Kawasaki Heavy Industries & Nippon Sharyo C751B cars

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An SMRT C751B Train at Eunos MRT Station.

Kawasaki Heavy Industries & Nippon Sharyo C751B cars are part of the newest rolling stock used in Singapore's original Mass Rapid Transit network, operating on the North-South Line and the East West Line since early 2000. 21 trainsets of 6 cars each were purchased, and it is the first rolling stock to feature VVVF Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor traction control system. Kawasaki Heavy Industries manufactured 66 cars and Nippon Sharyo manufactured 60 cars respectively with no comparable differences, having built to agreed specifications.

1 Interior
2 Experimental programmes
3 Serial number
4 Technical specifications
5 External links

[edit] Interior

Interior of a C751B motor compartment

Cars are equipped with Liquid Crystal Displays (6 in each car), and almost all featuring LED displays showing station information, commercials and movie trailers. They also come with more grab poles, wider seats, more space near the doors and wheelchair space. The interior and exterior design of the train have been improved, incorporating a much sleeker design.

The most prominent difference between these trains, and trains of the older generation, such as the Kawasaki C151 train before refurbishment, are in terms of its exterior design and colours. The front of the train sports a more slanted and streamlined look, with the run number display in Orange LED Display. The sides of the train, instead of having the conventional white background with a red stripe, consists of a shiny black area covering the middle portion of the train from just above the windows to below the windows, followed by a bold red stripe and a thinner grey stripe at the bottom of the train.

The colour layout on these trains are also different from their earlier counterparts, with a slightly different shade of blue and green used, and pink coloured seats instead of orange on the first and last cars. The floor of all carriages of the train are Dark Greenish-Teal in colour. The rest of the interior of the trains are also mainly in white, instead of having a hue of their respective seat colours as in the earlier trains.

[edit] Experimental programmes

In 2001, when the Changi Airport Line was opened, some of these trains plying the East West Line had luggage racks installed. These luggage racks were installed in every carriage of the train, taking up the space of two seats next to the door at the end of each carriage. The purpose of those racks were to let travellers to the airport, who usually carry a large amount of luggage, to have a space to place their bags easily.

However, these luggage racks were always underutilised. Travellers preferred holding on to their bags where they were standing or sitting, as opposed to placing them on the luggage racks, probably due to convenience and fear of theft. Some commuters were also complaining that these racks took up critically needed space which could be occupied by other passengers which often filled the train. Furthermore, the through service to Changi Airport was cancelled and replaced by a shuttle service, dismishing the need to provide these racks for non-airport bound train services. Therefore, in 2003, trains with the luggage racks had their luggage racks removed, and replaced with an empty standing area, with a dual purpose of serving as a wheelchair area.

[edit] Serial number

Individual cars are given a four-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 three, the second equals one, and the third equals two.
The other three digits is the train identification number. A full length train of six cars have two different identification numbers, one for the first three cars, and the same number plus one, for the other three. The smaller number is always an odd number. So for example, a train would consist of 6 cars with serial numbers, 3333, 1333, 2333, 2334, 1334, 3334 respectively.
The car numbers of the trains range from x311 to x352, where x depends on the carriage type. The reason why the car numbers begin with x311 is because there is a revenue car of the first-generation Kawasaki Heavy Industries C151 Cars, specially dedicated in transporting goods and trolleys of car number 3301.

[edit] 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
Number of passengers seated per train: 300 per train
Number of passengers standing : 1,428 per train
Maximum passenger load : 1,920 or 320 per car
Average speed : 45 km per hour
Maximum service speed : 80 km per hour
Maximum speed : 90 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.
Train consist : 6 car unit (Semi-permanently coupled)
Control system : VVVF IGBT inverter
Primary power : 750V DC supplied from third rail
Dimensions : 23,830 mm (L) 3,200 mm (W) 3,693 mm (H)