Victorian Railways narrow-gauge guard's vans
The Victorian Railways narrow-gauge guard's vans were operated on the narrow-gauge lines of Victorian Railways from the late 19th century to the early 20th century.
NBDBD
There were six of these vans built, numbered 1 to 6. They were placed into service between 1899 and 1905. Car No.1 may have been relettered from BDBD as it was built in February 1899. Car No.2 built in October 1899 was photographed lettered as N2BDBD. Note the lettering "N2BDBD", a strong indication that the lettering was "2BDBD" and the addition of the prefix "N" at a later date caused problems due to letter spacing. It would also indicate haste in re-lettering and the avoidance of expense in repainting all the letters. In the 1910 recoding the class was relettered to NBC. The numbers were retained. With the recoding of the six car-vans in about 1910, one new car-van was built in 1910. This was car 7. Between 1926 and 1928 the cars were converted to autocoupler operation. NBC 4, 5 were scrapped in 1938. NBC 3 was scrapped in 1951. NBC 7 was scrapped in 1954. NBC 2 was "condemned" in about 1954 but survived scrapping and is now in working order at the Puffing Billy Railway. NBC 1 was sold in 1954 and remained in the Colac area as a body on private property. The body was found in 1995 and was transferred to Puffing Billy workshops at Emerald. NBC 6 is now also at the Puffing Billy Railway.
NDD
NDD 1 was placed into service September 1909. It may not have run with this code for very long. In the 1910 recoding it was relettered to NC 1. NC 2 was built and placed into service November 1912. NC 3, 4 and 5 were built and placed into service June/July 1914. NC 6 was built and placed into service 1919. This made the number group 1 to 6. NC 1 and 4 were scrapped in 1954 and 1957. NC 2, 3, 5 and 6 are all at the Puffing Billy Railway.
