New South Wales U set

The U sets are a class of electric multiple unit that were operated by the New South Wales Government Railways and its successors between September 1958 and November 1996. They were colloquially nicknamed U-boats.

Development

The New South Wales Government Railways began planning the electrification of the Main Western line over the Blue Mountains from 1949, and with that plan in full swing by the early 1950s, called tenders for 80 cars, with the contract being awarded to Commonwealth Engineering, Granville, in 1954.
Electric traction equipment was supplied by the Metropolitan-Vickers, Manchester and were the final electric trains in New South Wales to have their tractive power supplied from them before they liquidated in 1960. However, before construction began the order was amended with the twenty planned first with buffet cars built as full first class seating cars, after a review of the New South Wales Government Railways conducted by American firm Ebasco Services Incorporated in the mid-1950s who recommended the change.
The U sets were a bit different compared to the suburban single decked trains that were delivered at the same time. They were the first EMUs in NSW to feature stainless-steel construction using technology from the Budd Company, improving train acceleration and giving the trains lower maintenance costs and a longer usable life. Additionally, they were slightly thinner than their suburban counterparts.

Delivery

The U Sets started to be delivered from June 1957, and the first sets made their first public appearances that same year. The first appearance took place on 22 June 1957 when they were hauled by electric locomotive 4625 as part of the first official electric train to travel on the newly electrified Blue Mountains line. Normal services began on 15 September 1958, and all were in service by March 1960.
The cars were numbered as:

Total	Type	Numbers	Notes
40	Motor cars	CF5001–CF5040
20	1st class trailer cars	ETB6021-ETB6040	Originally going to be numbered RT6601-RT6620
20	2nd class trailer cars	TF6001–TF6020

First class travel was abolished on 1 September 1974. This saw the removal of the word "Second" on all carriages and also allowed non-first class passengers to enjoy the benefits of non-smoking carriages for the first time.

In service

The U sets initially entered revenue service on 15 September 1958 this being a Sydney Terminal to Mount Victoria service which was then known as "The Fish" which first served as a nine car set but eventually was increased to ten cars for future services.
In 1961, a U set trailer was borrowed for the Canberra Monaro Express and Goulburn Day Train that was taken by two 1100 class railcars and was sandwiched in-between the two diesel railcar carriages. This was due to the urgency of needing new carriages for the service that they were taking and at the time only had two motor cars. This U set car would be put back into regular service with its counterparts when the rest of the 1100 railcars were built.
The U sets initially operated on the Main Western line as far as Bowenfels which was the limit of the electrified system at the time. This was cut back to Lithgow in 1974. As the electrified network expanded they began to operate to Gosford, Wyong, Newcastle, Port Kembla and Dapto. The U sets were supplemented by V set double deck sets from 1970.
From the mid-1970s many had their original lift-up windows replaced by Beclawat sliding windows.
Between 1973 and 1993, some carriages were damaged in accidents beyond repair and scrapped.
Withdrawals due to accident damage include:

11/1/1973: CF5034 and ETB6033 burnt while stabled at Gosford, scrapped in March 1976
3/1978: CF5038 and TF6018 damaged in a shunting incident at Flemington car sheds, scrapped in August 1981
11/1/1982: CF5016 damaged at Gosford, cut up on site
27/10/1983: CF5002 damaged in a shunting incident at Flemington, scrapped at Chullora
25/12/1989: CF5009 damaged in a shunting mishap at Flemington Maintenance Facility and cut up on site during May 1990
22/7/1993: CF5032 collided with electric locomotives 8627 and 8612 at Lithgow and cut up at Lithgow Maintenance Facility

Official withdrawal of the sets began in 1994 as new Tangara G sets began replacing them. The first Tangara G sets entered service in June 1994 and as they were progressively put into service through to late 1995 the U sets were progressively withdrawn. The final run of the U sets on the Main Western Line for Blue Mountains services was in late February 1996 after which they only performed revenue services on the Northern Line between Sydney and Newcastle.
The very last U Sets were withdrawn in early November 1996. The final revenue service performed by a U set was on Friday afternoon 1 November 1996 – a four car set operating a Newcastle to Sydney service. The cars on the final passenger service were
CF5008 TF6004 TF6020 CF5022 on set U3. The final U set to run under its own power was a Sydney Electric Train Society Farewell tour two days later on Sunday, 3 November, 1996, performed by an eight car set led by CF5005. Many carriages would be scrapped following withdrawal.

