E Type Carriage - Construction

Construction

Of the joint stock carriages, the first class and sleeping carriages were constructed at Newport Workshops by the Victorian Railways while the second class carriages and most of the vans were constructed by the South Australian Railways' Islington Workshops. Later carriages of the E design were constructed at Newport.

The first batch of E-class carriages were built between 1906 and 1911, with 38 AVE 1st class cars, 16 ABVE 1st/2nd class cars, 39 BVE 2nd class cars, 25 DVE guard's vans, 10 ESBV, 2 EES and 2 EEB mail vans, 6 Sleeping cars and 2 Parlor cars, a State Car was built in 1912, with a similar design to that of the Parlor cars. The DVE, EEB and EES classes were 60.16 feet (18.34 m) long, the remainder 71 feet (22 m). All had wooden bodies, clerestory roofs and six-wheel bogies. On his website, Peter J. Vincent notes that he suspects the 'E' classification referred to 'Express'.

The cars were recoded, AVE to AE, BVE to BE, DVE to CE, EEB to D, EES to DS and ABVE to ABE in the 1910 renumbering. In 1935 some surplus carriages were converted to BCE cars. The original total of 144 was increased, with a further 30 cars being built from 1919 onwards. However, two of the new cars were replacements, so the total never exceeded 182 cars.