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 1956 for use on interstate services.
Two major types of carriage were constructed - thirteen AZ first class cars with closely spaced but smaller windows, and twelve BZ second class cars with wider spaced but larger windows (the thirteenth BZ entered service on standard gauge). 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 conductors work stations / compartments and recoded to ACZ at this time.
The Z type cars were made redundant by the early 1990s with the introduction of the Sprinter railcars, most Z Sets were broken up, with the formation of West Coast Railway effective Sunday 19 September 1993 to run Melbourne ~ Geelong ~ Warrnambool Passenger Rail Services under contract to the Victorian Governments Dept. of Transport, Carriages: ACZ's: 252, 255, 257 & BZ's: 267, 269, 270 were obtained by West Coast Railway. After the demise of WCR, V/Line reacquired ACZ 252, ACZ 257 & BZ267, with preservation groups such as 707 Operations acquiring ACZ 255 & BZ 270 & Steamrail Victoria acquiring BZ 269.
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, these being ACZ255 & BZ270 with 707 Operations.
V/Line maintained ACZ 257 (now reclassed as BCZ 257 ~ an economy class carriage, with the WCR 2001-era upgraded conductors work station / compartment) now reversed to be at the West End, while still maintaining its Z type interior as modified & refurbished by WCR in their DDA-compliance upgrade of 2001. It was passed on to 707 Operations in May 2023 as part of general retirements of V/Line's locomotive-hauled fleet.
(As part of these upgrades for DDA-Complience by WCR: ACZ's 252 & 257 were permanently turned, with the old east end {that once formerly housed the 1980s-era fitted larger conductors work station / compartments} being subsequently removed & replaced with a DDA-complement disabled toilet, similar to that fitted to V/Line BZN Carriages, this was hence renamed the new west end of the carriage. The old west end, that once housed the former toilet and washroom compartments divided by the central aisle & saloon entry} was subsequently removed & replaced with a new smaller conductors work station/compartment and hence renamed the new east end of the carriage.)
The remaining Z type carriages in the V/Line fleet were temporarily removed from service in January 2013 due to cracking occurring in the bogies. The carriages have gradually been returned to service, and as at mid December 2016, only BTN253, BTN254, BZN258, BZN262 and BTN268 were out of service. These were all later reintroduced to service after their bogies were repaired.
Services From the introduction of the New Deal in 1981, Z cars largely operated as part of Z sets, however, in the early 1990s most sets were broken up, with carriages merged into N sets. They thus currently run on services mixed with Z sets. Until 2010, there was one set still branded as a Z set, set SZ7, however, this set was actually mostly made up of S cars.
The Z type cars currently run on long-distance services to Swan Hill. In the past, they also operated on other long-distance services, as well as interurban runs.
With the introduction of more VLocity trains, the Z cars have been withdrawn from all remaining services, except for Swan Hill, where it is unknown when locomotive-hauled trains will be replaced.
Design The new carriages were essentially a saloon version of the earlier S-car design, using the most modern amendments to that plan and adjusted for a saloon interior rather than compartments. Each carriage has a body length of , with diaphragms either end extending to when loose, compressing by per end when coupled. The shell is from rail height when loaded, and wide plus external handrails. Couplers are above rail height on flat track, and the bogies are spaced at centres, and from the ends of the body. Axles are spaced apart within the bogies, and the wheels are diameter.
The first S and O/J type carriages were designed with full-width diaphragms in mind, using steel plates to give the impression of a single-unit train. 1AZ had curved ends reminiscent of this outline, while 2AZ, 1BZ and 2BZ had flat ends. The remainder of the class was built with chamfered edges to the body, and all units had exposed rubber diaphragms fitted from new. The walkway through the diaphragms is wide. Externally the only difference between the first and second class carriages, other than markings indicating as such, was the number and size of windows. Both types had two small windows, one either end per side, for the washroom and toilet. Between those, first class cars had a set of five then a set of seven short windows, while second class cars have three then five longer windows; the gap between window 3 and window 4 is hardly noticeable compared to the gap between 5 and 6 on the first class carriages.
Additionally, the first three vehicles of each class featured a line of rivets along the carriage frame. These are thought to be present because those carriage frames had originally been earmarked for future S type carriage builds.
