Sydney’s farewell to the last of the silver-set passenger trains

For a moment, the last passenger service by one of Sydney’s distinctive K-set trains on Friday had been cast into doubt. Unruly behaviour and vandalism during “farewell journeys” this week forced the cancellation of trips a day earlier.

That uncertainty evaporated on Friday when hundreds lined up to board a silver K-set train at Central Station for the final service bound for Olympic Park after a long loop of the city.

In charge of the K-set were Sydney Trains’ longest-serving driver, Vince Vassiliou, and most senior guard Pat Breen, each of whom had chalked up 59 years working on the railways.

Vassiliou, 75, who has been driving K-sets for 44 years, was adamant the trains remain as good as they were when they first entered service in October 1981. “They still glide the same – they haven’t changed,” he said. “[But] we’ve got the newer trains now [and] they’re not needed.”

Like his workmate, Breen, 75, is sad to see the K-sets vanish from Sydney’s suburban rail network, having worked on them since they started carrying passengers in the early 1980s.

“When these trains came out, they were state of the art. We had air-conditioning. We had headlights on them,” he said.

“They were fantastic trains to work on when something went wrong because they were simple. So the driver and I could quickly put our hands together, fix it and just take off again.”

The last K-set service marks the final chapter of Sydney’s stainless-steel suburban train fleets. From the introduction of the first S-set in 1972 to the retirement of the last K-set this week, the silver trains have been a defining feature of the city’s railway for more than half a century.

Breen was also the guard on the last passenger service in Sydney by a stainless-steel S-set train in 2019. Unlike the silver set trains, he does not intend to retire from the railways just yet, although admits he takes it “month by month”.

His daughter has decided to leave nursing and follow him into the railways to become a driver. “Once she comes onto the railways, I can leave this company in her hands, so to speak,” he quipped.

Built between 1981 and 1985 at Broadmeadow in Newcastle, the K-sets brought air-conditioned carriages to commuters in Sydney for the first time. Their retirement this week follows the last service by a V-set train – another workhorse of the rail network – in January.

On board the last passenger service to pull out of Central Station at 10.31am on Friday were 11-year-old Alex McCann and his mum Helena from Engadine in southern Sydney.

“I’ve liked trains all my life. It’s cool going on old trains just to see how people used to get to work many years ago,” said Alex, who is an aspiring train guard.

Sydney Trains chief executive Matt Longland said the K-sets had been the pride of the fleet because they were the first to have air-conditioning in their carriages, and later underwent major upgrades ahead of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

“A screwdriver and a spanner was probably all you needed to fix one of these trains,” he said.

“These days, it’s a laptop, and it’s a technical operation, moving from a mechanical system to a digital system. So it really is the last of its kind on the network.”

Longland said the K-sets had become challenging to manage anti-social behaviour recently due to the absence of onboard security cameras.

Sydney Trains pulled the K-sets from service in June, just before the winter school holidays, due to break-ins into cabs and fears of people climbing onto their exteriors while they were moving.

All K-set trains will be turned into scrap metal, but the state government has retained several stainless-steel type models such as V- and S-set trains for heritage reasons.

Transport Minister John Graham, who was on board the last K-set passenger service, said they were more than a train to many people. “For more than 45 years, the K-set has been there for school runs, first jobs, family visits, major events and countless everyday journeys,” he said.

Like the V-set trains, the K-sets were kept in service for years longer than planned due to delays to the arrival of new passenger trains.

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