33 CE Guards Van

 

33 CE entered Ballarat North workshops in 1982, and emerged painted orange and silver and fitted with rubber tubular vestibule connections. The initial plans of upgrading the S and Z cars for the "New Deal" for country passengers made no provision for upgraded guards accommodation. It appears that 33 CE might have been a prototype for upgrading the fleet of CE's, but the idea appears to have been abandoned in favour for altering the AZ cars to include guards accommodation. As an interim arrangement until the ACZ conversions were completed, the Victorian Railways hired four CD vans from Australian National.

33 CE was one of five 5 CE vans built in 1924 featuring semi-elliptical roofs and 4 wheel bogies. It was also one of five CE vans fitted with LP gas heating in the 1970's.

33 CE trailing a BWL on a Dimboola pass.

Throughout 1983 with the growth in the number of N sets in service, there was a constant reallocation of older cars, with wooden cars in poor condition being withdrawn and the reallocation of S and Z cars and wooden cars in good condition and infiltering of refurbished cars into sets. Set compositions changed frequently. 33CE wasn't grouped with other refurbished cars, it recorded throughout the year in a range of consists of wooden and steel cars. On the 23rd February 1983 it was van behind B66 on set of wooden cars on the 1330 Geelong pass. At Easter it was the van on a set of red wooden cars being noted behind orange B68 on the 2230 Geelong pass 33CE-24AE-26BE-33BE-57BE. During late July and early August it had found its way onto one of the Vinelander sets.

33CE behind a refurbished BS car at Ballarat.

On the 30th August it was van on all steel consist of Albury pass - X39 hauling 8BS-1BZ-3BRS-4AZ-33CE. By the end of September (28/09/83) it was observed on a Albury pass with a mixed consist of wooden and steel cars - B74 hauling 24BE-29BE-3BRS-51AE(a/c)-33CE. A month later (on 30th October) it was back on the Vinelander, 33CE-8AZ-225BRS-2BZ-7BZ-sleepers. 33CE continued in service into 1984 being withdrawn in November and eventually ended up on a farm in Gembrook.

To build this car I used a plain styrene sheet (10 thou, 20 thou, 30 thou and 60 thou), scribed sheet and an Ian Lindsay Models semi elliptical W car roof with SEM torpedo vents.  Round styrene tube was used to replicate the rubber tubular vestibule connections. The sides were built in layers:
Layer 1 - 30 thou sheet with door openings cut out and edges bevelled.
Layer 2 - 10 thou sheet for metal cladding.
Layer 3 - strips of 10 thou for capping.

Two roofs were required, with the sections for guards compartment requiring careful filing.