[1] Carriages on Victorian long-distance express services at the start of the 20th century were, in comparison to the Pullman cars operated by the New South Wales Government Railways, relatively cramped and austere.

[1] Chairman of Commissioners Thomas Tait, previously the Transportation Manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway,[2] introduced a carriage design that was 71 feet (21.64 m) long, and as wide as the loading gauge allowed.

Separate drop-toilets for males and females were provided in all passenger vehicles except the dining cars, along with staff toilets in the twelve mail vans.

All cars were re-coded in 1910, without being renumbered: AVE to AE, ABVE to ABE, BVE to BE, DVE to CE, EEB to D, EES to DS, and ESBV to BDSE.

The 'G' in the code may have indicated Grampians, a Victorian mountain range the cars would often run past, though by the mid 1970s 1BG was exclusively allocated to services on the Yarram line.

The change was in response to the spread of mail sorting facilities to country locations, in addition to reduced goods traffic on passenger trains.

It was stored at North Melbourne from 1945 to 1952 when it was converted to sleep 16 men in longitudinal upper and lower bunks with a centre aisle, and retaining a small kitchen with tables for those 16 people to feed.

[28] At the end of the train, the parlor cars had a 6 ft (1.83 m)-wide open balcony, equipped with folding chairs, surrounded with a wrought-iron fence at waist height and gates (usually kept locked) on either side.

A glass pane separated the balcony from the 22 ft 6 in (6.86 m)-long observation room, with three large windows on either side, twelve comfortable armchairs, and a fixed bench seating three.

[30] State Car No.4 was built in 1912 to a similar exterior design, although the internal fitments were replaced to effectively make the carriage a travelling hotel, with some sleeping compartments.

Notably, Buchan, Acheron, and Angas were built on the underframes originally used under E-type dining cars Campaspe, Goulburn and Wimmera respectively.

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.

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.

It is likely that Barwon and Glenelg were scrapped[37][38] Baderloo was sold without bogies and moved to Junction Road, Littlehampton, South Australia, and Torrens was transferred to the then-new Australian Railway Historical Society museum in Newport, Victoria, where it became a static exhibit.

The South Australian cars were allocated to the Mount Gambier overnight service, with Finnis and Angas being externally rebuilt in 1953 to provide a better quality of travel.

It was planned that Tambo would 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.

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.

When West Coast Railway closed 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 Yarra and Murray.

Acheron was allocated to the VGR in August 2017 and returned to service following restoration in 2022.Coliban and Inman were sold in 1997-98 and transferred by road to Steamrail Victoria, operating out of the West Block of the Newport Workshops.

In the early 1990s, the majority of the Train of Knowledge consist, including sleeping carriages Wando, Acheron, Pekina, and Loddon, was allocated to the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre.

The ESBV and EES cars were used for sorting of mail en route, so as to reduce the load on smaller post offices which would not have had the staff required for such a task.

By 1919 the demand for sleeping cars skyrocketed on the Melbourne-Adelaide train; this was due to a lack of watercraft still in serviceable condition after World War 1, in addition to the recent opening of the then-new Trans-Australian line from Port Augusta to Kalgoorlie and on to Perth.

From 1935 the E fleet started to gain automatic couplers, along with strengthened underframes, anti-telescoping beams at either end, air-conditioning and rubber pads in the bogies to reduce vibration and noise.

It ran around Victoria as part of its own train with an onboard doctor, supplying medical testing facilities to Victorian Railways staff, and occasionally to local towns as well.

The war's lack of maintenance also resulted in the Joint Stock vehicles being repainted from their 1936 Hawthorn Green scheme to the standard VR red from 1943.

Carriages from the joint-stock fleet were repainted to match the rest of the system during this period, because austerity measures required temporary abolition of decorative additions.

The South Australian Railways' country train plan from 20 February 1944 shows 19AE-781-706-605-600-11AE-13AE as one consist forming a Victor Harbor run, and also includes reference to 4AE.

From the late 1950s a number of CE vans, in addition to the air conditioned sitting AE and BE cars, were painted into Blue and Gold, perhaps to reflect their higher status.

Also around this time, the four air conditioned AE cars (36, 1, 3, 12) were renumbered to 49 to 52BE respectively; the air-conditioned fleet of E type carriages now comprising 4, 19, 31, 34, 49, 50, 51, 52 BE; 1, 2 BG; Sleepers 1 to 4, and Taggerty.

In 1989, carriages 2AE, 30AE, 1BE, 14BE, 3BCE, & Yarra were listed as restored to the dark red with yellow dots scheme by the Seymour Loco Steam Preservation Group, with 26BE a potential addition to the consist.