The railway records show twenty two fixed wheel mail vans in service. They were given the code E and were numbered 1 - 22.
They appear to have been attached to trains and used to transfer mail between centres. Port Melbourne is mentioned, mail transfer between Melbourne and ships most likely.
They were placed into service between 1858 and 1885. There are however anomolies as the records were rewritten in 1886 with most of the previous data lost. From the diagrams available, some of the class were converted from surplus carriage stock.
The vans were progressively removed from service from 1888. Three were converted to _C__ Hearse vans.
Remaining cars were modified as sleeping vans for use by the then 'Existing Lines Branch'. Until 1910 they were recoded into the _WS_ group, and _W__ thereafter.
Most of the vans ( as W ) were scrapped in the late 1920s / early 1930s.
Three vans survived to the 1950s