ZF Guards Van

 

50 ZF guards vans were built between 1970 and 1972 at Newport workshops. Of all steel construction, these vans were 38ft long, with 26ft bogie centres, and featured two large goods compartments at each end accessed through sliding van doors, separated by a guards compartment in the centre of the van. The ZF guards van had a capacity of 10 tonnes. 

ZF's were used on goods trains all over the state.  Starting in 1979 at least 16 vans were modified with the addition of a passenger compartment. These vans had an extra window and one of the large sliding doors was replaced with a smaller door.

I have had one ZF in the fleet for over 25 years, an old Broad Guage Bodies kit. At the Morwell Exhibition I purchased a Lyndon Models ZF kit from one of the stalls.

I made a few changes from the instructions in the assembly, adding styrene strip as bracing to the side steps to give them extra strength. The tail lamp is made out of styrene rod and scrap of 60thou sheet. The gas bottles are made out of styrene tubes of different diameters, with the stand formed from styrene strip.  In addition I added a few extra details to the underframe. 

The model has been painted and decalled and weathered  as ZF38, based on a PJ Vincent photo from January 1983 on Mark Bau's Victorian Railways website. It had VR wagon red bogies (instead of the more usually black) and extra class and number stencil on the van side. It was possibly the only ZF van to gain the extra lettering. A red jewel was added for the tail light. 

38 ZF brings up the rear of a empty block grain working to Dunolly.

I still want to add the wire screens across the windows to protect guards from vandals throwing rocks, a feature of most Victorian guards vans from the late 1970s. 

The ZF's  first revenue run was on a empty block grain working to Dunolly hauled by T359 seen here passing through Ballarat North.