NZR's Early Car-vans 2

NZR's EARLY CAR-VANS

Part 2 The 44ft and 46ft 7in

Class 'A' low Roofed Bogie Cars

Author John Agnew

The full article can be found in New Zealand Railfan, Issue 58, March 2009, pages 23 - 27. John has given permission for the whole article to be available to readers, it will eventually be accessible at this link

This article-summary aims to list the key facts, reference specific items of rolling stock mentioned, and describe the drawings and photographs that are presented in the full article.

The Developments

• Car_A300(W) was the New Zealand's first Bogie Carriage, a conversion of Car_C140 with American bogies. The work was done at Petone Workshops in 1877.
• mid 1878, Addington Workshops was working on converting British 6-wheel cars to bogie cars to improve the ride.
• mid 1878, Clemenson's patent Radiating Axles were fitted to some cars at Addington and Hillside
• 30 Clemenson's 6-wheeled carriages imported in 1879 were the last British carriage imports
• 13 Gilbert Bush & Co clerestory-roofed carriages and one Baggage Car imported from USA in 1879 (3 cars and the van ordered for Rakaia and Ashburton Forks Railway, 10 cars allocated to Hurunui - Bluff Railway)
• From 1882, Addington Workshops started building 43ft and 44ft versions
• From 1882, C class cars were being converted to bogie cars using (Blueprint) BP_919.
• During the 1884 -1885 period 14 longer (46'-7") cars were constructed to drawing PWD_9133
• The only two C class rebuilds that were 44ft long and converted to car-vans (one in 1895 the other in 1897) were allocated 1 to each island.
  • Car_A311 had been allocated to Wellington and was converted to a car-van at Petone Workshops in 1895 to a variation of BP_919
  • Car_A241 had been allocated to Dunedin and converted to a car-van in 1897 at Hillside
• Eleven of the twelve S.I. 46'-7" carriages constructed to drawing PWD_9133 (not car_A147), were converted at either Addington or Hillside during 1897-99, becoming 3 compartment composite car-vans.
• The variation of window arrangements are due to earlier conversions of window spaces to accommodate additional wall bracing to strengthen the walls.

The following Table lists the 44ft and 46ft-7in Low roofed bogie cars and car-vans of class 'A'