E type carriages
| E Type Sleeping Cars | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Victorian Railways & South Australian Railways |
| Built at | Newport Workshops & Islington Railway Workshops |
| Constructed | 1907-1923 |
| Entered service | 1907-1992? |
| Number built | 16 |
| Number preserved | 13 plus three (Angas, Onkaparinga & Dargo) static |
| Number scrapped | Barwon & Glenelg; Baderloo possibly soon. |
| Capacity | 18 sleeping (20 for Buchan & Wando) 24 sitting |
| Operator(s) | Victorian Railways, South Australian Railways, VicRail |
| Specifications | |
| Car body construction | 71 ft (21.64 m) |
| Car length | 73 ft 8 1⁄4 in (22.46 m) |
| Width | 9 ft 6 in (2.90 m) |
| Height | 13 ft 8 1⁄4 in (4.17 m) |
| Weight | 37 LT 7 cwt 0 qtr (37.95 t) (Melbourne, Ballarat, Wolsely & Adelaide as built) 39 LT 11 cwt 0 qtr (40.18 t) (Loddon, Glenelg, Finniss and Torrens as upgraded; Barwon & Onkaparinga as built) |
Sixteen E type sleeping cars were built at Newport Workshops, primarily for the Adelaide - Melbourne service. The first four cars had been built by 1908, and were originally named Melbourne, Ballarat, Wolseley and Adelaide. In 1910, these cars were renamed Loddon, Glenelg, Finniss and Torrens respectively, after rivers between the two capital cities. In 1911 Onkaparinga and Barwon were built, to be followed by Baderloo, Dargo, Pekina and Tambo in 1919. In 1923, four more cars were named Angas, Coliban, Acheron and Inman., [11] and a further two cars, Buchan and Wando, were constructed to a modified internal design with the smoking/saloon area replaced with a tenth sleeping compartment. This tenth compartment was slightly longer than the rest. Later, three further sleeping cars were built with a similar internal layout, and named Werribee, Indi and Ovens.
As far as can be ascertained, only the first fourteen cars were built as shared vehicles; the last two - Buchan and Wando - appear to have been exclusively Victorian Railways rolling stock, built for the Mildura line. [12] This is reflected in the 1939 decision by the Victorian Railways, with no input from the South Australian Railways, to remove the names of those sleeping carriages and replace with numbers 4 and 5, following on from Werribee, Indi and Ovens as Sleepers 1, 2 and 3 respectively. At the same time Buchan / No.4 was fitted with an air conditioning unit, powered by axle-driven generators.
Notably, Buchan, Acheron and Angas were built on the underframes originally used under E type dining cars Campaspe, Goulburn and Wimmera respectively. [13]
With the exception of the last two, the cars were designed with nine, two-berth sleeping compartments, with cupboards and a folding wash basin in each. In day form, each compartment would be able to sit two passengers; at night the seat folded down for the first bed, and the second was lowered from the wall panels above that seat to give a bunk arrangement. A saloon was provided at one end of the car, called the Gentlemans Lounge and reserved for smoking passengers. This area was identified with its longer external window either side, and was supplied with four loose leather chairs; though by the 1950s these were replaced with two chairs of a different style. When traffic required it, the Lounge area could be converted to a further two berths, but due to lack of privacy the section was charged at normal first class rates instead of the higher First Class Sleeper rates applied to each of the compartments. At the non-smoking end two of the compartments were reserved for Ladies, and these were separated from the rest of the car by swing doors fitted in the side corridor identical to the one separating the Lounge from the corridor. Each compartment was accessed by sliding doors with coloured leadlights in lieu of normal glass; and an attendant's room was provided at both ends of each car; one of these had tea making facilities and a lavatory.
Like the rest of the E cars, the Sleepers initially had a strong Edwardian style with features including carved panelling, pressed metal ceilings, frosted glass and lamp pendants all being ornately decorated. A row of bevelled mirrors was provided above the windows on either side of the cars with an engraved starburst pattern, though these were removed in later years due to corrosion. Three mirror panels were provided above each compartment window, and seven over the saloon windows.
The first service run of the cars was a Parliamentary special to Echuca on 17 October 1907, with sleepers Melbourne, Adelaide and Ballarat and parlor car Murray, leaving Melbourne at 5:30pm. From 31 October the cars were regularly scheduled on the Intercolonial Express from Melbourne to Adelaide.
Tambo, [1] Angas, Coliban, Acheron and Inman were built from new with electric lighting; and as noted above Buchan and Wando featured a tenth compartment instead of a lounge area, for 20 berths.
The Overland
From 1936, the named joint-stock cars were externally painted dark green with "The Overland" in chrome plated letters on the fascia panel above the windows, to introduce the new brand for the Melbourne to Adelaide express. From 1943 the green scheme was traded out for the standard Victorian Railways bright passenger red.
Split fleet
As steel cars were introduced to the Overland from late 1949, the timber cars were split among the two systems. In 1950, the South Australian Railways purchased Victoria's share in Angas, Dargo, Finnis (ex Wolseley), Onkaparinga and Tambo, leaving nine cars in joint stock service. Angas had been purchased in March and Finnis in April; both were painted in the green and yellow scheme at time of sale, and fitted with half-drop windows and steel side-sheets from the late 1950s. By the 1960s both had been repainted into red with silver stripes, in something of a facsimile of the new Overland scheme. It seems likely that Dargo and Onkaparinga experienced the same changes, given that Onkaparinga had the steel sides in place when it was finally withdrawn; however Tambo clearly did not have steel sides fitted below the windows in 1985.
