Unlike the broad-gauge, the Victorian Railways' narrow-gauge network never had four-wheeled wagons or trucks in regular service (aside from a handful of trollies). Instead, a single design of 249 underframes was constructed, with identical structure, bogies, couplers and brake equipment. Different bodies were provided on these frames for each purpose. The most common, by far, was the convertible flat/open truck with over 200 examples built (and more in the preservation era), with a total of 31 other trucks built for livestock, louvre vans, insulated and boxcar types.
All the earliest vehicles were issued to service without the "N" prefix to indicate narrow gauge; this was appended later. In an incident report dated 24 December 1898 the narrow gauge open wagons were still being referred to as "QR" rather than NQR. Codes for each type were equivalent to the broad gauge system, e.g. the open wagons were classed "QR". By 1910 the N superscript prefix was being added, e.g. NQR. From 1926 all of the goods stock which had triple-letter classification were simplified to double-letter classification (e.g. NMM became NM), though some NQR wagons were not recoded to NQ until much later. However, as late as 1931 occasional references were still made to, for instance, "narrow gauge QR trucks".
In more recent years, the Emerald Tourist Railway Board has started a process of reclassifying all previously double-letter classified goods stock back to the original identities. This is in recognition of the adopted Era of Significance for the Railway, which covers period 1900–1930, during which time they mostly had the double letter coding.
The same frame design was later used for the second generation of NBH passenger carriages, after the first had been converted from NQR flat/open trucks.
Convertible flat/open trucks—NQR
The NQR class of trucks were the staple of the Victorian Railways' narrow gauge fleet. 218 examples were constructed between 1898 and 1914, designed as an open wagon with removable end panels as well as three drop-down but removable doors either side. When assembled into the open wagon format these wagons were designed to have the same capacity (weight and volume) as a normal broad gauge four-wheel open truck, to make load transferring easier at the interchange stations—Colac, Wangaratta, Upper Ferntree Gully and Moe.
The goods truck code had been derived from the conceptually similar broad-gauge QR trucks, which had removable sides to permit various types of loading. Previously, "Q" had been used for bogie flat wagons and "R" for bogie open trucks.
Some of the original trucks were apparently provided with end sliding doors and three trapdoors in the floors, but these elements were not retained in future builds; it is known that thirty wagons in the number series 1-70 inclusive had these features, so it could have been the first thirty delivered for construction of the Whitfield line. The trap doors are shown on diagrams as each being in line with the pillars between the side drop-doors, two on one side of the wagon and the third on the opposite side, parallel with one of the door pillars while the other only had a solid floor.
Letters and numbers were originally painted only on the end bulkheads and doors and the side doors, both of which could be removed as traffic dictated, and this made vehicle identification difficult until these details were transferred to the underframes of each truck. The superscript "N" changed to regular script in the goods vehicle recoding following the auto coupler conversion in 1926.
Some of these trucks were fitted with seats and frameworks supporting shelter to cater for holiday traffic on the Gembrook and Walhalla lines. In particular, NQR trucks 114 and 140 were identified as having screw-type hand brakes fitted in addition to normal air brakes, permitting their use in lieu of brake vans—but only in the Up direction, and only for holiday traffic.Victorian Railways, General Appendix to the Book of Rules and Regulations and to the Working Time Table, April 1919, p.350 Over the years, a number of NQRs were provided with removable wood and steel frameworks with canvas roof canopies and side curtains, and internal seating to supplement the rest of the passenger stock during busy holiday periods. Vehicles known to have been so-fitted include 86NQ and 172NQ. Puffing Billy has re-created these in modified form for emergency capacity. Five more NQRs, numbered 219–223, were built between 1990 and 1992 initially for passenger use so were fitted with the removable frames.
Special loads Special arrangements were specified for various forms of irregular timber loading.
Sheep Speed Limit 20 Plus notes that six wagons were modified with low level roofs to serve for sheep transport; photos confirm that 79NQ was one of these, but various working time table extracts from 1926 and 1939 identify a group of five wagons - 61, 72, 74, 79 and 80NQ - which were heavier than the rest of the fleet. These frameworks may have been cut-down versions of the holiday traffic canvas roof frameworks provided for high demand holiday passenger traffic.
Telegraph poles and piles Telegraph poles and bridge piles of lengths would be loaded across three NQ wagons, the outer two with an end removed and the middle as a flat wagon only, so the extra timber length would extend in each case towards the middle of the set. In this case the timbers would be supported on a hardwood bolster at the outer bogie and a bolster, probably an old sleeper, at the inner bogie, to slant the timber upwards towards the middle. The weight distribution was also important, with a specified maximum weight of half the truck's weight capacity on each.
