ZLP guards vans

Number in Class	80
Number group	1 - 80
Construction period	1961 - 1968
In service	1961 - end
1979 recode	VVBP
Where built	Ballarat and Newport W.S.
Diagram
Modeling	TrainOrama HO model

Built as ZF class (a code that would be re-used years later) the ZLP's were a very common sight all over the system. A very versatile van because they could run on passenger trains as well as goods, but in reality they were rarely used in passenger service. As built, the sliding doors featured double windows but in later years replacement doors only had one window. It appears that 1 - 10 had a large toilet window, 11 onwards had a small toilet window. ZLP's were painted pass car red until 1967 at which time the CME decreed that they be painted wagon red, they were painted standard wagon as they cycled through the workshops. They never ran on the S.G.

(Above) ZLP 1 at Williamstown pier, circa 1980
Photo courtesy Peter J. Vincent.

(Below) ZLP 1 at Melbourne Yard arrivals, 1979

This photo turned up recently, it shows #32 still coded as ZF and painted in a special paint scheme for a "Fashion Express" train that presumably toured the system sometime in the mid to late 1960's. (The loco attached is a fairly new T 396 which was delivered in Dec 1965.)