Victorian Railways box vans
| Victorian Railways box vans | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Victorian Railways |
| Built at | Newport Workshops |
| Replaced | Each other |
| Operator(s) | Victorian Railways |
| Line(s) served | All |
| Specifications | |
| Track gauge |
5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge for large bogie vans |
The Victorian Railways used a variety of boxcars or covered goods wagons for the transport of all manner of goods. This page covers the history and development of the various classes, and how they changed through their lives.
Introduced as early as 1857, when the Victorian Railways took over the defunct Geelong and Melbourne railway company, the most common type of boxvan used by the Victorian Railways was known as the H van. From then to 1897 roughly 1,000 wagons were constructed. When an H van was not available or if the load was too tall to fit inside the wagon, the alternative was to obtain an open wagon and fit a tarpaulin over the top.
Officially the class ranged from 1 through 966, but during the early years the Victorian Railways would regularly scrap a wagon and build a new one with the same number.
The initial design was for a 17 ft 8 in (5.38 m), four-wheel underframe with a body of about 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m), rising to 7 ft (2.13 m) at the highest part of the roof. The capacity of the vans was up to 896 cubic feet (25.37 m3) or 7 long tons (7.1 t; 7.8 short tons), whichever was reached first. Later designs were slightly different; most wagons had the same weight capacity, although length and height of wagons often changed; at least one wagon wasn't even fitted with a roof.
From 1900 the vans started to be withdrawn from general service, instead shifting to maintenance or recovery work. A number were outfitted with tool kits and equipment, then used at locomotive depots. Otherwise, the H type vans were largely withdrawn as a class by 1909. The earlier vans had been replaced one-for-one with steel I-type open wagons; other wagons had been dedicated to maintenance or repair work. This was roughly when the "H" code stopped meaning box vans, instead becoming synonymous with departmental vehicles.
In about 1915 a handful of wagons were fitted with platforms on the roofs, and used to form an overhead wiring train for contractors working on the Melbourne electrification project. After the project was completed the overhead train was retained for overhead maintenance work.
A small number of vans had been fitted with replacement underframes by the 1970s.
In 1880, twenty boxvans were built by Harkness & Co. for the Victorian Railways. The class given was S and numbers 1 through 20.
The vans were for general traffic; 11 ft (3.35 m) tall, about 7 1⁄2 ft (2.29 m) across (wide) and just under 32 ft (9.75 m) over buffers for an internal capacity of 1,375.35 cubic feet (38.946 m3). Each van had a single pair of doors in the centre.
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Wikipedia