For longer timber in the range , the instruction was that shorter timbers had to be on the outside and top, with longer timbers closer to the centreline of each wagon. Additionally, the maximum weight was reduced to per truck. If all the timbers were piles long they had to be placed with the thicker end at the outside of each triple-wagon set, with the load secured to that end. At the inner ends the piles were to be lashed together, but not to either the loaded or safety truck, and the maximum load was reduced to per truck.
For loads a bolster with capacity was to be constructed on each floor of a coupled set of flat wagons, with the load suspended between them; the position of the bolsters varied with the length of the load. Loads of up to would be suspended on bolsters on the outer two of a triple-truck set, with loads (excluding the bolsters) per truck of up to , otherwise the maximum was reduced back down to . For these longest loads the piles had to be loaded in opposing directions, with the large end of one adjacent to the thin end of the other, and no more than two piles per triple-set of trucks could be carried. The width of the load was limited to at the ends, with the bolsters placed just inside the inner bogies of the outer two trucks. If the load was the maximum length of , the bolsters would be centred on each of the outer two trucks, the maximum load per bolster was still , and the maximum load width was at each end.
Special instructions were also provided for single, larger logs per truck. Up to two or shorter logs, maximum each, could be loaded into a single truck. Between the limit was one log up to , then from the limit was . In each case the log/s would be suspended on "Special Chock Bolsters" which had a curve cut out in the centre to keep the logs in the middle of the wagon, and support blocks had to be placed either side of every bogie to support the wagon while it was being loaded.
Bags of chaff Other maximum loads were 174 bags of chaff per NQ wagon, in tiers with some transverse and some lengthwise in the wagon with a general trapezoidal shape. The layers, from bottom, were 30, 32, 34, 32, 30 and 16 bags.
Firewood Firewood of lengths up to would be loaded to a height of above the floor of the truck, slightly above the water-level. This was treated as , and secured by arranging some of the load in two layers as a fence around the inside perimeter of the truck to keep the rest of the load in place.
If firewood was in lengths then it was to be loaded in three rows of transverse stacks along the wagon floor with six stays each end of each wagon; if it was only running within the same narrow gauge line it was being loaded on, it could go up to tall (, but if it was going to be transhipped the maximum height was reduced to () to match the capacity of the broad gauge wagons at the interchange stations.
For firewood of lengths long most of the timber was to be loaded transverse along one side of the wagon with two stays at each end, with the balance parallel to the other side with 14 stays along the side, to a height of . This was to be treated as a load of for accounting and train weight purposes. The same principle applied for longer timber, just with fewer stays on the longitudinally-loaded side of the wagon. A full wagon with timber up to long, at the maximum height , would be charged and treated as , and to tall would be .
Sawn timber
Sawn timber loaded into NQ trucks had to be arranged with alternating short and long lengths if possible, to maintain an even weight distribution across the truck's floor. If the timber was too long to make full use of a single truck's weight limit, then some of the timber would be butted up against one end of the truck and the rest would be loaded at an angle in the other end, pointing up towards the middle.
Rough-cut timber For timber that was roughly cut, for example fence droppers, pickets, shingles, fodder boards and battens, billets, palings and so on, the timber would be arranged similarly to longer firewood lengths with some transverse and some perpendicular, and a small portion - as little as possible - of the timber would be loaded vertically. This load was considered equivalent to , and loaded to normally, or for "split staves for case making" specifically.
NBH Excursion carriages
In April 1919 NQR wagons 31, 33, 36, 38, 39 and 46 were rebuilt into the first of the NBH passenger carriages, numbered 1 through 6 respectively and used for second-class passenger holiday traffic by adding seats, a removable roof on poles and tarps for wagon sides and doors.
Flat wagons—NQ From 1926 the class was relettered from NQR to NQ, reflecting their use more often than not as flat wagons rather than open wagons. Most of the class then remained in service until the early 1950s, when the four VR lines closed and mass scrappings of narrow-gauge stock began. The last NQR was withdrawn in 1958.
On 9 September 1954 six NQ wagons, nos 94, 100, 102, 153, 169 and 208, were sold from Moe station to the Forests Commission. Coincidentally, the quantity of six wagons matches the number taken from Gould station to Moe after the last official train operated on 25 June 1954; the transfer was made by engine 7A and van 7NBC on 29 June 1954.
In 1965 the Victorian Railways transferred a set of two NC vans, three NU wagons and four NQ wagons, one of which (NQ149) was fitted with a water tank, to Upper Ferntree Gully, from which they were handed over to the Preservation Society, in order to assist with the extension and reopening to Emerald station.
Puffing Billy Railway currently has NQRs 135 and 219–223 inclusive, fitted with seats and a canopy, and NQR 146 without a canopy. All seven have a capacity of 28 passengers, and a weight of . In goods service are NQR wagons 21, 29, 91, 186 and 216 with a capacity of and a tare weight of ; and NQR 21 can be fitted with seats if necessary to match the configuration of NQR 146.