The New South Wales stainless steel carriage stock was a type of passenger carriage operated by the New South Wales Government Railways from 1961 until 1993.
These carriages were mainly used on interstate trains such as the Southern Aurora, which ran between Sydney and Melbourne, its slower counterpart the Spirit of Progress and the Brisbane Limited. They were also used on the Gold Coast Motorail to Murwillumbah.
With the demise of locomotive-hauled trains, the majority of the carriages passed to the Australian Railway Historical Society, Canberra and New South Wales Rail Transport Museum (now the NSW Rail Museum) who have maintained them in operational condition. The latter infrequently operates them on tours under the Southern Aurora banner. Since November 2020, Vintage Rail Journeys has emerged as the primary operator of ex-Southern Aurora/Brisbane Limited carriages, using a combination of their carriages and carriages hired in from THNSW/LVR.
Design
The carriages used featured fluted sides and consisted of roomette and twinette sleepers, lounge cars and diners, with the Southern Aurora carriages being owned when new jointly by the New South Wales Government Railways and Victorian Railways, and both the Brisbane Express and Gold Coast Motorail carriages being owned by the New South Wales Government Railways.
Construction
Brisbane Express Cars
In late 1954, tenders were called for by the Department of Railways for 24 air conditioned carbon steel bodied cars for the Brisbane Limited similar in construction the HUB and RUB sets. The trains would have been marshalled into two 9-carriage sets, plus one of each type spare. The contract was awarded to Commonwealth Engineering, Granville in August 1955. Commonwealth Engineering had put an option in their tender application for these cars to be constructed from stainless steel instead of the carbon steel specified and they were successful with this option. However, reduced available funds led to extended delays and the renegotiation of the contract and with the contract being changed and by 1959 the cars actually ordered had changed to only 5 LAN roomette sleepers (2323–2327) and 5 NAM twinette sleepers (2328–2332). These cars were built from stainless steel and used design techniques that Commonwealth Engineering had licensed from the Budd Company.
Southern Aurora & Spirit of Progress Joint Stock Cars
A fleet of 34 stainless steel carriages were jointly purchased by the Department of Railways New South Wales and Victorian Railways for the commencement of the Southern Aurora between Sydney and Melbourne in April 1962. The carriages were ordered from Commonwealth Engineering, Granville and the cars as ordered for this service consisted of: 9 NAM twinette sleeping cars with a capacity of 20 passengers numbered 2335–2343 2 DAM deluxe twinette sleeping cars with a capacity of 18 passengers numbered 2333 & 2334, with 2333 being owned by Victorian Railways and 2334 by NSWGR. 3 RMS dining cars numbered 2358–2360 3 BCS lounge cars numbered 2355–2357 11 LAN roomette sleeping cars with a capacity of 20 passengers numbered 2344–2354 3 PHN power/ brake vans numbered 2361–2363 3 MHN luggage brake vans numbered 2364–2366
Additional cars to the same design were also ordered for use on the Spirit of Progress, these cars consisted of: 3 NAM twinette sleeping cars with a capacity of 20 passengers numbered 2367, 2368 & 2373 3 PHN power/ brake vans numbered 2369–2371
Seven were destroyed in the Violet Town rail accident on 7 February 1969 with replacement stock built in 1970/71. The replacement cars of the same design were given new numbers, but used bogies recovered from the crash site. 2 NAM, numbered 2374-2375 3 LAN, numbered 2376-2378 1 BCS, numbered 2379 1 PHN, numbered 2381
Gold Coast Motorail Cars
To provide additional sleeping cars for the Brisbane Limited and Gold Coast Motorail, ten twinette sleeping cars with a capacity of 18 sleeping passengers in nine compartments were ordered by the Public Transport Commission. These cars were coded FAM (2382–2391) and were delivered by Commonwealth Engineering in 1975/76. These had deeper skirts than the earlier built carriages.