S Type Carriage

S Type Carriage

The S type carriages are a compartment layout passenger carriage used on the railways of Victoria, Australia. The carriages were constructed by the Victorian Railways in 1937 for use on the Spirit of Progress, with additional carriages built until the 1950s for other trains.

Two major types of carriage were constructed - AS first class cars with 3+3 seating in each compartment, BS second class cars with 4+4 seating. A number of conversions were made in later years, with the addition of beds to some to produce the sleeping cars, and buffet modules to others to provide on board catering facilities. The BRS cars were the most recent conversion made as part of the 'New Deal' reforms of the early 1980s.

The cars saw little use 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 their cars passed to preservation groups such as the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre, Steamrail Victoria, and 707 Operations.

5 BS cars that were owned by V/Line were retired in July 2006, almost 69 years after their introduction. However owing to a boom in patronage (and the Kerang rail crash) they were re-introduced to service to replace N set N7 as a dedicated train set on the Geelong line from late September, 2007. This set was withdrawn from service on 9 August 2010, running the 7:47am service from South Geelong to Southern Cross.