V&SAR Intercolonial Express Carriages
19th-century carriages on the Adelaide–Melbourne railway line / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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V&SAR Intercolonial Express Carriages were carriages on a new train called the Intercolonial Express running on Victorian Railways and South Australian Railways in 1887.[1] The track of two railways met on Wednesday 19 January 1887. The Victorian Railways' Western Line to Dimboola,[2] and the South Australian Railways' Wolseley line, met at Serviceton. Since both sides shared the broad gauge of 5'3", an agreement was made between the two railways allowing a pool of carriages, classed O, to be specifically allocated to interstate trains linking the capitals of Melbourne and Adelaide. The operating and maintenance cost of the new train would be funded by both railways, approximately 60% paid for by the Victorian Railways and 40% by the South Australian Railways.
A new fleet of carriages was built for the train and classed as the letter O. Four sleeping cars were imported from the United States and delivered in 1886 (as 1O-4O). They were joined by eight composite sitting cars (5O-12O) and a variety of guards and mail vans (13O-22O) built by both the Victorian and South Australian Railway's workshops, and all delivered for service in 1887.
As patronage grew, additional carriages were added to the fleet, replicating earlier designs for fleet interchangeability. Vans 23O and 24O were built in 1890 to the same design as 15O and 16O; sitting cars 25-28O matched 5O-12O and entered service between 1897 and 1891; and 29O and 30O matched the designs of the initial sleeping cars, 1O-4O.
The sitting cars became the most worn of the fleet, so in 1900 Victoria and South Australia each provided six sitting passenger carriages from their newest fleets, and the O cars 5-12 and 25-28 were removed from interstate service and split half each way, becoming the Victorian Railways' 77-82ABAB and the South Australian Railways' no.233-238.
A new custom fleet was constructed from 1907, using the design of the E type carriage of the Victorian Railways. When that was completed the remaining O type carriages were withdrawn and split equally.