Plumbing The earlier cars in each set had a single tank for 140 gallons of cold water, and small air-intake panels either side of the end-of-carriage diaphragms. Later cars had two, much larger air intakes on one side only of each diaphragm, and tanks for 280 gallons of cold water; and in some cases an additional tank for 20 gallons of hot water.
Electrical Systems All the broad gauge cars except AZ2, BZ1 and BZ2 were powered via Hypoid motor-generator sets, with a gear ratio of 3.47:1 generating 17 kW. The remaining three cars used an alternative system with a 2:57 gear ratio, driving a separate generator set to provide the same 17 kW. The standard gauge cars were only powered by an external supply of 3-phase 415 VAC at 50 Hz. When AZ3 and BZ3 operated on standard gauge they could be powered by their Hypoid systems, or if that was disconnected they could also use the head-end power of the train consist. Some cars were fitted with batteries for emergency power supply - 1VBK and 2VBK had 120 V batteries each, and 1VAM had a bank of batteries providing 48 V.
Air conditioning was built into the roof of the cars, with fresh air ducts either end of the cars and the distribution ducting formed by the ceiling design. Each car was also fitted with a heating system; between the air and in-floor heaters the total load was between 9000 to 10,500W depending on the car.
Details Sitting cars AZ, BZ & BZS, VBK & VFK
When entering the carriage from a platform, passengers first walk through the vestibule area with swing doors to adjacent carriages through diaphragms. On the opposite side there are three doors; facing the centre of the carriage, the left is for the washroom, the centre to the saloon area and the right to the toilet. The men's washroom includes a power outlet supplying 230vAC. The main saloon compartment was originally divided into two sections, with a partition between. The end adjacent to the men's toilets was for smoking passengers and called the No. 1 End, while the end adjacent to the ladies' toilet was for non-smoking passengers and called the No. 2 End. All seat pairs were over armrests and could rotate and recline with footrests provided; and reading lights were provided at least on the first class standard gauge cars. The centre aisle is around wide, and illuminated with fluorescent lights. A public address system is fitted for announcements.
First class carriages were fitted with one pair of seats per window, to give 20 seats in the No. 1/smoking end and 28 in the No. 2/non-smoking end; spacing was a little over .
Second class carriages were similar, but with six rows of four seats in the No. 1/smoking end behind three windows, and ten rows of four seats in the No. 2/non-smoking end behind five windows. Total capacity was 64.
The first two cars of each class were fitted with timber veneer panels internally. Cars AZ3 and BZ3 were modified to allow quick conversion to standard gauge if needed, and to match most of the stock on the Sydney run they were fitted with laminex interiors in lieu. Later cars repeated this alteration.
From the mid 1960s the cars on broad gauge had their layouts modified; the first class carriage seats were respaced drastically to give 56 seats - 24 in the No. 1/smoking end and 32 in the No. 2/non-smoking end, with spacing reduced to about . The changes to the second class cars were far more minor, as the change from 64 to 68 seats only required one additional row of seats in line with the smoking/non-smoking partition, which was modified to suit. When these modifications were completed, the tare weight of the cars increased to 48t 14c 1Q 0L. The change occurred later on the standard gauge carriages, some not gaining the extra seats until the mid 1990s when they were returned to broad gauge. Smoking was banned in first class carriages from 1986, and from all trains in Victoria in 1989.
From the 1980s the cars were gradually converted and upgraded to suit the requirements of the New Deal, and the fleet was renumbered as part of that project to match the new reservations and rolling stock management systems. Cars 1-8AZ took on numbers 251-258; cars VBK1-5 became 262, 260, 261, 259 and 263 respectively; cars 1-7BZ were renumbered 264-270, and cars 1-6VFK changed to 271-276. Most cars were modified and some reclassified during the upgrade process, with 1-8AZ, for example, becoming ACZ. VBK263 spent nearly a year operating on the broad gauge system as AZ263 before its conductor compartment was fitted.
When the six standard gauge VFK cars were converted to broad gauge in the 1990s, they were given the code BZS to indicate that they were ex-Standard Gauge, with 64 seats matching the capacity of a typical BS steel carriage. Cars 271 and 275 were the first to transfer across, in 1990, and the other four were shifted in 1992 in preparation for the replacement of the Melbourne/Sydney Express with an XPT consist. Between 1995-1997 these six cars were refitted internally, with a larger door at one end and seats respaced, to provide sitting for 76 passengers and a parking space for one wheelchair. The new format was called BZN, and the cars were allocated to N sets.