WVX Box Van

WBAX 30852 in a fresh ‘Manildra Group’ livery at Manildra in 2004. Josh Beveridge

To meet the demands of the soon to be opened ‘Transcontinental line’, the WAGR ordered these modern, high-speed box vans. They have been built with 2 roof styles. The first and second batch (those built by Midland Workshops) was built with an arched corrugated roof. The third batch (numbered 30861-30995) has a rounded, smooth roof, which enables forklifts to load/unload the van.

Builders:

- Midland Workshops built 77 in 1967-68 and were numbered 30701-30777.

- Midland Workshops built another 83 in 1969, with numbers 30778-30860.

- Mechanical Handling built 135 in 1970-71, with the numbers 30861-30995.

Length: 17.12m Tare: 25t Capacity: 51t Gross: 76t

Bogies: Any bogie exchange type

Coding:

- As introduced, WVX.

- Recoded WBAX in 1979.

- Recoded MBAX in Manildra Group ownership.

Colour Scheme:

- As introduced, they were painted in WAGR ‘Golden Yellow’ with black WAGR logo, lettering and bogies.

- When WAGR became Westrail, a dark blue Westrail logo was applied.

- ARG repainted the vans for the ‘Manildra’ contract, in a yellow very similar the original WAGR scheme. These vans have a blue ‘Manildra Group’ lettering and logo on the sides. They have black bogies and a very noticeable white handbrake wheel.

Operation:

From their introduction, these wagons have been used all over the standard gauge network. They appeared in NSW soon after the opening of the transcontinental line in 1970 painted in their original livery. They continued to be used until the formation of NRC, when they returned to WA.

They were not seen in NSW again until 2003, when ARG began using them to transport palletized bagged flour from the Manildra Group flourmill in Manildra (western NSW) to their Sydney distribution plant at Clyde. This ended in 2007.

Modelling:

- A well detailed HO kit is available from BGB. Decals are available from them in all older and modern liveries.

- Auscision Models produced an RTR HO model in 2014.

Further reading:

- If wagon has been featured in a magazine or book, please specify.

WBAX 30926 in use in 2001, still in WAGR Yellow.

A weathered example, with a black WAGR logo just visible above the cleaned code lettering.

WVX (actually a 3’6” gauge VWV) showing the flatter roof of the 1^st and 2^nd contracts versions.

Photo Graham Watson