page_title: Victorian Railways sleeping cars
section_title: E type carriages
hierarchical_section_title: Victorian Railways sleeping cars / E type carriages
caption_attribution_description: Interior of w:E type carriage sleeping car Acheron, seat in day-time position
context_section_description: Sixteen E type sleeping cars were built at Newport Workshops, primarily for the Adelaide - Melbourne service. The first four cars had been built by 1908, and were originally named Melbourne, Ballarat, Wolseley and Adelaide. In 1910, these cars were renamed Loddon, Glenelg, Finniss and Torrens respectively, after rivers between the two capital cities. In 1911 Onkaparinga and Barwon were built, to be followed by Baderloo, Dargo, Pekina and Tambo in 1919. In 1923, four more cars were named Angas, Coliban, Acheron and Inman., and a further two cars, Buchan and Wando, were constructed to a modified internal design with the smoking/saloon area replaced with a tenth sleeping compartment. This tenth compartment was slightly longer than the rest. Later, three further sleeping cars were built with a similar internal layout, and named Werribee, Indi and Ovens.
  As far as can be ascertained, only the first fourteen cars were built as shared vehicles; the last two - Buchan and Wando - appear to have been exclusively Victorian Railways rolling stock, built for the Mildura line. This is reflected in the 1939 decision by the Victorian Railways, with no input from the South Australian Railways, to remove the names of those sleeping carriages and replace with numbers 4 and 5, following on from Werribee, Indi and Ovens as Sleepers 1, 2 and 3 respectively. At the same time Buchan / No.4 was fitted with an air conditioning unit, powered by axle-driven generators.
  Notably, Buchan, Acheron and Angas were built on the underframes originally used under E type dining cars Campaspe, Goulburn and Wimmera respectively.
  With the exception of the last two, the cars were designed with nine, two-berth sleeping compartments, with cupboards and a folding wash basin in each. In day form, each compartment would be able to sit two passengers; at night the seat folded down for the first bed, and the second was lowered from the wall panels above that seat to give a bunk arrangement. A saloon was provided at one end of the car, called the Gentlemans Lounge and reserved for smoking passengers. This area was identified with its longer external window either side, and was supplied with four loose leather chairs; though by the 1950s these were replaced with two chairs of a different style. When traffic required it, the Lounge area could be converted to a further two berths, but due to lack of privacy the section was charged at normal first class rates instead of the higher First Class Sleeper rates applied to each of the compartments. At the non-smoking end two of the compartments were reserved for Ladies, and these were separated from the rest of the car by swing doors fitted in the side corridor identical to the one separating the Lounge from the corridor. Each compartment was accessed by sliding doors with coloured leadlights in lieu of normal glass; and an attendant's room was provided at both ends of each car; one of these had tea making facilities and a lavatory.
  Like the rest of the E cars, the Sleepers initially had a strong Edwardian style with features including carved panelling, pressed metal ceilings, frosted glass and lamp pendants all being ornately decorated. A row of bevelled mirrors was provided above the windows on either side of the cars with an engraved starburst pattern, though these were removed in later years due to corrosion. Three mirror panels were provided above each compartment window, and seven over the saloon windows.
  The first service run of the cars was a Parliamentary special to Echuca on 17 October 1907, with sleepers Melbourne, Adelaide and Ballarat and parlor car Murray, leaving Melbourne at 5:30pm. From 31 October the cars were regularly scheduled on the Intercolonial Express from Melbourne to Adelaide.
  Tambo, Angas, Coliban, Acheron and Inman were built from new with electric lighting; and as noted above Buchan and Wando featured a tenth compartment instead of a lounge area, for 20 berths.
caption: Sleeping car by day
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