This article is intended as a catalogue of sleeping carriages used by the Victorian Railways and successors.

O type carriages

E type carriages

E Type Sleeping Cars
Sleeping Car Coliban as preserved by Steamrail Victoria
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	14 - Acheron, Angas, Baderloo, Buchan, Coliban, Dargo, Finnis, Inman, Loddon, Onnkaparinga, Pekina, Tambo, Torrens, Wando
Number scrapped	2 - Barwon, Glenelg
Capacity	18 sleeping (20 in Buchan & Wando) 24 sitting
Operators	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 41 long tons (41.66 t) - Angas, Acheron, Baderloo, Buchan, Coliban, Dargo, Inman, Pekina, Tambo, Wando, as built 49 long tons (49.79 t) - Buchan, Wando, without air conditioning[10] 52 long tons (52.83 t) - Buchan, with air conditioning

Sleeping car by day

Sleeping car by night

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, those cars were renamed Loddon, Glenelg, Finniss, and Torrens respectively, after rivers situated between the two capital cities. In 1911, Onkaparinga and Barwon were built, followed by Baderloo, Dargo, Pekina, and Tambo in 1919. In 1923, four more cars were introduced, 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. The tenth compartment was slightly longer than the rest. Later, three more 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 solely Victorian Railways rolling stock, built for running on the Mildura line.^[12] That 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 to replace them with numbers 4 & 5, following on from Werribee, Indi, and Ovens having been re-classified as Sleepers 1, 2, & 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, each provided with cupboards and a folding wash basin. In day form, each compartment would be able to sit two passengers. At night, the seat folded down to provide the first bed, and the second was lowered from the wall panels above that seat to provide an upper bunk. A saloon, called the "Gentlemans Smoking Lounge", was provided at one end of the car, and was reserved for smoking passengers. That area was identified by its longer external window on either side, and was supplied with four leather chairs. By the 1950s, they were replaced with two chairs in a different style. When traffic required it, the lounge area could be converted to a further two berths but, due to lack of privacy, that section was charged at normal first-class rates instead of the higher first-class sleeper rates applied to the compartments. At the non-smoking end, two of the compartments were reserved for ladies, separated from the rest of the car by swinging doors in the side corridor, identical to the one separating the lounge from the corridor at the other end. Each compartment was accessed by sliding doors fitted with coloured leadlight windows, rather than plain glass; an attendant's room was provided at both ends of each car, one of which had tea-making facilities and a lavatory.

Like the other E cars, the sleepers initially had a strong Edwardian style, with features including carved panelling, pressed metal ceilings, frosted glass, and ornately decorated lamp pendants. A row of bevelled mirrors, with an engraved starburst pattern, was provided on the outside of the cars above the windows on either side. Three mirrored panels were provided above each compartment window, and seven over the saloon windows. The panels were painted over in later years, due to the deterioration of the mirroring.

The first run of the cars in service was on a parliamentary special to Echuca on 17 October 1907, using sleepers Melbourne, Adelaide, Ballarat, and parlor car Murray, which left Melbourne at 5:30pm. From 31 October, the cars were regularly scheduled on the Intercolonial Express from Melbourne to Adelaide.

Tambo, Angas, Coliban, Acheron, and Inman were provided with electric lighting from new and, as noted above, Buchan and Wando featured a tenth compartment instead of a lounge area, thereby providing 20 berths.^[1]

Long W type carriages

Long W Type Sleeping Cars
Sleeping Car Werribee as preserved by Steamrail Victoria
Manufacturer	Victorian Railways & South Australian Railways
Built at	Newport Workshops & Islington Railway Workshops
Constructed	1928
Entered service	1928–1987[23][24][25]
Number built	3
Number preserved	All
Capacity	20 sleeping (Indi, Ovens and Werribee) 40 sitting (Indi, Ovens and Werribee)
Operators	Victorian 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 9 in (2.97 m)
Height	13 ft 3 in (4.04 m)
Weight	49 long tons (49.79 t) (without air conditioning)[26] 52 long tons (52.83 t) (with air conditioning)

