The W type carriages were wooden passenger carriages used on the railways of Victoria, Australia.

History Following World War I patronage on the Victorian Railways increased significantly, and there were insufficient high capacity carriages for the busiest routes. To overcome the problem, the W design was adjusted, with a longer and wider body, to produce the Long W series. The vehicles entered service from 1926.

Design and construction The 1926 cars were long over couplers and wide. They retained the curved (arched) style of roof, as previously employed on the last fifteen short W cars.

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.

Details AW cars The final batch of AW cars was constructed in 1926 and 1927, again fitted with curved roofs, and numbered 60AW to 68AW. Cars 69AW and 70AW were ordered but not built. These new cars were capable of seating 70 people across 7 compartments, again one reserved for ladies and two for smoking.

In December 1937, the newest carriages, 60AW to 68AW, were converted to add 2nd-class capacity to the system.

AW numberNewport Butty GangEntered serviceBW numberConversion dateAW numberConversion dateVFW numberConversion dateFinal numberConversion dateOff RegisterDisposal60 AWStubbins & Party1926-06-1871 BW1938-02-1160 AW1956-03-311 VFW1972-12-0771 BW1979-07-311984-08-22Steamrail Victoria61 AWTobitt & Party1926-08-2772 BW1937-12-2261 AW1956-08-272 VFW1972-11-3072 BW1980-02-xx1983-05-16Body sold privately to Frankston; subsequently sold to Forrest and converted to luxury accommodation.62 AWStubbins & Party1926-06-1873 BW1938-02-0462 AW1954-04-xx3 VFW1972-12-0732 MT1981-09-181984-11-21Steamrail Victoria; stored at Tarp Shop until scrapped in October 2008.63 AWGaulton & Party1926-08-0674 BW1938-04-0763 AW1954-12-xx4 VFW1972-11-3034 MT1981-11-091984-08-22Allocated to the Yarra Valley Railway, 19 July 1988. Awaiting restoration.64 AWMcCann & Party1927-04-0875 BW1938-04-0664 AW1956-06-295 VFW1972-11-3075 BW1980-12-xx1984-08-22Steamrail Victoria, as 64AW.65 AWGaulton & Party1926-10-2276 BW1938-03-2265 AW1956-07-216 VFW1972-11-3033 MT1981-09-161986-08-xxMornington Tourist Railway; restored as 65AW in 1990's.66 AWMcCann & Party1927-05-0677 BW1938-02-2166 AW1957-03-287 VFW1972-11-23n/an/a1983-06-28Sold to ARHS (ACT) in Canberra; used on tour trains 1983–1990, then static exhibit. Transferred to Junee in June 2004 for restoration.67 AWStubbins & Party1927-04-1178 BW1938-03-3067 AW1955-03-178 VFW1972-12-0778 BW1979-12-xx1983-12-15Body transferred to Ferny Creek in 1996.68 AWOwen & Party1927-04-1379 BW1938-04-0268 AW1957-03-069 VFW1972-11-3079 BW1980-07-011985-03-15Historical Register from 1 July 1983, allocated to Steamrail Victoria after March 1985 then reallocated to Yarra Valley Tourist Railway. Sold to Black Spur Caravan Park at Narbethong in 1993, and onsold to Woori Yallock circa 2005.

Note that 60AW-63AW and 65AW were built in 1926, while 64AW and 66AW-68AW were built in 1927.

They were converted from AW to BW in December 1937, then returned to AW in 1955–56, and to VFW in 1972. The VFW's that were reconverted back to BW's were converted in 1979, while VFW's 3, 4 & 6 were converted to MT's in 1983. 7VFW was sold in 1983 as well.

The VFW cars were painted in VR Blue and Gold, and were on . The cars were used for special excursion trips, generally scouting or defence 'specials' that required one train.

When the VFW cars were returned to broad gauge in the 1980s, bogies were sourced from scrapped Tait carriages.Newsrail June 1982 p. 125.

ABW cars From 1926, new curved roof, longer and wider stock was constructed and numbered 60ABW to 63ABW and 65ABW.

Although diagrams are not available, photos appear to indicate that the long version of the ABW design, with the curved roof, was set out internally in much the same way as the shorter carriages. A side-on view on the site indicates that three first-class compartments were included, much the same as the design of the short carriages, while four second-class compartments are provided in place of three. Therefore, it is likely that again, the outer two compartments were for smoking passengers, the inner two compartments were for ladies with a seat cut-out in each to make way for the door to the ladies' lavatory.

About 1981, cars 61ABW-63ABW were converted to 80BW-82BW and 65ABW was converted to 31MT. 60ABW had been sold to private owners in 1974.

The cars ran until the late 1980s when replaced by the then-new 'N' sets.

BW cars In 1926 and 1927, cars 60BW to 70BW were added to the fleet. The additional width and length allowed them to seat 68 people; 64 across eight compartments, plus two in each vestibule.

In 1937/1938, nine were converted from AW cars, to the 71BW–79BW range. This was a result of an increase in second-class passengers. These were converted back to AW cars by the late 1950s. in 1980, the cars were again renumbered back to 71BW to 79BW, after spending some time as Standard Gauge 'second division' cars (the VFW class).

In 1981, BW 80–82 were converted from ABW 61–63, though it is not clear what the capacity of those vehicles was.

As a trial it was decided in 1982 to re-letter 67BW and 70BW to BWL, indicating the larger seating capacity. However, the trial was terminated and no more were re-lettered.

