Operators with Crew Cars

What operators in Australia use crew cars?

For those who do, what is the typical layout of the crew car?

Regards,

Brian

*QR's "TGV" for freight and staff/crew car for Sunlander

*Freightlink has Bluebird conversion for Darwin line

*GSR has "ER" type crew sleeper

*ASR I recall still have a few former Overland cars

*ARTC has crew car of various sorts, former AN crew car as well as some from Railcorp which were Aurora sleeper.

*AK car has crew car facilities(ownership 50% Railcorp, 50% ARTC?)

*PN has Comeng sleeper, Spirit cars as crew car.

*SSR/WCR has a few crew car convert from baggage van  they use for wayside crew

That's all I can think of at the moment.

ARG also own 'ECA' type cars. There is at least one I know of that is still in ASR livery and has been used most recently on the AP/PA9 services with the C class. There is also at least two more around the Motive Power Centre in Adelaide in graffitied white.

Pacific National also have a couple of Bluebird railcar conversions (recoded RZDY) and 3x VPAY crew vans.

SCT has a Bluebird railcar conversion, recoded PDAY001.

Pictures:[/i]

Freightlink FDAY:
http://www.railsa.com/alyx/crewcar/FDAY05.jpg

SCT PDAY:
http://www.railsa.com/alyx/crewcar/PDAY001.jpg

Pacific National RZDY:
http://www.railsa.com/alyx/crewcar/RZDY106N.jpg

ARG/QRN/G&W ECA:
http://www.railsa.com/alyx/crewcar/ECA98.jpg
http://www.railsa.com/alyx/crewcar/ECA.jpg

Pacific National VPAY:
http://www.railsa.com/alyx/crewcar/VPAY3.jpg

South Spur AVD
http://www.railsa.com/alyx/crewcar/AVDP277.jpg

South Spur? AVA
http://www.railsa.com/alyx/crewcar/AVAP403.jpg

Silverton / South Supr have some crew cars

painted in their blue / light grey

I saw 1 out the back of keswick SA in April

and there are photos of the crew cars in WA being  used on SG ballast trains

How come South Spur can own (and presumably operate) AVDP and AVAP vehicles - should they not be reclassified to P...  or are don't they have to follow the rules.

PN's BRS221:

It originally had 8 compartments (or 6 compartments and a buffet area) but from the outside it now appears to have 4 bedrooms, and bathroom formed from compartments, with one toilet still used as such, and the final toilet and 3 compartments the lounge area. All 4 external doors seem to be intact as wel.

You may be thinking of the TCWA (converted TLV), which was used on the Yaraka run.  Seeing as this no longer runs (and I have no idea where the TCWA's are now), the Sunlander staff car would be the only purpose-built crew car in QR operation.

GWA have JTYC02 that is used on the Muckety Ore Trains up here in the top end.

I will check to see if I have a photo of it when I get home after work.

YM-Mundrabilla wrote:

How come South Spur can own (and presumably operate) AVDP and AVAP vehicles - should they not be reclassified to P...  or are don't they have to follow the rules.

Don't think they own any AVAP cars, just AVDP 277B

Jarroo wrote:

YM-Mundrabilla wrote:

How come South Spur can own (and presumably operate) AVDP and AVAP vehicles - should they not be reclassified to P...  or are don't they have to follow the rules.

Don't think they own any AVAP cars, just AVDP 277B

I'm not sure who owns it, but they were running AVAP403 in SA for a while.

IIRC SCT don't really own all the crew cars, some own by former AN worker bought it and hire it to SCT and Freight Australia(now PN) some now under ownership of PN?

YM-Mundrabilla wrote:

How come South Spur can own (and presumably operate) AVDP and AVAP vehicles - should they not be reclassified to P...  or are don't they have to follow the rules.

What rules? I think the national coding system is not really enforced anymore. ARTC appear to only require a vehicle to have a unique code. It seems that they use the computer system to track the owner, not the prefix of the wagon. I get the impression anyone can make up any classification they like as long as the combination of code+number is not being used by anyone else. The old AN 'TIMS' system didn't care about prefix codes as each vehicle had an index entry that described each vehicle. The index entry included things like 'owner', 'size', 'capacity', 'operating system', 'operating restrictions'.

cpdbear wrote:

YM-Mundrabilla wrote:

How come South Spur can own (and presumably operate) AVDP and AVAP vehicles - should they not be reclassified to P...  or are don't they have to follow the rules.

What rules? I think the national coding system is not really enforced anymore. ARTC appear to only require a vehicle to have a unique code. It seems that they use the computer system to track the owner, not the prefix of the wagon. I get the impression anyone can make up any classification they like as long as the combination of code+number is not being used by anyone else. The old AN 'TIMS' system didn't care about prefix codes as each vehicle had an index entry that described each vehicle. The index entry included things like 'owner', 'size', 'capacity', 'operating system', 'operating restrictions'.

That is exactly my point. ARA in the Peoples Republic of Canberra are spending a squillion dollars on updating the RoA Manual of Standards and Recommended Practices into some new fangled Code of Practice which includes the basis of wagon classifications which almost nobody is following.

On the one hand we have SCT who follow the rules using the prefix 'P' (private) for their large fleet, to PN in the middle who seem to have largely lost their way in so many things, to Manildra and El Zorro on the other who, with a hatful of wagons, have adopted/hijacked the prefixes M and Z.

If any of the newer operators should be entitled a prefix of their own it should be SCT and force the Manildras of this world into the 'P' group for which it was always intended.

Go to my photo site and have a look at the inside of a crew car used by then National Rail, 1/2 of it is Kitchen, they other 1/2 is sleeping 10 berths, shower and toilet, used on the Nullarbor run. Link under sig.

In reference to http://fred1186.fotopic.net/p37644685.html  where are the sleeping areas, through the door in far area of the photograph?

BE

Whats the ones that come into Melbourne on AM6/MA6? They have a J something code. Are they the ex overland cars?

IIRC they are JRA / JTB - ex-Overland cars. I assume you are talking about the orange cars you see behind the CLPs and ELs.

JRA2 and 5 are owned by QR, so these see the most use on AM6/MA6. GWA owned JRA6 fills in when one of the QR vans is unavailable.

Rather than posting a new threat, searching found me this one to drag back up.

Now that SCT are running their own Loco's and Crew Cars, I was just wondering what the current status of the 3 ex Freaight Aust. VPAY, and the ex Murrylander HRGC crew vans was at the moment, as they seem to have vanished from this side of the country.

Cheers

Last I saw of them was last July in Spencer Junction yard stored with one covered nearly completely with graffiti.

Is there any perticular reason Pac Nat havent decided to use the VPAY's, instead of / as well as the new conversions they have been doing?

Are the inline fuel tankers with the crew cars?

All the Freight Australia tankers are stored at Dynon Loco.

One of the Freight Australia tankers was still stored on the loco stand by road at the SCT depot at Islington until last month. As for the ex CR crewvans that PN have, a couple of them were also at the AFT until not very long ago.

Is PN's BRS still in use? If so, on what trains?

Thanks!