S type carriage

S type carriage
A train of restored S type carriages in the original Victorian Railways livery
Interior of a BS car compartment
Manufacturer	Victorian Railways
Built at	Newport Railway Workshops
Family name	S type carriage
Replaced	E type carriage
Constructed	1937-1956
Entered service	1937-2010 (1990's to current with heritage operators)
Refurbishment	1980's
Scrapped	1972 (7AS); 1984 (2VHN ex 1DS/2CS)
Operator(s)	Victorian Railways, V/Line, West Coast Railway
Specifications
Car body construction	71 ft 6 in (21.79 m) for passenger cars; 59 feet 8 inches (18.19 m) for vans; 72 feet 1 1⁄4 inches (21.98 m) for State Car No.5
Car length	74 ft 8 in (22.76 m) for passenger cars; 56 feet 10 inches (17.32 m) for vans; 75 feet 2 1⁄4 inches (22.92 m) for State Car No.5, add 2 in (0.05 m) uncoupled.
Width	9 ft 9 in (2.97 m) (all); 10 ft 1 11⁄16 in (3.09 m) over handrails (broad gauge); 10 ft 5⁄8 in (3.06 m) over handrails (standard gauge); 10 ft 2 in (3.10 m) over tail-lights (Norman)
Height	13 ft 6 11⁄16 in (4.13 m) for all except four Buffet cars; 13 ft 2 13⁄16 in (4.03 m) for buffet cars
Articulated sections	Rubber corridor connectors
Wheel diameter	3 ft 6 in (1.07 m)
Wheelbase	8 ft 0 in (2.44 m)
Maximum speed	70 mph (113 km/h)
Power supply	Head end power, previously axle driven generator
Bogies	53 ft (16.15 m) centres, all except vans 38 ft (11.58 m) centres for vans
Braking system(s)	Westinghouse Air Brake
Coupling system	Automatic Couplers
Headlight type	Incandescent, later fluorescent
Track gauge	5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm), has operated on 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

The S type carriages are a compartment layout passenger carriage used on the railways of Victoria, Australia. The carriages were constructed by the Victorian Railways in 1937 for use on the Spirit of Progress, with additional carriages built until the 1950s for other trains.

Introduced by Victorian Railways Chief Commissioner Harold Clapp for the Spirit of Progress service between Melbourne and Albury, the carriages lasted through many decades of regular service across a number of operators. Most of the fleet are still in service today, though none are in regular passenger service.

Two major types of carriage were constructed - AS first class cars with 3+3 seating in each compartment, BS second class cars with 4+4 seating. A number of conversions were made in later years, with the addition of beds to some to produce the sleeping cars and buffet modules to others to provide on board catering facilities. The BRS cars were the most recent conversion made as part of the New Deal reforms of the early 1980s.

The cars saw little use by the early 1990s with the introduction of the Sprinter railcars, and a number were sold to West Coast Railway. After the demise of WCR their cars passed to preservation groups such as the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre, Steamrail Victoria, and 707 Operations.

Five BS cars that were owned by V/Line were retired in July 2006, almost 69 years after their introduction. However owing to a boom in patronage (and the Kerang rail accident) they were re-introduced to service to replace set N7 as a dedicated train set on the Geelong line from late September 2007. This set was withdrawn from service on 9 August 2010, running the 7:47am service from South Geelong to Southern Cross.