Three sleeping cars were constructed by the Victorian Railways in 1928 to supplement those used on the Mildura and other overnight services. They used a similar internal arrangement to the last two E type sleepers, Buchan and Wando, but were wider with steel panels used in lieu of timber slats for the sides, and a curved roof matching the Long W carriages. Ten single-sided compartments were fitted, each capable of seating four second-class sitting passengers or two sleeping passengers along one wall. The cars were initially painted in standard VR dark red, and rostered for use on the Melbourne to Mildura overnight trains.

While the cars were generally similar to the earlier joint-stock sleeping cars, they were exclusively built for use on the Victorian Railways system.^[27] Like Buchan and Wando the lounge area was replaced with a tenth sleeping compartment, which was slightly larger than the others. To avoid confusion, in 1939 they were renumbered Sleeping Cars No.1, 2 and 3 in build order (with Buchan and Wando becoming 4 and 5 respectively) in lieu of names. Around the same time they were fitted with air conditioning systems powered by axle-mounted generators, and repainted into blue and gold.

Unlike the earlier cars, Werribee, Indi and Ovens were fitted with second-class bench seats in lieu of first class, so they had capacity for 40 sitting passengers in day form.

Pullman carriages

Southern Aurora carriages

The Overland carriages

1967 Steel Sleeping Car Yankai (JTB 2) in the 1999–2007 livery

When The Overland service was converted from E type carriages to a new steel, fully airconditioned train, eight new sleeping cars were built. The interiors of these new cars were of a more modern design than the older cars. The roomette cars had a zigzag corridor instead of a straight one, and the compartments had the shape of a trapezium. This enabled the use of the toilet and washbasin units while the bed was still down, not possible in the older roomettes.

In 1949, the classleader, Allambi, entered service, followed by Tantini, Weroni, Dorai, Mururi and Chalaki in 1950 and Nomuldi and Mokai in 1951. Of those, Allambi, Tantini, Mururi and Chalaki were roomette cars with zigzag corridors; the other four were standard compartment-style twinette cars.

The sleeping cars were of two types. Twinette cars had two-berth compartments (as had the E and Mann cars before them), but each compartment had an adjoining toilet and shower room; roomette cars had single-berth compartments either side of a central aisle, and a shower room at the end of the car.^[29] The new cars were not numbered, but instead given names based on Aboriginal words related to sleep or dreams.

Additional carriages were built a few years later, with Roomettes Nankuri and Purpawi in 1955, Twinettes Tolkini (later Malkari) and Tandeni (later Paiti) in 1956, Twinettes Yanni and Kuldalai in 1957 and Roomettes Juki and Tarkinji in 1958.

Two further cars were built in 1967, Twinettes Tawarri and Yankai,^[30][31] for a total fleet of eighteen. These last two had a slightly different interior layout.

In 1971, the SAR's share in roomette cars Allambi and Tantini and twinette cars Dorai and Weroni^{[32][33][34][35]} was sold to the Victorian Railways for use on The Vinelander to Mildura. They were repainted dark blue and their names removed; these names were then applied to the same type of new cars built to replace them.

The new sleepers, Weroni and Dorai (1971) and Allambi and Tantini (1972) were built with the altered interior matching the 1967 batch (though Allambi and Tantini were still roomettes).^[36]

Under Victorian Railways, the cars had blue painted where maroon had previously been used, with Vinelander nameplates on the carriage sides in place of the names. The cars were numbered as Sleepers Nos 11 to 14, previously Allambi, Tantini, Weroni and Dorai. The New Deal in 1983 saw the four Victorian Railways Sleeper carriages renumbered to SJ 281 to 284, and the carriages were repainted again, this time with orange replacing the blue, with V/Line logos on plates fitted to the left ends.

