Taiwan Railway EMU400 series

An EMU 400 trainset was composed of groups of 4 cars, the EM cars (driving motor cars), the EP cars (electric cars), the ET cars (trailers) and the EMC cars (driving motor cars, with a driver’s cabin); up to 4 groups of 16 vehicles can be connected in operation. [4] The traction motors were installed in the EM cars and EMC cars, the pantograph was located on the EP cars, and generators were installed in the ET cars. In addition, ET cars were added to the train, so that the previous EMU200 and EMU300 three-car grouping method was changed to a group of four, with the same design extended to EMU500, EMU600 and subsequent models. [2]

The train’s initial livery had it painted in ultramarine blue (F09, Ultramarine, NCS color code 3355-R80B) and cloud white (G80, Cloud white, NCS color code 0704-G38Y) according to the South African national standard SANS 1091. The Taiwan Railway Administration emblem, car number and other identifiers also use ultramarine blue. [6] The lower edge on both sides of the car body is designed to be curved inward, which is a feature of this model. The original design of each car body has 3 doors on each side, but the final design adopted has only 2 doors on each side, [2] located close to the center of the carriage, with the design of the automatic door and the station display on each carriage to be a black background with white characters, the first to be seen on Taiwan Railway equipment. [4] After several overhauls of the train, the ultramarine livery was gradually changed to today's dark blue, and the station display board was changed to a red LED. In 2010, in conjunction with a platform height enhancement project, the train also saw renovation of the steps in the door openings, the last modification to the train. [4]

When the train was introduced, it used grab handles of a similar design to those used on the Taipei City bus in the 1990s. The interior had olive green fabric seat fabric and a black floor. At a later date, the grab handles were changed to be the same as those used in the EMU500 trains with a change of fabric on the seats. The fabric was replaced with the same dark green one used in the EMU500, and the floor was changed to a green pattern, similar to that used in the EMU500, but with a darker color. The cars also have floor columns near the doors and ceiling grab bars to accommodate a larger number of passengers. [4] The center of the ceiling is equipped with a square grid pattern pointing in the direction of the operator, where the loudspeaker and the air conditioning’s return outlet are hidden. The air conditioning outlet is slightly widened, which is a unique feature of this type of car. The through-door between the carriages is a double-fold sliding door, which is the only model of Taiwan Railways equipment to adopt this design.