This article outlines the history and types of passenger rolling stock and guards vans on the narrow-gauge lines of the Victorian Railways in Australia.
All passenger carriages operating under the Victorian Railways were painted a deep red, with black underframes and white lettering.
In the early preservation era, vehicles managed by the Puffing Billy Preservation Society had a yellow band painted across the side, indicating the change in responsibility, although this practice slowly fell out of favour in the Emerald Tourist Railway Board era with few (if any) carriages now carrying this indication.
[5][6][7] The composite carriage had a single saloon area fully enclosed and fitted with seating for seven passengers.
The NBDBD van area was designed with a workspace, capacity for up to four tons of goods or luggage, and a booking office compartment obviating the need for on-platform ticket sales staff.
4NBDBD and 4NBB functioned as spare vehicles, replacing those which had been transported to Newport Workshops for maintenance, while 5NBB and 5NBDBD were held in storage until the Beech Forest line opened in 1902.
At the same time, a seventh NBC carriage was constructed, entering service near the end of 1910 on the newly-opened Walhalla line.
6NB was sold privately along with compartment car 8NB, and these were recovered by the Puffing Billy Preservation Society from Ocean Grove in the 2000s.
1, 2 and 5NB were retained in service until 1950, when the bodies were transferred to Pakenham for use as staff accommodation during the Gippsland line electrification project.
They were officially recorded as scrapped at Newport Workshops in February 1951, but in 1959 all three bodies were purchased by the Puffing Billy Preservation Society and transported by road from Pakenham to Menzies Creek.
Instead of coupled pairs of saloon carriages, miniature versions of normal broad-gauge rolling stock were constructed with compartment interiors.
It had the short wheelbase of the earlier NBDBD vans, but were otherwise designed similarly to the newer compartment style carriages including the extra 4 in (0.10 m) height.
In 1911 the Colac to Beech Forest line was extended to Crowes, and in 1912 cars 11–14NB and van 2NC was constructed to reflect both that and increased traffic elsewhere on the system.
[24] Following the first world war traffic on the Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook line increased drastically, and the Victorian Railways were ill-prepared to manage this.
[26] Five more NQRs, numbered 219–223, were built between 1990 and 1992 by the Puffing Billy Railway, initially for passenger use and fitted with modified removable shelter frames.
41 days after entering service a lower bar was fitted to the sides, after the Railways accepted that passengers were going to sit on the window sills no matter what the official position was.
[29] Following the broad-gauge tradition the "H" suffix indicated that the cars were only to be used for excursion traffic as required, because their accommodation was not of the same standard that regular passengers would have expected.
The carriages were exclusively used between Upper Ferntree Gully and Gembrook until 1958, when the remaining 8 NBHs (3–4, 6–7, 9–11 & 13)[14] were transferred to Colac for Australian Railway Historical Society trips on the Beech Forest line until its closure 1962.
All of the vehicles (besides 8NBH) have also had their tongue-and-groove timber ends and sides replaced with plywood sheets including simulated v-joints for additional strength and ease of construction.
A few NBH vehicles also had fixed perspex panels fitted in lieu of the blinds to provide shelter and prevent people sitting on the handrails over a few winters, but this proved unpopular with the public and the experiment has not been repeated.
1997 to 1998 saw a further six units added to the fleet, with steel body frames in lieu of timber and with wider windowsills but otherwise to the same design.
With the addition of the guard's compartment, a C was added to the end of the classification to identify its use as a brakevan, whereas traditional Victorian Railways coding would have the C before the H, making it NBCH.
The new fleet will enter service as eight regular extended NBH cars 24–31 (instead of, say, 53–59), and four NBHC vehicles featuring an enclosed guard's compartment with three rear windows similar to those in the NC vans, and capacity for up to 24 passengers, or 12 plus six wheelchairs, numbered 1–4NBHC.
When that line closed in 1965, O1 was acquired by Puffing Billy for testing and, when this proved successful, the remaining carriages were imported.
[38] When the Railway embarked on its Luncheon Train and Night Train services, the NBL cars were fitted with upgraded seating and gates in the end-platform railings, reclassed as NAL to reflect their first-class use and repainted in red with ornate gold lining.
[7] Prior to the use of 5NBD as the catering car, the Luncheon train consist generally ran with 2NBC at the Belgrave end.
As the Walhalla Goldfields Railway was re-opened long after Puffing Billy was established, rolling stock available for restoration was difficult to acquire.
One wagon was fitted out with a framework for supporting a temporary roof, similar to the original sheltered NQR design.