S car refurbishment

Ballarat North Railway Workshops were involved in the refurbishment of the steel S passenger cars as part of the New Deal for country passengers.  The refurbishment program commenced in 1982 with 1BS (11AS) being the first car completed and forwarded from Ballarat on the 0745 Up Melb pass on 1st July 1982. When 1BS arrived at Spencer St it was placed on display in the carriage sidings for inspection by Victorian Railways personnel.

The refurbishment involved fitting new incandescent lights, new carpets, with the seats re-upholstered with matching cloth to same standard as the N cars under construction at Newport Workshops. In cars that originally had timber panelling this was retained and re-vanished with a satin lacquer. The non-buffet cars retained axle-driven generators and 48VDC power supplies, and so unlike the N type carriages then being introduced it was not possible to share the electrical load between adjacent carriages. The S cars that were converted to the BRS arrangement retained six compartments (or restored, in some cases), with the remaining two replaced with a buffet module.

12 BS awaiting for ecomony lettering to be applied before entering service. 12BS as originally 13AS entering service in  1949. It was subsequently converted to composite sitting car 2ABS in 1953 for use on the Overland. It was returned to the Victorian country services in 1967 and was later renumbered to 15BS in 1972. In June 1983 is was renumbered to BS12 as part of its refurbishment and repainting into orange and silver. It was subsequently renumber to BS212 in May 1985.

A total of 15 S cars were reconfigured either from AS to  economy class BS cars at a cost of $62,000, or AS, MRS and MBS to Snack Bar BRS cars at a cost of $200,000. Details of some of the S cars refurbished at Ballarat North Workshops during 1982-83 is provide below:

New identity	Old identity	Date reentered service
1BS	11AS	Jun-82
2BS	2AS	08-Oct-82
12BS	15BS	Jun-83
7BS	5AS	12-Aug-83
225BRS	2MRS	07-Oct-83
204BS	4AS	05-Nov-83

The refurbishment program continued through to late 1984 when the last of the BS and BRS were completed.  The identity of many cars changed with the refurbishment, with AS cars converted to BS taking numbers of BS cars that had previously been converted to MRS or MBS or onto standard gauge.

There also appears to have been a decision made partway through 1983 to change the numbering of all the steel S and Z cars into 200-300 series, instead of consecutive numbering from 1 upwards. This brought the numbering of the S and Z cars together where they retained the same number identity regardless of letter code changes from subsequent conversions.

The refurbishment program is incorporated on the layout by occasionally working blue AS and BS cars to Ballarat attached to regular passenger services or scheduled goods services.  They are then transferred to Ballarat North on the workshops pilot.

Y150 pushes a HR loaded with bogies and AS car towards Ballarat North  on the Workshops pilot.

Over a number of the weeks the car is moved around the workshop sidings for the various stages of the refurbishment program and then finally to the paint shops for transforming from blue and gold to orange and silver (this is achieved by substituting a blue S car with an orange S car). The completed car is transferred back to Ballarat yard on the workshops pilot and is then usually attached to a scheduled passenger service for forwarding to Melbourne.

A completed BS rests in the workshops yard

Y150  on the workshops pilot brings a repainted VLEX lourve van and a refurbished BS car back to Ballarat 

The refurbished BS has been attached to the rear of  an Up pass for returning to Melbourne.

Once completed the refurbished cars weren't placed in complete sets with other refurbished cars but were generally placed in mixed steel and wooden bodied sets replacing either a wooden bodied car in the poorest condition or releasing a steel car for refurbishment.