HR bogie transport wagons

The Victorian Railways was renowned for converting or rebuilding old wagons for new purposes. Many E open wagons were modified for workshops traffic in the late 1970's and early 1980's.

HR's were used to ferry parts between the major workshops: Newport, North Melbourne, South Dynon, Jolimont, Bendigo and Ballarat. Some were used in dedicated traffic between particular workshops or for transport of a particular item such as wheels, bogies, pantographs or other parts. They usually had the body of the wagon modified for this purpose. 

I've recently built 3 HRs for use in workshops traffic on my layout. These were built around Steam Era Models GY ends with scratch built sides and underframes out of styrene sheet. HR157 is kitbashed out of two GY kits. I have included before and after photos to provide an idea on how to they were built. These wagons are:

HR19S used for bogie transport between workshops.

HR 19S

HR 19S was built at Newport workshops entering service in September 1928 as E199. In 1942 for wartime traffic it was converted to an S flat wagon retaining the same number. In 1947 it was converted back to an E open wagon. In March 1958 it was fitted with wooden bulkheads, then in October was fitted with a HY body and racket handbrake at Bendigo workshops. In September 1977 it received XB bogies at Ballarat workshops. It was taken off the register in January 1980 and was converted to a HR at Bendigo workshops re-entering service as HR19 on the 22/7/1980. The conversion involved removal of the doors and welding four frames of channel to the floor (to hold the bogies). In 1985 HR19S was recorded to VZMA 91. 

HR 144E

HR 144E as built at Newport workshops entering service in August 1928 as E82. In 1977 E82 was running on bogies fitted with roller bearings rted back to an E open wagon. In 1978 it was noted in traffic  stencilled wheels to reclamation Depot. In March 1979 it was recoded to HR144.. The conversion involved removal of the doors, cutting four retangular slots in the floor and welding L angle to hold the wheels.  It was photographed in 1983 with E check letter after the number. In 1985 HR144 was recorded to VZMA 99.

HR144 used to transport Harris car bogies between Jolimont and Ballarat North workshops

HR 157Q

HR 157Q as built at Newport workshops entering service in August 1928 as E63. In 1942 it was converted to a flat wagon numbered S63. In 1946 it was converted back to an E open wagon. In 1979 it was recoded to HR 157 for workshops traffic. It doesn't  appear that the wagon was modified for workshops traffic, and perhaps was used for materials transfer between the workshops rather than being used for dedicated transport of wheels or bogies. On the 7th September 1983 it was photographed displaying a check letter after its number. In 1985 it was recoded to VZMA 100.

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