Z Type Carriage - Carriage Sets

Carriage Sets

Operation of fixed carriage sets was not introduced until 1981, with the 'New Deal' reforms of passenger rail operations and the introduction of the N type carriages. Before this time Z cars could appear on various intrastate trains with other S type steel carriages, as well as older wooden bodied stock.

From the 1980s most of the Z cars was placed into sets made up of an ACZ carriage, BRS snack car carriage, and other BS and BZ carriages. This remained until the early 1990s when the Sprinter railcars arrived, when many of the sets were broken up, with only two remaining: VZ1 and VZ2. From the mid 1990s they also added as additional cars in the N type sets, with the last Z set being broken up in 2006. A number of loose ACZ / BCZ carriages remain, that can be attached to N type sets.

In December 2008, a N carriage (ACN21) was withdrawn from service to be converted to SG to run on the upgraded Albury-Wodonga line. Previously before withdrawal this carriage was in N set SN7, along with the BS cars. Because of ACN21's withdrawal, a Z carriage was introduced into the set permanently. The 5 BS cars and the Z car (BCZ257) were joined into a set coded Z57, as a replacement for SN7.