[Piermaster]

My photos from Singapore:

1. Singapore Mass Rapid Transit - a standard gauge 750v dc 3rd rail system operating over 85km with 2 lines, East-West Line between Boon Lay and Psir Ris or Changi Airport and North-South Line from Marina Bay to Jurong East running in an inverted 'U' to the north of the island connecting with the East-West Line at Jurong East, Raffles Place and City Hall.

Southbound North-South Train at Choa Chu Kang in 2005.

North-South train on left departing and city-bound East-West train approaching Jurong East. Train on left is refurbished original 1988 Kawasaki stock and train on right is Kawasaki-Nippon Sharyo stock dating from 2000/2.

Interior of refurbished Kawasaki SMRT train with full-width open gangways between cars and 25% of seating removed as an (unpopular) experiment.

2. Bukit Panjang Light Rapid Transit - An 8km long automated guided vehicle system built in 1996 to serve the new developments around Bukit Panjang and operated by SMRT, the CX-100 cars are almost identical to those seen in airport transits including Gatwick and Stansted! The system's depot is above a shopping mall at Ten Mile Junction!

Choa Chu Kang terminus

Passing another BPLRT car near South View.

Bukit Panjang Junction.

Emergency Crossovers near Senja, the only ground-level section of the system!

Typical view of the Bukit Panjang Loop.

3. North East Line (NEL) - Opened in 2003 and runs 20kms totally underground using Alsthom 1500v dc overhead driverless EMUs and operated by SBS Transit (formerly Singapore Bus Services) connecting with 2 LRT systems at Sengkang and Punggol, both operated with Mitsubishi 'Crystal Mover' guided vehicles and operated by SBS Transit.

NEL Train in Sengkang Depot Workshop

Each track of the 2-road workshop has a Windhoff remote-control road-rail tractor to move trains in and out of these tracks.

6-car Alsthom unit in Examination Bays at Sengkang Depot.

Yours truly propping up a Mitsubishi Crystal Mover LRT car at Punggol!

4. Changi Airport Skytrain
Singapore Changi Airport expanded in 2007/8 to include a third terminal and a new guided vehicle system was constructed conecting all three terminals both airside and public side, hence the duplication of the lines when you study the airport map!

View towards Terminal 1, from left to right: Terminal 3 to Terminal 1 airside train. two depot tracks, Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 public side train. All stock are Mitsubishi Crystal Mover vehicles and although maintained on-site, SBS Transit will undertake heavy overhauls on them at Sengkang Depot.

Hope this interests you!

Cheers,

Dave

 

[Doug]

Interesting. Many thanks for sharing the photos and writing up the info.

Reminds me of the Paris Metro that runs on rubber tyres on a concrete roadbed.

Can we expect a model sometime?

 

[neil_s_wood]

Very interesting Dave. Thanks for showing the pictures.

 

[pedromorgan]

very interesting. thanks for posting them.

was it an arranged tour or did you go on your own?

i normaly try and ask at least 1 question when someone posts a thread like this but you have answered evrything i can think of.

thanks once again

Peter

 

[Piermaster]

In answer to your questions:

Doug: Highly unlikely to be a model, but I do have a limited edition HO model of a North East Line Alstom driving car, these were available in Singapore for as little as £15 4 years ago and fetched up to £100 over here.

Peter: I do this run every two to four years with my wife to see her family in the Philippines and then stay with her sister and family in Singapore. I have established many friends there and this time met an old school friend from Southend-on-Sea now living in Singapore 21 years; an ex LT/LUL colleague now working for the Land Transportation Authority and my regular SMRT/NEL contact who is Chinese, but studied at Imperial College, London and I have known for 15 years.

Just to keep you drooling, a few more for you:

NEL trains on both Examination Bays in Sengkang Depot in 2005

Interior of NEL Train - with a 1920 passenger capacity, this makes them the largest underground trains in the world.

Bukit Panjang LRT Adtranz CX-100 car at Bukit Panjang in 2005

At Changi Airport Skytrain Terminal 2 (Public Side) station looking towards the complex junction arrangements for Terminals 1 and 3.

A slightly brighter day at Jurong East when a North-South Line train departs for Marina Bay via Woodlands.

Dave

 

[Doddsy]

Changi Airport has 'Grown up since I was last there. Aircraft used to taxi across the road to park once they had landed. The international airport was at Paya leba (SP).

Mind you! That was in 1971!

My! How time flies.

Cheers

Ian

 

[7113]

Excellent photos Dave and plenty of data for anyone modelling modern transit systems.