A further four Joint Stock cars, Baderloo, Barwon, Glenelg (ex Ballarat) and Torrens (ex Adelaide), were condemned in 1967. It is likely that Barwon and Glenelg were scrapped [14] http://www.comrails.com/sar_carriages/n_glenelg.html. Baderloo was sold without bogies and moved to Junction Rd, Littlehampton, South Australia, owned by Joylene Liebelt, and Torrens was transferred to the then-new Australian Railway Historical Society museum in Newport, Victoria; it is now a static exhibit.
South Australian cars
The South Australian cars were allocated to the Mount Gambier overnight service, with Finnis and Angas externally rebuilt in 1953 to provide a better quality of travel. Tambo, Onkaparinga and Dargo were not refurbished, though at some point, Onkaparinga was fitted with steel sheeting over the sides in an attempt to preserve the timber. In 1972 the South Australian Railways sold Onkaparinga to the Marbury School in Aldgate, with bogies. In 1988 it was donated to the Port Dock Station Railway Museum. [15] In 1974 Dargo was condemned and sold without bogies to a private property in Lameroo, South Australia, and was reported to be in good condition and stored undercover. [16] Tambo followed in 1975. On 24 September 1976 Angas caught fire while on the Mount Gambier run, due to a worn brake block generating sparks and heat. There were no injuries and passengers were transferred to an adjacent carriage, but most of the car was damaged and the repair cost was estimated at the time to be "in excess of $30,000". [17] As a result, the car was withdrawn from service; at the same time the other cars were withdrawn and placed into storage. Finnis and Angas were passed to the Australian Railway Historical Society's South Australian division, operating as SteamRanger. Finniss stayed at Steamranger where it operates today while Angas was sold off to the Yorke Peninsula Railway, due to the high cost of repairing it. Angas was sold off again, due to the same reason. Eventually. It ended up in NSW, where it was repaired and turned into B&B accommodation. Tambo was planned to go to the Pichi Richi Railway, but after being stored for several years at Peterborough it was transferred to SteamRanger in 1980, then awaiting restoration at their Dry Creek depot. [1]
Victorian cars
From 1965 the Victorian Railways introduced the Train of Knowledge, essentially a mobile school camp for week-long tours. The train made use of the E type sleeping cars for students and teachers, as they were increasingly being displaced by newer steel cars.
The remaining five Joint Stock sleepers, Acheron, Coliban, Inman, Pekina and Loddon (ex Melbourne) became part of the Victorian Railways fleet on 27 June 1969. [18] They had names removed and replaced with numbers, as Sleeping cars No.6 through 10 following on from No.5 ex Wando.
Between November 1983 and May 1984, these carriages were upgraded. Restoration work included repainting, revarnishing, new upholstery, new carpeting, retention toilets and reinstatement of the pre-1969 names.
Current status
As noted above, Barwon and Glenelg were most likely scrapped in 1967.
Steamranger in South Australia initially had Angas, Coliban, Finnis, Inman and Tambo. Of those, Finnis has always been in operational condition, both before and after the move from Dry Creek to the Victor Harbor line. However, in 1995 Angas was sold for use on the Yorke Peninsula Tourist Railway; when that line closed in 2009, the car was sold to Australian Train Movers, and was transferred to Londonderry in NSW. In 2011 the car was delivered to Little Forest Country Cottages in the Southern Highlands, NSW, and by the end of 2012 it was restored as a bed and breakfast. [19] Tambo was sold to West Coast Railway in the mid-1990s, and delivered to their Ballarat East depot in 1996. When West Coast Railway folded in 2004, the car was sold privately and it has since been restored to operational condition, though half-converted to a Parlor car style, similar to that of Yarra and Murray, and it runs on the Victorian Goldfields Railway. Acheron was allocated to the VGR in August 2017 pending restoration. Coliban and Inman were sold in 1997-98 and transferred by road to Steamrail, Victoria, in the West Block of Newport Workshops. There, they joined Werribee and Indi, and most of the cars are now serviceable. Also at Newport, 707 Operations has Buchan, currently under restoration, and was joined by Wando in 2017; and the Victorian division of the Australian Railway Historical Society has preserved Torrens in their museum, in the south-eastern corner of the Newport Workshops compound. It has been externally restored, and as of late 2016, the interior is also being fixed up.
In the early 1990s the majority of the Train of Knowledge consist was allocated to the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre, including sleeping carriages Wando, Acheron, Pekina and Loddon. The first three were deemed surplus to requirements in 2017, with Acheron transferred to the Victorian Goldfields Railway, Pekina to the Overland Museum in Nhill and Wando to 707 Operations.
Onkaparinga was restored in 2010 to early 1950s condition at the Port Dock Rail Museum. [20]
In 1986 Baderloo was noted as being in poor condition, but in 2003 it was sold to Jim Emmett of the Mount Lofty railway station. At the time the car was intended to be stabilised, then transferred to Lofty Railway Station's gardens for restoration as a static exhibit. The shift was later called off account difficulties in arranging proper transportation, so the vehicle is still in Littlehampton, wrapped in tarps.
Dargo is currently undercover on private property.
