AS

air conditioned, first class, steel sitting cars

AS 5 at Albury Sep. 1981 Photo courtesy Rob O'Regan

Number in Class 13 (1979 total) Number group 1 - 16 Construction period 1937 - 1952 In service as AS 1939 - early 80's Where built Newport DIAGRAMS (5)	These were the 1st class sitting cars for the original broad gauge Spirit of Progress. Further building after the SOP started running saw the class grow to 16. None of the AS cars were converted to SG when the Spirit of Progress was converted to standard gauge in 1962. The class remained on Broad Gauge providing first class air conditioned service on longer distance trains. In the mid 50's 3 AS cars were converted to ABS cars , 2 of these cars were subsequently converted to mini buffet cars. In the early 80's the remaining AS cars were recoded to BS, (economy class)
		Car #'s Built Notes 1 - 5 1937 - 1938 carried AS code only from 1939 6 - 8 1940 9 - 16 1948 -1952

AS 10 at Spencer St late 1970's Photo courtesy Geoff Winkler

ABOVE and 2 photos BELOW: Unknown AS cars photographed in March 1980
Photos courtesy Graeme Pantlin

 

 

ABOVE: Spirit of Progress carriage number 1. This car was recoded to AS 1 Aug 1939. photo courtesy PROV

page last updated 8/14/11