Rail Sydney: Old Security Cameras



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Security Cameras

Background

Commuters are no doubt aware that our trains have internal security cameras. They have been advertised in the media in the past, although not much is heard about them lately. Press and public announcements tended to scaremonger, suggesting that every train has camera(s), and that they weren't restricted to the back of the train. Quite the opposite. Yes, if you wish not to be seen by a camera on a train, it is thoroughly recommended that you avoid Tangaras; especially in the vicinity of a guard/driver's compartment. However, if you are on any other double deck train, it is extremely easy to determine whether there is a camera on board.

The Weakness

No one is watching you in real time what you are doing on a train, so, everything the camera picks up needs to be recorded. This is the weakness of the camera system. No matter how small they can make the camera, the recording device is still large, and needs to be put somewhere. It is therefore easier to spot the location of the recording and power equipment of a camera system than looking for the camera itself, especially when the vehicle was never designed to house such equipment, where modifications are rather obvious, which the older pre-Tangara cars are perfect candidates. It was originally believed that only motor cars had this equipment, however, due to a sighting in a trailer car, it is also likely for a trailer car to have camera equipment also; and due to sightings in K sets, any car may potentially have a camera

Finding It

When you board your standard stainless steel double-deck suburban train, go downstairs to the lower deck and locate the last 3-person seat at one end. This is the fixed-direction seat (cannot be rolled over to face the other way) underneath the stairs. It is underneath this seat that the camera equipment is placed. If the area under the seat is boarded up with plywood, with one part hinged near the end to form a door, then you have found the camera equipment. If not, go to the other end and check the seat there likewise. If there is an empty gap under this seat too, like the rest of the seats, you can rest easy that your carriage is most likely not being recorded. An example of a box in C3759

Above is a photo of the boarded area under the last seat in C3759, showing the hinged section being closest to the stairs. This hinged door is locked with a standard "driver's" key. Inside this door is a separate white wooden box, which is locked with a Bi-Lock 102 key, and stencilled in red on the front of the box the wording:

WARNING
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO OPEN BOX
This box contains high voltage
electrical equipment and is protected
by an electronic alarm system

If the alarm is activated the carriage is to
be isolated and contact 9-1566 and
quote CPS-PS then carriage number

Please do note that this wording is not visible unless you are able to open the small door, which is not recommended without the key nor an empty carriage.

More Details to Look Out For

Generally, the camera itself is rather close to where "the box" is located, due to the physical restraint of supplying wires to the camera for power and the picture signal. However, this has been found to not always be the case, including suspected location being at the opposite end of a car (C3759) to the box, but generally, a camera points out through the central hole in an over-sized rivet retro-fitted into one of the plywood or fibreglass panels, which usually also has a few extra dummy rivets near it to help camouflage the existance of a rivet placed in a position which really wouldn't have a rivet there. Frequently, these rivets are in the vertical wall above the roof to the stairs to the lower deck. That flat vertical fibreboard panel (above the contoured fibreglass which forms the ceiling to the lower deck stairs) is normally a plain panel, the only fasteners normally visible are the screws or rivets attaching the fibreglass ceiling to the fibreboard panel. In cars with a camera in this position, the fibreboard panel has a number of the large rivets accross it, that look like they aren't actually holding anything together. One of these usually has the camera looking through the hole in the rivet. C3938 is one such car, this photo taken at central in October shows the location of the several extraneous rivets, the red arrow points to the rivet that actually has the camera behind it. (This hole only looks darker in the photo because of the angle of the camera and that the flash tended to wash out the top of the photo; it doesn't normally seem so obvious). Other places include the small panel next to the power cabinet on the lower deck next to the stairs (as in C 3026), other places around the doorways, or a retrofitted box forming a lintel over the inter-carriage communcation door (as in 3759 and 4932). A word of warning - One box may or may not be restrained to having only one camera returning to it, since a few cars have more than one set of suspect rivets, although it is likely that only one set is actually a concern and the others merely used as a dummy and/or provision for changing the location of the camera as needed. Investigation has revealed that there generally aren't multiple cameras in one car. It also seems that a box and rivets may also be completely unused so that there is in fact no camera in a car that looks like it should.

Cars Involved

During 1996-97, the following cars were seen with the boxes, but most likely have had them removed since refurbishment: C 3040 have had boxes their removed; others were (may still have boxes): C 3020, C 3057.
Most recently the following cars have been observed with boxes:

car No.	sector	date sited	rivet locations	Box location	camera location^*
C 3020	s2			No.2 end
C 3022	s3	10/98
C 3026	s2	10/98	b
C 3027	s3	10/98
C 3049	s3	2/99	a
C 3074	s3	1/99	a,b
C 3744	s2	6/99	b	No.2 end	-
C 3750	s3	3/99
C 3756	s1	3/99	a
C 3759	s2	2/98	b,c
C 3808	s2
C 3824	s1	1/99	a
C 3854	s1	1/99		No.1 end
C 3860	s2
C 3890	s1	5/99	:c
C 3926	s1	7/99	:c
C 3938	s2	6/98	a
C 3954	s3	10/98	b,c

T 4932	s3	3/99	c,d	No.1 end.

C 3558	s3	6/99
T 4224	s3	6/99
C 3571	s3	3/99	:a,b

s1 = sector 1;

s2 = sector 2;

s3 = sector 3.
rivet and camera locations:
(a) panel above stairs to lower deck at No.2 end
(b) panel next to power supply switches box (above cabinet) at No.2 end of lower deck
(c) box over the lintel of the communication door to the next car at the No.1 (pantograph) end.
(d) panel next to power supply switches box (above cabinet) at No.1 end of lower deck
* The camera loaction is one of the rivet locations. The remaining rivet locations allow alternative camera locations if the need arises. These have usually previously been a camera location before being placed in the current location.
Note many of these observations made in part by Michael McGinty.

Intercity fleet

On the intercity side of things, unusual panels in bulkhead walls tend to suggest a camera, as noticed at the No.1 end (pantograph, or non-guard's comptartment end) of the upper deck of DCM 8022. Lack of a evidence for a recording box on the car, however, suggests that these are not cameras.

Intercity trailer car DIT 9149 has the boxes matching the description above (not covered by a door/cabinet) at both ends under the last seats: one on the left at the No.1 end and on the right at the No.2 end. Clearly the location of the camera(s?) at the No.2 end are in small wooden boxes, one on each side, at about head height in the location of the former luggage shelves. These boxes are faced with a piece of stainless steel with several rivets in them. It is unclear whether there is a camera on both sides, or the box on the left is simply a dummy to camouflage the existence of the other one. It is also indiscernable what camera the box at the No.1 end feeds to, although it is possible it feeds the other box at the No.2 end.(brought to my attention by Matthew Jennings)

Apparently both the boxes were removed during June - July, most likely because this car was sent to Goninan's for recarpetting. Since the car has come back, both boxes have been replaced, although the middle rivet in one of the "boxes" has been removed.

M.DOYLE