Two 75-Year-Old Railway Workers Lead Sydney’s Final Journey of the Beloved K-Set Trains

After more than four decades carrying passengers across Sydney, the city’s distinctive silver K-set trains have made their final passenger journey.

The last service departed Central Station for Olympic Park on Friday, October 2, drawing hundreds of passengers and railway enthusiasts who wanted to experience the historic journey before the trains disappeared from everyday service.

At the controls were two railway workers who had spent almost six decades working on Sydney’s railways. Driver Vince Vassiliou and guard Pat Breen, both 75, each have 59 years of railway experience.

For Vassiliou, the final journey was particularly personal. He had been driving K-set trains for 44 years and remained convinced that the silver carriages still had plenty of character.

“They still glide the same,” Vassiliou said, reflecting on the trains that first entered service in 1981.

Breen had also worked with the K-sets since their early years. He remembered a time when the trains represented a major step forward for Sydney commuters, including the introduction of air-conditioned carriages.

The K-sets became a familiar part of daily life in Sydney. Generations of passengers used them for school runs, first jobs, family visits and trips across the city. Their retirement therefore marked more than the replacement of an older train model; for many passengers, it meant saying goodbye to a familiar part of their lives.

Among those on the final service was 11-year-old Alex McCann, who travelled with his mother Helena. Alex has loved trains for years and hopes to become a train guard in the future.

“I’ve liked trains all my life,” he said, explaining that he wanted to experience the old trains before they disappeared.

The K-sets were introduced between 1981 and 1985 and were among Sydney’s longest-serving suburban trains. They were eventually replaced by newer rolling stock as the railway network modernised.

The final farewell had briefly been put in doubt after some earlier farewell trips were cancelled because of vandalism and unruly behaviour. The final service, however, went ahead, allowing hundreds of people to take part in the closing chapter of the K-set era.

For Vassiliou and Breen, the journey was also a reminder of how long their own careers had lasted. Both men began working on the railways as young men and were still part of the final K-set service at 75.

Vassiliou’s connection to the railway may continue even after the K-sets disappear. His daughter has decided to leave nursing and become a train driver, following her father into the railway industry.

The K-sets themselves will no longer carry regular passengers, but their place in Sydney’s history remains tied to the millions of journeys made aboard the silver trains over more than four decades.

Sources: The Sydney Morning Herald, Brisbane Times, The Age.