Victorian Railways PL type carriage
| APL, BPL, BCPL type carriages | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Victorian Railways |
| Constructed | From 1917 |
| Number built | 141 |
| Number preserved | 43, 78 & 86BPL & 6, 25, 29 & 30BCPL |
| Number scrapped | 134 |
| Capacity |
APL, BPL: 78 or 82 passengers, BCPL: 51 passengers |
| Operator(s) | various heritage operators |
| Specifications | |
| Car body construction | Timber planks |
| Car length | 59 ft 9 in (18.21 m) over body; 61 ft 8 in (18.80 m) over pulling lines |
| Width | 9 ft 6 in (2.90 m) |
| Height | 12 ft 8 in (3.86 m) |
| Weight | 30 LT 0 cwt 0 qtr (30.48 t) |
| Axle load | 7 LT 10 cwt 0 qtr (7.62 t) |
| Power supply | Axle-mounted generators |
| Bogies | 45 ft 6 1⁄2 in (13.88 m) centres; 10 ft (3.05 m) wheelbase each; 63 ft 10 in (19.46 m) total wheelbase |
| Braking system(s) | Westinghouse |
| Coupling system | screw, later autocouplers |
| Track gauge | 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) |
The PL type carriages were a series of 141 wooden passenger carriages used on the railways of Victoria, Australia. They consisted of the first class APL, second class BPL and combination second and guard's van, BCPL's.
The Victorian Railways' plan for electrification of the Melbourne suburban rail network began in 1914, with the first electrically-operated trains running in 1918. The original concept involved hundreds of country and suburban carriages being rebuilt, swapping bodies and underframes and splicing or adding compartments to achieve the required capacity and a fairly standardised carriage design for each purpose.
By 1919 so many cars had been converted away from regular country traffic that a shortage was being experienced. The railways had many leftover underframes from carriages converted to driving motors of the Swingdoor type, which were not suitable for the heavier electric motor equipment; but it was realised that these could be repurposed, fairly easily, as new country carriages. This resulted in a new series, the PL type.
Frames were extended from 45 and 50 feet to around 58–59 feet with extensions on one end, and new bodies were built to suit.
W. M. Shannon, the then CME of the Victorian Railways, supervised a new carriage design utilising the older underframes and other components as deemed possible. The new coaches were distinctive in having arched roofs in lieu of the then-standard clerestory style, as had been used since the first bogie passenger carriages on the Victorian Railways' system.
All carriages of the new type were similar, with an intent to build roughly equal numbers of APL (first class) and BPL (second class) cars. The standard design involved a centre aisle cutting through nine compartments, similar to the Tait style then being used for new suburban carriages. The middle seven compartments had ten seats each in facing pairs of two and three, while the end compartments featured longitudinal bench-seating and toilets. Only three doors per side were installed, reflecting the priority of comfort over reduced dwell times on the country network.
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