The W type carriages were wooden passenger carriages used on the railways of Victoria, Australia. There were two variants, short- and long-body vehicles, and this article deals with the former. Details on the latter can be found here.
History
In the early 20th century, the Victorian Railways decided to convert the metropolitan part of the network to electric traction. As part of that project, a large number of "Swing Door" ("dog box") cars were converted to electric traction, which left a gaping hole in the carriage fleet. As a result, the 'W' series of passenger cars was built. Four variations were constructed from 1911 onwards: AW, ABW, BW and CW.
The origin of the 'W' designation is unclear. In most other cases the class letter was derived from a basic feature of the car type, or its use. In the 1900s, new express passenger cars, designated 'E', were being built to replace ageing equipment. The W-class cars were of a similar design but modified for general stopping trains. Peter J. Vincent believes the 'W' may represent 'Wayside' or non-express passenger type.
Design and construction
All the original passenger carriages (built 1911–1922) were about long, wide and fitted with clerestory roofs. The fifteen 1925 cars were the same dimensions but with curved roofs.
The single-class passenger vehicles had one compartment reserved for ladies and two compartments reserved for smoking. They were also fitted with single-gender lavatories at each end, and vestibules (with lock-able doors) for walking through to other cars in a given train. There was a water fountain located about halfway down the corridor in each car.
The guards vans were built at long over body, wide. The first fifteen were built with the standard clerestory roof and entered service between 1913 and 1914. Vans 16-20 were constructed in 1935 and shared the dimensions of the predecessors (rather than taking the wider body of the new-built passenger cars of the time), but had curved roofs fitted.
Details
AW cars
Built from 1911, 29 AW cars were built. They were numbered 1AW to 29AW, and had the then-standard clerestory roofs. Over the years these were found to be insufficient for the traffic, and so numbers 30AW–35AW were built in 1922, the last to have the clerestory roof style. They seated six people in each of the 6 compartments (one reserved for ladies and two reserved for Smoking), plus two more people at each end for a total of 40 passengers. As patronage grew and older cars were retired, construction resumed in 1925. This batch consisted of 36AW to 40AW, but these cars were fitted with the new style of curved roofs.
Of the first 23 cars, when looking from the Ladies end towards the Smoking end, the corridor was on the right-hand side for cars with even numbers, but on the left-hand side for cars with odd numbers. It is not known whether this pattern extended across the rest of the shorter carriage fleet.
On 18 September 1975, 30AW was selected for a trial of in-carriage heating, using two gas cylinders supplied by Gilbarco and fitted to the undercarriage to heat water running through radiators under each seat, in lieu of foot-warmers. This was done because a new timetable, then recently introduced, did not permit enough time to equip each carriage with foot-warmers at regular intervals.
Standard gauge service
In 1972 nine of the 64ft W cars were converted to standard gauge, and they were joined by car 1VBW ex 36AW. The entire consist was painted in blue and gold, and used primarily on special excursion trips such as scouting or defence 'specials' that required one train. The consist provided for up to 652 seats across the ten carriages.
ABW cars
52 58 ft-body ABW cars were built between 1911 and 1925. The earlier Clerestory-roof stock was initially numbered 1ABW to 42ABW and released to service between 1911 and 1914. In 1918–19, cars 43-47ABW were added to the fleet. Then, in early 1925 cars 48ABW to 52ABW were constructed, with the new design of a curved roof, but still retaining all other dimensions of the earlier group.