Comeng

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The term 'Comeng' originally defined the company 'COMmonwealth ENGineering' which, among others things, manufactured Melbourne's A, B and Z tram variants, some Sydney R, L & S variant double-decker trains and Brisbane buses, although now is popularly used to define Melbourne's Comeng Trains.

A Connex-refurbished Comeng in Connex livery

EDI refurbished Comeng

The Comeng train is a type of electric train that operates on the suburban railway network of Melbourne, Australia. 570 carriages (380 M cars and 190 T cars) were introduced into VicRail in 1981 to replace wooden rollingstock, and built by Comeng (Commonwealth Engineering). They also introduced air-conditiong to the passenger carriages (the older Hitachi trains having had driver air-conditioning only) [link]. The design of Melbourne's Comeng trains is closely related to that of TransAdelaide's diesel-electric 3000 class railcars.

The Comeng trains are single deck and operate as M-T-M sets (two are motor-driven carriages at both ends of a "trailer" carriage). These sets are usually coupled to form a six-carriage train (M-T-M-M-T-M), though short or shuttle services only require a three-carriage train.

Comeng trains have power operated doors that must be pulled open by hand but close automatically. This feature makes it more difficult for frail or disabled people to open the train doors. The newer X'trapolis and Siemens trains have doors with push button door opening systems, which alleviates this problem.

Contents

0.1 Refurbishment
0.2 Retired trains

1 Clients
2 External links

Refurbishment

From 2000 to 2003, two of Melbourne's train operators at the time, Connex and the now defunct M>Train introduced a refurbishment program for the trains operating on their lines. Trains operated by Connex were refurbished by Alstom while trains on M>Train were refurbished by EDI-Rail.

These trains all had operator-specific livery applied. Later, Connex had the livery of former M>Train rollingstock replaced with their own, matching the livery of trains originally running through Connex.

The Alstom and EDI-Rail sets actually have a few differences, including:

A different interior arrangement - The interior LED displays on the M>Trains were in the middle, as opposed to being at both ends of the carriage on Connex sets.
Different upholstery - Seats in M>Trains were blue, while Connex opted for rainbow-textured seats.
Different seat arrangement - Connex implied a different seating layout to M>Train.
Different exterior front panels - Information on the train's terminus was displayed on top of the window on M>Train fleets, while Connex trains had them displaying on the left window (in the pre-refurbishment style).

Both sets had CCTV and emergency assistance panels added as part of the refurbishment program.

Retired trains

Comeng 500M, burnt out

A damaged Comeng train can be seen in a yard close to the North Williamstown station side of the Newport railway workshops. The 315M, 388M and 1165T carriages were scrapped - the 315M was burnt at Hurstbridge, the 388M hit by V/Line locomotive N457 and the 1165T burnt at Northcote.

Clients

External links

Types of suburban trains in Melbourne
Tait \| Swing Door \| Harris \| Hitachi \| Comeng \| X'Trapolis \| Siemens 4D double deck \| MTH carriages, hauled by an A-class locomotive
Railways in Melbourne

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