In 1924 there was a plan to convert all the hoppers to O type wagons for coal traffic, running between Yallourn and Newport Power Station.
From 1960 the capacity of the vehicles was raised, by welding the central side-doors shut, and adding "hungry boards" to add about 30 cm to the top of the wagon on all sides.
It appears the vehicle was used for the installation of electrical overhead masts along the suburban routes, and a photo from the late 1930s shows this modification after conversion to autocouplers.
The lower-numbered batch fell into use with the others in the fleet, while the 1000-series wagons were painted in Metropolitan Transit green and used as a block ballast train for the suburban network.
The suburban vehicles were later modified with a cage over the operator control stands, to protect crews from overhead wiring, and were marshalled into two five-wagon sets with a green and gold-painted VZDY on either end.
In 1997 a random assortment of open wagons were reclassed and allocated to spoil trains, collecting contaminated soil and ballast material removed from pits between platforms and other hard-to-reach areas for transport to disposal sites.
[18] In 1979 the Victorian Railways forwarded two standard ELX underframes from Bendigo to Portec, a manufacturing company in Villawood, Sydney, NSW, to be fitted with automated sleeper discharge equipment based on concepts dating back to the late 1950s.
[19][20][21] The idea was that sleepers would be loaded into the wagon, and then as a train ran along the track they would be slowly "kicked" out the side into place for future installation.
In 1965 and 1966, a pair of BB wagons had their bodies removed, and the underframes recoded QD 1 and 2 for the transport of crawler cranes operated by the Way and Works branch.
In 1987/88, eleven former louvre vans were stripped down to underframes at various railway workshops around Victoria, and refitted with a superstructure similar to that used on the VOFY wagons but without plated sides, to ease unloading.
Rails were provided along the frame of the wagon to permit the VZCA dedicated forklifts to run along the train for sleeper unloading.
[32][33][34] Between 1987 and 1989, twenty former boxvans were cut down and recycled as sleeper-carrying wagons, both the normal type and longer sleepers ("timbers") for junction work.
These were renumbered by adding 100 to their previous identities, and the primary traffic was concrete sleepers from Stirling North in South Australia to various locations between Melbourne and Adelaide for the gauge-conversion project.
[41] From 1899 a fleet of six massive OO open wagons entered service for use on heavy coal trains from the Gippsland region.
They were joined in the mid-1930s by six members of the former TT insulated range, and allocated to depots around Victoria, such as North Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat, Ararat, Dimboola, Bendigo, Seymour, Benalla and Traralgon.
None of the vans were recoded to the four-letter Railways of Australia lettering system; though if they had been, it is a fair guess that the code could have become something like VZBA to indicate Victorian, Departmental, Boxvan, Low Speed use.
[45] In 1968, box van BA8 had the body removed and scrapped, and the underframe, recoded as HD 230, was fitted out as a world-first "Fire Attack" wagon.
[52][53] The fire attack train was designed to handle small incidents, including smouldering sleepers, plant material, bridges and telegraph poles.
[57] Shortly after entering service, side panels were added to protect crews who had previously been burned by radiant heat.
It was required to assist in fire management in the Alpine National Park bushfires, where a shortage of water was dampening efforts.
[60] As at 2010, it was expected that the assorted vehicles stabled in the Wagon Storage sidings at North Melbourne were planned to be transferred to Tottenham Yard then scrapped; it is not clear whether this included VZAA 230.
[62] In 1955, six E type open wagons were cut down to underframes only, and had 7,400 single-compartment tanks fitted for the purpose of transporting weed-killer chemicals around the state.
Each tank wagon was fitted with pipes permitting chemicals or water to be drawn through the consist to the weedex spray or fire attack vehicle at one end.
[66] In addition to the tank wagons, the code VZVA was also used to describe former vans VF12 and VF13, which were allocated to the Weedex train for the storage of chemicals and equipment.
Safety wagons were also used either side of oil and explosives vehicles in transit, to reduce the risk of stray sparks from steam locomotives, and between or either end of overlength loads to provide safe coupling points.
[77][78][79] After vehicles were marked "off register" from normal use, they were occasionally repurposed as departmental stock for shunting parts and equipment within larger depot areas and classed HD or, form 1953, HR.
In 1962 older bogie wagons started to be incorporated into the HD and HR series with no differentiation, as depot staff would likely be familiar with each vehicle in their area and the numbers were primarily allocated for book-keeping purposes.
The doorways were plated over, and a triangular prism was constructed in the centre so that brake blocks around yards could be tossed into the wagon and would settle over the bogies, without having to be carefully placed.
[94] In 1993 a pair of former VLEX louvre vans were cut down and fitted with raised timber beams to support bogie frames, when being transported without axles in place.
In more recent times, Puffing Billy has utilised former louvre and cattle vans as travelling equipment storage, and has also acquired a pair of ex-Tasmanian hopper wagons for use on ballast trains; these have been reclassed as NNN.