Offloading Subway Coaches

The subway cars are delivered

Wisarut reports: The first subway rolling stock will came out of Siemens factory in Austria (with the part preassembled from Siemens factories in Germany and England) on July 18, 2003. Thairath (May 2, 2003) reported that the first set of rolling stock from Siemens AG (Austria office) will be delivered by air in this September to be displayed at the APEC summit. MRTA officials inform 2Bangkok.com that there is only one plane in the world (a Russian Tupolov) that is in service for a delivery of this size and it has to be specially scheduled for this delivery.

Rollout of first metro train for the Bangkok Blue Line - July 21, 2003
From the Siemens website. A photo is here.

Bangkok subway cars being loaded on a plane - October 11, 2003
Thanks to Gerald for finding these awesome photos of our first subway car being loaded into a massive Antonov. Subway/Antonov I & Subway/Antonov II

Subway car arrival today - translated and summarized from Matichon Daily, October 15, 2003
8:45 - Antonov AN124-100 lands at Donmuang AFB and heads toward RTAF HQ building. Two other Antonov planes will park in parallel with the third plane. There will be video about the project and King Chulalongkorn and railway affairs.
9:00 - Officials explain the rolling stock assembly, the capacity of the Antonov planes, etc.
9:30 - Premier Thaksin and Minister Suriya speaks. A marching band plays.

Subway cars arrive in Bangkok - October 31, 2003
Photos of the offloading of the subway cars from an Antonov 124 airplane

First train arrives by air from Austria - Bangkok Post, October 16, 2003
The first train built for Bangkok's new subway network was handed over yesterday, flown in from Austria by a giant cargo lifter. ...BMCL has ordered 19 three-carriage trains. The production period was shortened from 30 to 27 months as required by the government. This would be a world record for fast train production, according to Hans-Dieter Bott, vice-president of Siemens Transportation Systems Co. The other 18 trains will be delivered by sea by March next year.

Bangkok subway car on display - November 2, 2003
The first Bangkok subway car on display at the "Life and Living 2003" exhibition at the Impact Convention Center, Muangthong Thani.

More subway cars arrive - translated and summarized from Matichon Daily, December 20, 2003
The second and third set of subway cars have reached pier 5A of Laem Chabang Deep Sea Port at 3pm on December 19, 2003. MRTA will test the braking system, air conditioning, acceleration/deceleration, etc. inside the tunnel at the MRTA depot before the test run on April 13, 2004.

Where to see the subway cars - January 19, 2004
Subway cars are often stored in the open at the MRTA Depot. They can be seen by taking Thiam Ruam Mit Road to where it merges into the road (unnamed?) that circles the subway depot.

Delivery of the subway cars
Press release about the subway car delivery: Bangkok, Thailand – October 30, 2003 – The Freight Co Ltd, a Bangkok based freight forwarding company specializing in international freight and logistics was entrusted with the customs clearance and delivery of the first complete subway train for the new Bangkok Subway due to open later next year. The subway train consisting of 3 coaches was flown from Austria to Thailand on 3 chartered AN-124-100.
The first coach was uplifted in Vienna on October 9th and the last coach arrived on October 15th for the official welcoming ceremony at Bangkok Donmuang Air Force Base. Arrival time of the last coach was scheduled to match the official reception chaired by Deputy P.M. Visanu Krau-ngam and Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit. The project was successfully completed on schedule with the delivery of all 3 coaches to Siemens AG during the night of October 15th.
The complex structure of the project required a lot of preparation and coordination between several government agencies and private companies involved including Royal Thai Air Force, Airports of Thailand, Thai Airports Ground Services, Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand, Bangkok Metro CO LTD, Siemens and various others.
The Freight CO LTD previously already handled Bangkok’s first Mass Rapid Transit System (Bangkok Skytrain) for Siemens on a turnkey basis.

Final four sets of subway rolling stock delivered - translated and summarized from the MRTA website
Governor Praphat Jongsa-nguan has come to A5 Pier of Laem Chabang Deep Sea port to receive the final delivery of subways from Siemens AG which has been shipped by Japanese NYK Logistics & Megacarrier on April 20, 2004. The final four sets of subway rolling stocks are in Delphinus Leader cargo ship. These will be ready for the inauguration of the subway in August 2004.
The first set (No 1004) was been delivered by Antonov AN 124-100 on October 15, 2003. The next 14 sets were shipped to Laem Chabang in every 2 weeks for 7 times starting from December 19, 2003 while the last four sets were shipped by NYK on April 20, 2004.

More on the Bangkok Subway or go to the 2Bangkok.com main page

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(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

Front of the Antonov 124-100

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

Preparing the ramp

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

Very early in the morning

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

Bangkok subway car inside the airplane

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

Guests and VIPs take a look

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

More preparation for the offloading

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

Leveling the ramps

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

More adjustments

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

Ramp detail

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

Rolling out

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

Subway car at the end of the ramp

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

Truck backs up to the waiting subway car

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

Inserting pieces to the end of the ramp

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

Monitoring the process

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

Rolling on to the truck

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

 

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

Precision--wheels of the bogie as it rolls onto the truck

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

Checking alignment

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

Almost on the trailer

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

Securing the bogie

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

Covering the car for a ceremony

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

Workers pose in front of the train

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

Two of the subway cars offloaded

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

Interior of the Antonov

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

Band plays for the VIPs

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

The three cars waiting in an airplane hanger

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

Below: Various views of the Antonov

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

(Photo: The Freight Co. Ltd.)

Delivery photos above are courtesy of the The Freight Co. Ltd.

Above left: Looking in the end of the car.
Above right and below: The subway cars is obviously almost a close on the Skytrain cars except they lack some of the stylistic elements like the curving, overhead handgrip bars.

(Photo: 2Bangkok.com)