The Victorian Railways used a variety of air-cooled and iced wagons for the transport of all manner of goods. This page covers the history and development of the various classes, and how they changed through their lives.
General traffic – Fixed-wheel types
U vans (1897) The U Vans were perhaps one of the most numerous wagons in service on the Victorian Railways. Built in a number of batches at Newport and Bendigo Workshops over a 61-year period extending from 1897 to 1958, the vans were initially intended as a replacement for the then-expiring H type vans. Because the vans were constructed over more sixty years, it follows that there were a number of different designs of vans constructed, as technology improved. Eventually the numbers for the class ranged from 1 through to 1976.
U vans were used primarily for perishable traffic such as fish, fruit and chocolate, as the louvres along the sides and ends provided ventilation while the train was moving. In the mid-1920s, a lot of fruit was carried from the fruit growing areas to Melbourne for distribution and shipment. Other classes of goods could be carried if necessary.
There was concern the vans were too hot in summer months; as a result, about 100 vans were built with double roofs in an attempt to provide some form of shade. By the 1970s, only a small handful of wagons with double roofs were still in service.
Vans built over the 1888–1925 period were constructed with a single trap door installed in place of louvres at one end of the wagon, while later wagons were fitted with a trap door at each end. The trap doors were used for the insertion of long metal bars, which could be used for hanging meat. When wagons were going through regular maintenance in the 1960s, the trap doors were either welded shut or the entire end panel was replaced with a new section of only louvres.
In the late 1950s the railways experimented by placing several sets of roller bearing axles under U vans. As more bogie rolling stock was being built it was decided that further fixed wheel tests were inappropriate; vans already fitted retained the roller bearings, but no new wagons were fitted.
The vans were scrapped as more bogie louvre vans were built with numbers progressively scrapped towards the late 1970s. Many had bodies removed and sold with the underframes being converted to KAB and KMQ flat wagons.
U van type 1 (1–277, 279, 280) These vans were wooden bodies on steel underframes. The wagons were built entirely as new stock; it is probable that the design was very similar to the then-common H van, other than the louvres designed to allow air flow through the wagon body.
Wagons of this type measured over buffers with the axles at spacing, and were rated for load. A little under half the group, 1 through 112, were fitted with single roofs and single louvres; the remainder, 113–277, 279 and 280, were fitted with double-roofs as a form of shade, and double-louvres for strength. The second roof was slightly larger, overhanging the ends of the wagon body by about an inch on either end.
Numbers 1–11 were built at Newport Workshops during 1888–1889. After the design was deemed a success, wagon U 12 was constructed as a pattern wagon, also at Newport Workshops; it was then forwarded to Bendigo so that the contractor, P. Ellis, could supply further wagons numbers 13–87. Following this order, it was decided to return construction to Newport Workshops. Wagons 88 and 89 were delivered at the end of 1893, followed by 90 through 112 in 1894. A diagram from 1904 notes that wagons 54 and 86–89 were fitted with 5" diameter Knowles Ventilators (2 each except 88 which had 3), probably to aid cooling. Additionally, wagons 94–96 and 98 were specially modified to carry fish.Newsrail November 1991 p371
The next order placed with Newport Workshops was for wagons 113–127. These wagons were identical in design to the previous series; after 113 and 114, the wagons returned to the single roof and louvres type. About a year after the delivery of U 112, number 113 emerged from Newport Workshops on 19 March 1895. Wagons were constructed in intervals of a handful at a time, with gaps of months or years between deliveries, with the final wagon (U 125) emerging on 25 July 1895; deliveries were not in order of construction. Wagons 121 and 122 are noted in a 1904 rollingstock diagram as having battened floors for carrying fish.
Wagons U 128 through U 202 were constructed by the Braybrook Imperial Co., and U 203 to U 277 by Robinson & Co in Spottiswoode. 279 and 280 were built and delivered by Newport Workshops, with the group completed by December 1897.
Wagons of this group are noted in rollingstock registers as spending anywhere from a week to two months at Newport Workshops around 1932–1934; this is around the time the wagons were fitted with automatic couplers.
By the 1950s, the bodies, which had always required a high level of maintenance, were deteriorating badly. As a result, 1953/54 saw 25 supply their underframes for use under P explosives vans (see below), which were then being constructed. Further P vans were built on the underframes of other wooden U vans, whose bodies had been condemned, during 1958/59.
Forty two of the remaining "Robinson Pattern" U vans were recoded HD during 1957/58, for use as Way and Works Plant Trucks. They lasted in this capacity into the 1970s, with steady attrition from 1971 to 1980.
U van type 2 (278, 281–460) (all-steel construction) This series was much like the previous, except that the entire wagon was now constructed with steel, rather than having a wooden body on a steel underframe. Dimensions were identical to previous; over buffers, between axles, 10t load (total 281), single roof and louvres. This series of wagons was built with a through air pipe, but not air brakes. Those were retrofitted over time, after a decision as to the design of brake had been made.
