There was an article in today's Age about Melbourne trains. It mentioned some problems with the newer Siemens trains, which got me to thinking about the different kinds of trains on the network.

I went on my first train on a visit to Melbourne when I about 12. It was a big silver train with cloth seats covered in graffiti and had green and yellow stripes down the side.

When I moved to Melbourne in 2003, I was surprised they were still in use. They are really noisy, and smell of burned metal.

The article says that these original trains are not supposed to be in use anymore, but there are problems with the brakes in the newer ones, so they had to bring the old ones back.

What was of interest to me was the names and the history of the trains. I discovered that the old smelly silver ones are called Hitachi trains and were first introduced in 1972.

Hitachi "silver" train leaving Gardenvale station

The next trains were Comeng trains. They were bought to replace the last wooden trains in 1981. They are quite similar to the ones in Adelaide.

After the network was privatised in 1999, it was broken up into Hillside (which became Connex) and Bayside (which became M>Train).

Connex bought 58 Alstom X'Trapolis trains from France. They're the ones with the small face plate and two headlights on each side.

M>Train bought 72 Siemens MOMO trains. They have long face plates and a single head light on each side. They were rebranded as Connex trains in 2004 when Connex bought out M>Train.

39° - Thankfully this Siemens train is air-conditioned!

I live on the Sandringham line, which used to be run by M>Train, which explains why I've been seeing the Hitachi trains again lately.

There's a heap more information about the Melbourne network here and here but I'm just glad I finally know what to call the old trains!