Under Australian National, the vehicles were allocated classes, with Mururi, Chalaki, Nankuri, Purpawi, Juki and Tarkinji becoming JRA1-6, Nomuldi, Mokai, Tolkini, Tandeni, Yanni and Kuldalai JTA1-6, and Tawarri and Yankai JTB1-2. The second Allambi and Tantini became JRB1-2, and the second Weroni and Dorai JTB3-4. "R" was for Roomette and "T" for Twinette, with "A" or "B" respectively indicating first class for the pre-1967 fleet, or second class for the post-1967 fleet.^[37] Therefore it is safe to assume that if the four carriages passed to the Victorian Railways had been retained, they would have been classed as further JRA and JTA units.

S type carriages

To provide for the Spirit of Progress's conversion to Standard Gauge from 1962, two of the BS class carriages were converted to composite sitting/sleeping cars, for the run from Melbourne to Canberra.

6BS became 1VAC, and 5BS became 2VAC. One car was attached to each train (with 1VAM as a spare). From the No. 1 end, compartment 1 was left unaltered and compartment 2 was converted to first class accommodation, with six seats in place of eight and additional armrests. The remaining six compartments were cleared out, and every second interior wall was removed. Compartment pairs 3 & 4, 5 & 6, and 7 & 8 had their separation walls shifted, so that each compartment could sit three or sleep two passengers, with wardrobes taking up the remaining space. The three-seat assembly at the outer wall of each compartment pair could fold down to provide one bed, while the other was permanently in-situ. Each car had a capacity of 8 second- and 24 first-class passengers in daytime, or 8 second-, 6 first-class, and 12 sleeping passengers at night.^[41]

Compartments 1 and 2 were refitted to the same pattern as the rest circa 1977, giving a capacity of 24 sitting passengers, or a night time capacity of 16 passengers.

In 1978, the two cars were returned to broad gauge, and took on the numbers No. 15 Sleeper (ex 1VAC) and No. 16 Sleeper (ex 2VAC) following on from Sleepers 1 to 10 (ex E type carriages) and Sleepers 11 to 14 (ex V&SAR Overland Carriages), for operation on The Vinelander service to Mildura. By 1982 they had been internally refitted as full sleeping carriages, rather than composite sitting/sleeping as they had been for standard gauge service.^[42]

In late 1984 and early 1985, the two were renumbered SS285 and SS286 in line with the New Deal numbering system. When The Vinelander sleeping car service started winding down in the late 80s/early 90s, the cars were converted back to their original BS format, as BS218 and BS219.

Z type carriages

The composite sitting/sleeping car, VAM1, was built with 10 evenly-spaced windows per side, plus a closer window and a door at the No.2 end. Access to the car was via the doors at the No.2 end, or via coupled carriages and the diaphragms linking them to VAM1. The ten windows each represented a single compartment. The first and second compartments at the No.1 end were fitted with bench seats for four people each, while the other eight compartments were fitted with three-person seats divisible with retractable armrests. All seats could fold down to form a bed, and above that was a second bed, giving capacity for up to 20 sleeping passengers or up to 24 first-class and 8 second-class passengers. Generally speaking only the first four compartments at the No.1 end were used for sitting passengers, and the remaining six were used exclusively for sleeping passengers. Partially because of this, the public address system was only wired to the four compartments at the No.1 end, and not the other six. Each compartment also had its own cupboard, shower, toilet, card table and wardrobe. The interior was sheathed with laminex panels.^[43]

At the No.2 end a small curtained-off area was reserved for the carriage conductor, with a seat to work at. Weight of the car was 51 tons 13 cwt. Water capacity was 280 gallons of cold water, plus 75 gallons of hot water for the showers. The car was fitted with marker lights, backup lamp brackets and tail discs at both ends, allowing it to trail any train. Notably, even though the car would only normally trail trains in New South Wales, the end-of-train marker was a Victorian Railways disc rather than a New South Wales Railways triangle.

References