page_title: Victorian Railways box vans
section_title: D, DH, DN and DT Parcel Vans (1983-1986)
hierarchical_section_title: Victorian Railways box vans / Medium Bogie Steel Boxvans / D, DH, DN and DT Parcel Vans (1983-1986)
caption_attribution_description: English: Two DN vans at Newport Workshops from Nth Williamstown station
context_page_description: The Victorian Railways used a variety of boxcars or covered goods wagons for the transport of all manner of goods. This page covers the history and development of the various classes, and how they changed through their lives.
context_section_description: Three of the VBPY cars, 37, 56 and 90, were repainted into the teacup scheme, orange with two silver stripes. Shortly after, these and most of the rest of the VBPY fleet were reclassed as D parcels vans, and counted as part of the passenger fleet for accounting and rostering purposes. On reclassing, the wagons were repainted initially into the VicRail "teacup" scheme of orange with black underframe and two silver stripes; but no "teacup" logo was applied. From 1983 wagons were fitted with the new V/LINE logo on the body sides. At least one wagon, D329, was painted orange and black with white and green stripes, but no logo. 
  Over the period 1983 to 1985, D vans 301 to 321 were converted from the VBPY fleet, except VPY6 which became VBAY79. These were quickly followed by D322-330 ex VBAX/VBAY wagons, and then VBPY112-120 were converted to D vans 331, 333-335, 337 and 339; though VBPY113, 117 and 119 became DH401, 402 and 403 instead. The slots D332, 336, 338 were never filled. D340 to D350 were converted from VBAY/VBAX, though shortly afterwards D350 (ex VBAY25) was converted to DH404. Finally, in 1986, the last serviceable VBAX wagons became D351-361. Notably, the majority of the D vans started on BX-type bogies; 351 onwards were fitted with Super Series bogies on conversion, and the previous units were upgraded at some point after November 1988.
  The DH class were fitted with through cables for head-end power, so that P or N class locomotives could power the onboard airconditioning and lighting for carriages without having to shift the van to the far end of the train at each end of the trip. All the D vans were eventually fitted with the same Through-cabling, and had a letter T applied somewhere on their identity plates; in some cases this presents as part of the class, i.e. DT3xx or 3xxDT, other times the T is inserted between the class and number in superscript. Technically, the "T" is not a part of the wagon identity, just an instruction to staff. The first sighting of the DT code was DT331 on 22 August 1990, although D318 and D347 had also been reported as modified with through cables.
  In late 1994 DH402 was scrapped at Bendigo Workshops, followed closely by DH401 in early 1995. The rest of the D fleet, and DH403 and 404, either passed to V/Line Passenger or was sold to West Coast Railway or one of the plethora of preservation groups operating at the time.
caption: The two DN vans at Newport Workshops
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