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.
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.