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| 32BW passing the Garden City Flour Mill at Ballarat North. |
In the mid 1970's the Victorian Railways started to experiment with LP gas fired space heating on a
number of non-air-conditioned carriages to provide a better form of winter heating than was possible with foot warmers. Two AW's (30 and 31), four BW's (31, 32, 33 and 34) and five CE's (15, 30, 31, 32 and 33) were converted. Each of the carriages were fitted with LP gas fired boilers to heat water circulated around the vehicle for space heating.
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| 32BW note the gas cylinders and boiler unit mounted below the underframe. |
I wanted to replicate one of these carriages and choose to model 32 BW. It's basically a standard Steam Era Models BW kit with a few modifications. 10thou styrene sheet was used to replicate the metal siding and 1.2mm L angle for window sill. The frame was made from 30thou sheet and gas cylinders were made from styrene tube. Brass tube of smaller diameter had a hole drilled and filed to form the top of the cylinder where the value is. It was then inserted into the styrene tube. A box was made out of styrene sheet to represent the boiler housing.
All 4 of the BW's fitted with LP gas fire boilers were still in service in 1983, despite the withdrawal of large numbers of class associated with the introduction of the N cars and changes to carriage utilisation from the "New deal for country passengers". BW's 31, 32 and 34 were noted in service at Spencer Street at Easter (31/03/1983) on the following sets and services:
1605 and 2100 Seymour - 7CV-23AE-32AW-34BW-T362
1923 Traralgon - 1CW-15AS-15BW-32BW-L1155
1620 Werribee - 31BW-55RM
1835 Bacchus Marsh - 31BW-61RM
On the 5th July 1983 32BW was 1800 Down Warrnambool pass X32 hauling 32BW-3BS-1BRS-14AS-CD7. On 3rd Sept 1983 it was noted in a scratch set replacing a railmotor on 1835 Down Seymour service - 32BW-44BE-1AS-13CW-12AE-43BW-14BE-29BCPL. On the 13th October it was noted in a set at Stawell, this being the first use of wooden cars to Horsham since Easter. Consist was B83-22AW-32BW-29BE-19CE-N set 13.
32BW was also utilised on charter trains for Supertrain Promotions in Sept and Oct, being noted in a consist of 1CV-32BW-22AW-47BE-Murray-7CV on a charter to Seymour 21st Sept and again in the same consist on 1st Oct to Warragul.
On the layout, 32BW will be used in one of the spare sets that existed in 1983 for use on short distance commuter runs. These were required due to the shortage of railmotors from the failure of DERM's and rebuilding of DRC's 43, 40 and 42. These spare sets were often used to other locations if the rostered set was running late and therefore wasn't back to Melbourne in time to form the service. To replicate one of these spare sets 32BW will be placed into a carriage set made up of 17CW-40AW-32BW-40BW. At other times it will be used in one of the fixed sets used on Ballarat services replacing a failed carriage.
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| S313 on an up Dimboola service utilising a spare set consisting of 17CW-40AW-32BW-40BW. |
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