit System : Proceedings of the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit Conference, Singapore 6-9 April, 1987 (1987), Mass Rapid Transit Corporation (MRTC) and Institution of Engineers Singapore (IES), ISBN 9971-84-636-5

External links

* [http://www.khi.co.jp/sharyo/since_final/since_1989.html Manufacturer's Information for C151, Kawasaki Heavy Industries (日本語)] ja icon