Z type carriage
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Z type carriage | |
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 Exterior of a ACZ type carriage |
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 Interior of a first class ACZ carriage |
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| Manufacturer | Victorian Railways |
| Built at | Newport Workshops |
| Operator | V/Line, various heritage operators |
| Specifications | |
| Intercar connections | Rubber corridor connectors |
| Power supply | Head end power |
| Gauge | Broad, has operated on standard |
The Z type carriages are an air conditioned steel passenger carriage used on the railways of Victoria, Australia. The carriages were constructed by the Victorian Railways from 1957 for use on intrastate services.
Two major types of carriage were constructed - AZ first class cars with a closely spaced but small windows, and BZ second class cars with wider spaced but larger windows. Carriages were provided with a saloon layout, with 2+2 reversible seating provided, with each row lining up with the windows. First class was provided with more legroom than second. An internal partition existed between the two ends of the saloon, but was removed in later years. A single twinette sleeping car was also built in a Z type body shell, entering service in 1963; it had 20 berths.
A number of carriages were placed onto standard gauge bogies from 1962 for use on interstate trains such as the Spirit of Progress. With the end of these trains in the 1980s they were placed back onto the broad gauge. During this time a number of AZ type carriages were provided with conductor compartments and recoded to ACZ.
The cars were made redundant by the early 1990s with the introduction of the Sprinter railcars, and a number were sold to West Coast Railway. After the demise of WCR some cars were acquired by V/Line, with the remainder passed to preservation groups such as R707 Operations.
The cars still with V/Line were refurbished from 1995, being provided with 2+3 seating in the N type carriage style, with some carriages also receiving wider doors and toilets with wheelchair access. Today only a handful of Z type carriages remain in unaltered form.
[edit] Coding
- AZ: First class sitter
- ACZ: First class sitter with conductors area
- BCZ: ACZ signed for economy class
- BZ: Economy class sitter
- BZS: BZ with internal partition remaining
- SZ: sleeping car
Conversions:
- BTN: Economy class
- BZN: Economy class with disabled access and toilet
Standard gauge:
- VBK: First class sitter
- VFK: Second class sitter
- VAM: sleeping car
[edit] Carriage sets
Operation of fixed carriage sets was not introduced until 1981, with the 'New Deal' reforms of passenger rail operations and the introduction of the N type carriages. Before this time Z cars could appear on various intrastate trains with other S type steel carriages, as well as older wooden bodied stock.
From the 1980s most of the Z cars was placed into sets made up of an ACZ carriage, BRS snack car carriage, and other BS and BZ carriages. This remained until the early 1990s when the Sprinter railcars arrived, when many of the sets were broken up, with only two remaining: VZ1 and VZ2. From the mid 1990s they also added as additional cars in the N type sets, with the last Z set being broken up in 2006. A number of loose ACZ / BCZ carriages remain, that can be attached to N type sets.
[edit] References
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