Z Vans
In the 1910 recoding, the 'D' vans took on the letter 'Z', setting a pattern for the next seventy years. D vans 1 through 265 were renumbered to 1 through 242, intended to fill the gaps in between.
All vans built to this style from 1911 onwards, were lettered 'Z' and numbered from 243 up. By 1960, there were 746 'Z' vans, not including the hundreds that had been scrapped as 'D' vans. Conversions from four-wheel vans to six-wheel vans continued, so that by 1960, vans numbered 1 to 626 were six wheeled and 627 to 746 were four-wheelers.
In 1924, the VR took control of the Deniliquin and Moama Railway, and acquired three Z vans previously purchased from the VR. They scrapped one van, but the other two lasted to the 1970s.
As buffers were phased out of all trains in the late 50's to early 60's, the Z vans began to develop riding quality issues, with many guards being thrown around by the rough riding. As a result, Z vans were gradually upgraded to ZB, ZL, ZP and ZD vans from 1959 to the mid-1960s.
The few remaining Z vans were located at major loco depots and were used in breakdown trains.
Read more about this topic: Victorian Railways Z Vans