U 278 was built at Newport Workshops as the prototype, and was released to service on 22 March 1897. Then, over the course of about six weeks from 7 June 1898, wagons U 281 to U 310 were released. The next batch was U 311 to U 460, released over about seven months from 24 June 1899. Finally, wagons U 461 through U 560 entered service in 1906. The last batch is said to have had a different handbrake arrangement, although details of the differences are not clear.
Notable wagons within this batch, other than the class leader, are 432, which was marked as having "loose shelves to form a second floor", and U 471, which for unknown reasons had a maximum capacity of instead of the normal .
During the conversion to automatic couplers, the vans had their buffers removed and the wagon capacity was increased from .
U van type 3 (561–991) (long body, three axles when new) This batch was effectively a whole new class, although included in the U series because the purpose of the vans was the same. The new type was nearly twice the length of previous U vans, measuring over buffers. To support the extra weight, the vans were fitted with three axles, spaced apart. The maximum load was . However, the door size was maintained at , which later caused problems with loading/unloading the extra goods. The vans were fitted with a wheel-type handbrake, and the top louvre on the end was fitted with a single trap door to allow insertion/removal of meat-hanging bars. The roof was still a single layer of plain steel panels.
The first 30 wagons, U 561 to U 590, were built at Newport Workshops in 1908. Following that, 120 wagons were delivered in 1912–1913 (up to U 711), and another 280 wagons up to 1919, fairly evenly spaced – although there were no wagons built during 1918, a result of World War I as well as the need to focus on providing rolling stock and equipment for the suburban electrification project. The final wagon of the type, U 991, was delivered on 13 June 1919.
These wagons were heavily modified around 1932–1934, with the middle axle removed and the other two modified with larger axle boxes, creating the ubiquitous underframe (in fact between axles, not over ends). This change occurred with the introduction of automatic couplers; as part of the same project, when buffers were removed the wagons were upgraded to a maximum load of instead of the previous . Of the 430 wagons of the type, about 390 were upgraded as such; the remainder had bogies added, and were re classed UB.
A number of these vans were later retrofitted with long side doors; it is thought that this occurred around 1950.
The most unusual U van of the entire fleet is thought to be U 961, which had its body replaced in 1963 with an all-new design. The sides of the van were VLX components, fitted with B van sliding doors; the ends were a custom-made part. This was done as an experiment for a new type of explosives van.
U van type 4 (992–1066) (corrugated iron roof) In an attempt to further experiment with internal cooling of the perishable loads, a new batch of U vans was delivered in 1925. While the design was mostly identical to the previous batch (including the trap doors and six-wheel design), the new series of 75 vans was built with a corrugated iron roof in lieu of the previous steel plate design. Additionally, the vans had a wide side door, instead of a wide door, to make for faster loading and unloading. These wider doors were partially flat near the base.
The entire series was delivered in 1925.
The same modifications were made in the 1932–34 period as the previous batch, with around 20 wagons from this group being converted to UB bogie wagons.
U van type 5 (1067–1216) (second trap door) Identical to the type 4 series in most ways, the only design change at this point was the addition of a second trap door for meat bars, at the opposite end of the wagon.
Wagons U 1067–1116 were built at Newport over three months from November 1934; wagons U 1117–1217 were built at Bendigo workshops from February 1936 to December 1938.
Notably, U 1141 through U 1217 were constructed with two axles instead of three, and autocouplers, the Westinghouse automatic brake system and increased load of 16 tons were part of the wagons from new.
U van type 6 (1217–1466) (lever handbrake) The final development of the long U type van design, the only change made over the type 5's was the replacement of the wheel handbrake for a lever type. All of these wagons were constructed, from new, with two axles spaced apart, autocouplers and the Westinghouse air brake system.
Wagons U 1217–1266 were built at Bendigo over about six months from December 1938; 1267 was built at Newport in the middle of 1946, followed by 1268–1366 in 1947. 1367–1466 were built at Newport over nine months from September 1951.
U van type 7 (1467–1796) (rebuilds) As mentioned above, by the 1960s the original, short U vans were becoming maintenance-intensive, particularly those with wooden bodies. However, at the time there were not enough bogie wagons on the Victorian Railways to justify scrapping of the fleet, so instead the underframes were recycled and rebuilt with new bodies at Bendigo workshops. Of the 460 short wagons originally built (179 timber body, 281 all-steel), 254 had their bodies replaced with the new type, along with 76 underframes donated from scrapped open wagons of the IA type.
Wagons U 1467–1545 entered service in 1956; 1546–1663 in 1957; 1664–1782 in 1958 and 1783–1796 in 1959.
While the bodies were replaced, the underframes were left mostly untouched; they were still over pulling lines, between axles and a maximum load. The new bodies were similar in design to the early VF bogie vans; they all had sliding doors (based on the B type vans) and corrugated iron roofing. The ends of the bodies had a few varieties in detail, with later wagons fitted with an additional cross-beam near the top of the end pieces for extra strength. Additionally, later wagons had a door based on the VF wagons.
UB van, later VLAA