TVF / VQBY - Flexivan Transport


TVF

Victoria and New South Wales worked together with freight forwarders to introduce these vehicles to service. At the time of introduction in 1962 they were being used on the New York Central.

For Victoria, nine wagons were placed into service 1962, three in 1963 and thirteen in 1964 for a total of twenty five. The vehicles were classed TVF and were numbered 1 - 25.

The vehicles ran in traffic on the standard gauge link between Sydney and Melbourne.

In 1965 all twenty five were reclassed to TVX_.

However in the ealy 1970's four vehicles from the TVX fleet were reclassed back to TVF. The vehicles were: 27, 29, 31, 32.

One notable incident involved a flexi-van which rotated sideways on the turntable whilst the train was in motion. As crew members and shunting staff watched, the container ripped out the front wall of the Seymour signal box.

VQBY

For the 1979 recoding, the TVF wagons were relettered to VQBY. Most of the vehicles were in storage by 1979 and only two were relettered: 29 and 32.

During 1980/81, the entire fleet of TVF / TVX_ and derivatives were rebuilt to standard container wagons coded VQGX.

Vehicle history list