In the preservation era, 62BW and 80BW were retrofitted with small kiosks replacing a single compartment. It is thought that the kiosk in 62BW may have been taken from 7BV or a guards van.

62BW appeared in the season one episode "The Copy" of Round the Twist, and were used for filming of scenes between Healesville and Yarra Glen.

BW 72 & BW 79 exist in private ownership, BW 72 is used as accommodation in the town of Forrest in eastern Victoria.Steam Carriage: 1926 Train Carriage, Otways Retrieved 15 May 2026.

64AW, 64BW & 64ABW An interesting note is that 64ABW was never built, and never entered service. Peter J. Vincent's theory is that 64ABW was not built in the 1926 batch because of confusion between the 64-foot length of the new cars, and carriage number 64.

Also, 64AW and 64BW each entered service a year after their batch-counterparts, in 1927 instead of 1926. This was supposedly to reduce confusion. However, an extra ABW was not needed, and so instead of building 64ABW, the VR probably used its parts to construct one of 65AW to 68AW. This cannot be substantiated, but is the most likely explanation.

Sleeping cars Three sleeping cars were constructed by the Victorian Railways in 1928, replacing former Joint Stock Mann Boudoir sleeping carriages that had been cascaded to the Mildura overnight services. Six of those cars had been built in 1886-1889 and used on the Intercolonial Express between Melbourne and Adelaide until the E type sleeping cars entered service, with four being divided between the South Australian and Victorian Railways in 1908 and the final two in 1920. Victoria acquired the cars formerly classed O2 and O3 (letter 'O' not numeral zero), and later O6, named Sleeper No.6, Mildura, and Latrobe. In 1911 No.6 and Mildura were renamed Avon and Kiewa respectively and converted to mixed sleeping and dining carriages, then joined by O6 as Latrobe in 1920; and in 1924 Kiewa reverted to a full sleeping car configuration. Sleeping cars Kiewa and Latrobe were withdrawn in 1929, and combined sleeping/dining car Avon followed in 1932.

The three replacement sleeping cars used a similar internal arrangement to the last two E type sleepers, Buchan and Wando, but were slightly wider with steel panels used in lieu of timber slats for the sides, and a curved roof matching the other Long W carriages. Ten compartments were fitted, each capable of seating four second-class sitting passengers, or two sleeping passengers along one wall, for a day capacity of 40 passengers or 20 at night. While the cars were generally similar to the earlier joint-stock sleeping cars, they were exclusively built for use on the Victorian Railways system.Newsrail May 1997 p.134 All three Long W sleeping carriages were out-shopped fitted with air conditioning on 5 July 1937, at which point the names were removed and the carriage identities swapped to Sleeper No.1, No.2 and No.3 in build order. On Friday, 9 July 1937 the first fully-air conditioned train in Australia left Spencer Street for Mildura, and by April 1938 the standard Mildura overnight consist was one each airconditioned AE, BE and sleeping car, with additional non-airconditioned stock used if required. One air-conditioned sleeping carriage was allocated to The Overland by September 1937, and in July 1938 the three existing cars were joined by Sleeper No.4, formerly Buchan, to allow a spare vehicle for maintenance purposes. The Overland lost its air conditioned carriage with the coal strikes in 1940. The air conditioning upgrades included upgraded bogie designs, to carry the weight of the axle-mounted generators.

The cars were initially painted in standard VR dark red, but were repainted to blue with yellow stripes sometime between 1954 and 1963. As with their predecessors, the Long W sleepers were themselves replaced by cascaded Joint Stock sleeping cars, this time with four steel cars, Allambi, Tantini, Dorai and Weroni, being taken from the Overland fleet in the early 1970s. From this point on the air-conditioned Long W sleepers were kept in reserve. The steel cars were repainted dark blue and renumbered No.11 through No.14 (later SJ281-284). Additional air-conditioned sleeping cars No.15 and No.16 were transferred from the standard gauge Spirit of Progress service in 1978 (becoming SS285-286 about a decade later), occasionally joined by VAM1 (later SZ2877) when that car was not required on standard gauge Sydney and Canberra or broad gauge Overland services.

The Long W, SS and SZ cars were all withdrawn in 1989 (the two SS cars reverting to sitting format), with Nos 1 and 2 stored at Newport and No.3 at Seymour. No.1 was delivered to Steamrail Victoria on 30 August 1990, followed by No.2 on 19 April 1991, while No.3 was allocated to SLSPG, now the Seymour Rail Heritage Centre.

Current status Steamrail Victoria maintains Werribee and Indi in the West Block of Newport Workshops.

Ovens is with the Seymour Rail Heritage Centre, stabled under cover at their depot in Seymour, Victoria.

Dining cars

Two new dining cars were built in 1927, named respectively Avoca and Hopkins. These were the first all-steel passenger carriages built for the Victorian Railways. They had a similar underframe to the standard E type carriage, but the body design was vastly different, using steel plates rivetted to the frame and a curved roof style, the latter paralleling the Long W type carriages, and the overall aesthetic above the floor-line resembling bulk steel van 1D built at Islington in 1930 (although that had a different underframe design). The new dining cars were so heavy, at well over 70 tons, that they had to be placed on modified Tait Motor-car bogies, as the only type that could support the load. Aside from the three Pullman cars, these were the heaviest items (by axle load) of rollingstock to run in Victoria at the time. Shortly thereafter they were roughly matched by the X Class 2-8-2 steam locomotives, and eclipsed in 1941 by Heavy Harry, with its 23-ton maximum axle load.