Regards

 

[Brian Considine]

Nice set of pics Dave - thanks for posting them.

 

[John Webb]

Very interesting - just one query - on the Mass Transit system is the 3rd rail side or underneath contact?

Regards,
John Webb

 

[FUNGUS]

Very interesting Dave!
Steve

 

[Piermaster]

QUOTE (John Webb @ 23 Jan 2009, 10:20) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Very interesting - just one query - on the Mass Transit system is the 3rd rail side or underneath contact?

Regards,
John Webb

Hi John,

The SMRT system uses 750v dc underside contact with insulated top surface for three main reasons: Staff Safety; reducing shorting caused by waste water dripping from on-train air conditioning system; Singapore can have up to 17 lightning strikes per day in any one location (although being tropical we don't see that many of them).

Another couple of pics for you and the forum:

North East Line Control Room in 2005 (since slightly expanded)

Refurbished Kawasaki City-bound SMRT train approaching Jurong East. A good photographic site until 2015/2020 when the Land Transport Authority proposes to fit platform screen doors on major open-section stations.

Dave

 

[John Webb]

Thanks - a similar question re the BPLRT - I assume the centre guide rail also forms two "3rd" rails back-to-back to deliver power? Or are the cars powered independently? And there seems to be a complete absence of lineside signalling as well - is it all done by driver display or what?

Regards,
John

 

[Piermaster]

QUOTE (John Webb @ 23 Jan 2009, 17:51) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Thanks - a similar question re the BPLRT - I assume the centre guide rail also forms two "3rd" rails back-to-back to deliver power? Or are the cars powered independently? And there seems to be a complete absence of lineside signalling as well - is it all done by driver display or what?

Regards,
John

The centre guide beam sits in a trough and cars are guided by 8 vertical axles each with a horizontal wheel for guidance. The current collection is by a 'Christmas Tree' (SMRT Official Term) mounted on top of the beam with positive and negative contact bars back-to-back. There is no signalling and no drivers as the whole system is computer controlled from the Operations and Control Centre at Ten Mile Junction. The computer has two back-ups, one at SMRT's HQ in North Bridge Road/Victoria Street and the other is in Pittsburgh, USA! During a trial computer 'crash', the entire system was operated from USA!!! Bit like you wanting to play with someone else's layout over the internet!!!

There are two similiar systems in the UK - Gatwick Airport, North South Terminal Shuttle (You do not need an air ticket to use) and Stansted Airside shuttle. Both use the same vehicles as BPLRT, the same driving and guidance systems, and the Gatwick one can be photographed, but not the Stansted one.

Hope this helps,

Dave

 

[John Webb]

Thanks for the information, just that I'm curious and although I have no intention of modelling such a subject I wondered how one could get power to such a model, so wanted to know how the prototype did it.

Regards,
John

 

[Piermaster]

And a few non-railway pics for you all:

Christmas Morning at Heathrow Terminal 3, about to board this Singapore Airlines A380. It was so comfortable in Economy and extremely quiet - even on take-off.

Our family home in the Philippines - 110 miles north of Manila, 6 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 2 kitchens, earthquake resistant and built in 2002 for ourselves and the in-laws - all for £35,000!!!

The view from our bedroom balcony - the road is the MacArthur Highway going due north from Manila.

The very centre of Singapore - The Padang with Singapore Cricket Club on the left and the Central Business District behind. This view changes each time I go there.

Kranji War Cemetery - contains over 7,700 graves of British, Australian, Dutch, Indian, Ghurka, Malay, Chinese and Singaporean servicemen and civilians who died in both World Wars and the Malay and Borneo Campaigns in the 1960s. Barbara and I went there to pay respects to our family members buried there.

Raffles, where else? Great to visit it, but sadly restaurant standards have fallen considerably in the past 4 years, read my comments as DaveJC in http://www.tripadvisor.com

And one last MRT shot:

A 1988 Kawasaki SMRT train approaching Choa Chu Kang northbound back in January 2005.

Dave

 

[Brian Considine]

Thanks for the additional pictures Dave - the A380 is a seriously large aeroplane.

 

[7113]

Is the "Jeepney" yours as well Dave?

Regards

 

[Piermaster]

QUOTE (BRITHO @ 2 Feb 2009, 16:47) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Is the "Jeepney" yours as well Dave?

Regards

Yes it is ours, bought new in 1990, but currently off the road following a town-centre meeting with a lorry, no injuries, but it will cost a lot (by Philippine standards) to repair, we might well replace it with a people carrier (a.k.a Van in the Philippines).

Dave

 

[BobB]

I hope Microsoft didn't write the software !