Preservation

A number of U Set carriages have been preserved. The Hunter Valley Railway Trust had five cars including class pioneer CF5001. The others were ETB6023, ETB6032, CF5011, and CF5005. All were scrapped in 2013, except CF5001 which was purchased by the Sydney Electric Train Society. Richmond Vale Railway lost cars TF6001, TF6002 and ETB6026 in a bushfire in 2017.
However, they still have second class trailers TF6008, TF6009, TF6011, TF6012, and TF6019 in storage.
The Sydney Electric Train Society owns six carriages. Aside from the aforementioned class leader, they own motor carriages CF5003, CF5021 and CF5022 with trailers TF6010 and ETB6037. On 17 June 2018, cars CF5003 and CF5021 along with locomotives 4615 and 8606 were stored at Lithgow from Hornsby and were transferred by Locomotive 8230. The rest of SETS U set fleet are stored on an unknown property.
Motor carriages CF5004 and CF5024 remain coupled together and stored at Dorrigo Steam Railway and Museum. The Glenreagh Mountain Railway has cars ETB6031, ETB6035, TF6004, TF6005 and TF6014.
The Valley Heights Railway Depot and Museum have first class trailer ETB6039 on static display.
Historic Electric Traction are making efforts to restore five carriages to traffic for charter services. These are CF5015, ETB6029, TF6013, CF5017 and CF5035. This set will be targeted as U2 following from the targeting of heritage suburban single deck set F1.
On 24th November 1998, five carriages were purchased by members of the Sydney Electric Train Society. All five cars are stored at Molong.
The surviving carriages are as follows:

Number	Image	Location	Owner	Status	Notes
CF5001		Unknown	Sydney Electric Train Society	Stored	Missing Traction Motors
CF5003		Lithgow, NSW	Sydney Electric Train Society	Stored	Formally on display at the Junee Roundhouse Museum
CF5004		Dorrigo, NSW	Dorrigo Steam Railway & Museum	Static display	Missing pantograph
CF5006		Molong, NSW	Sydney Electric Train Society	Stored
CF5010		Molong, NSW	Sydney Electric Train Society	Stored
CF5015		Redfern, NSW	Sydney Trains	Under restoration	Part of heritage U set "U2"
CF5017		Redfern, NSW	Sydney Trains	Under restoration	Part of heritage U set "U2"
CF5021		Lithgow, NSW	Sydney Electric Train Society	Stored	Formally on display at the Junee Roundhouse Museum
CF5022		Unknown	Sydney Electric Train Society	Stored
CF5024		Dorrigo, NSW	Dorrigo Steam Railway & Museum	Static display	-
CF5027		Molong, NSW	Sydney Electric Train Society	Stored
CF5035		Redfern, NSW	Sydney Trains	Under restoration	Part of heritage U set "U2"
ETB6029		Redfern, NSW	Sydney Trains	Under restoration	Part of heritage U set "U2"
ETB6031		Dorrigo, NSW	The Glenreagh Mountain Railway	Stored	Formally used as steam hauled stock
ETB6035		Dorrigo, NSW	The Glenreagh Mountain Railway	Stored	Formally used as steam hauled stock
ETB6037		Unknown	Sydney Electric Train Society	Stored
ETB6038		Molong,NSW	Sydney Electric Train Society	Stored	Only car at Molong with original windows
ETB6039		Valley Heights, NSW	Transport Heritage NSW	Static display
TF6004		Dorrigo, NSW	The Glenreagh Mountain Railway	Stored	Formally used as steam hauled stock
TF6005		Dorrigo, NSW	The Glenreagh Mountain Railway	Stored	Formally used as steam hauled stock
TF6006		Molong, NSW	Sydney Electric Train Society	Stored
TF6008		Richmond, NSW	Richmond Vale Railway Museum	Stored
TF6009		Richmond, NSW	Richmond Vale Railway Museum	Stored
TF6010		Unknown	Sydney Electric Train Society	Stored
TF6011		Richmond, NSW	Richmond Vale Railway Museum	Stored
TF6012		Richmond, NSW	Richmond Vale Railway Museum	Stored
TF6013		Redfern, NSW	Sydney Trains	Under restoration	Part of heritage U set "U2"
TF6014		Dorrigo, NSW	The Glenreagh Mountain Railway	Stored	Formally used as steam hauled stock
TF6019		Richmond, NSW	Richmond Vale Railway Museum	Stored

Except the cars mentioned previously, a remaining 31 have been purchased for private use.