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| WestOzModels Z9 |
On the 15th of March 1883, the Western Australian
Government Railways placed an order with the Metropolitan Railway Carriage and
Wagon Co. of Birmingham England, for 4 bogie type carriages. With their steel
underframes and timber panelled bodies and longitudinal seating arrangements,
they were much heavier and longer than the earlier carriages already in use.
They were the first cars on the WAGR to have gangways between the end platforms
allowing passengers to move from one car to the next. This arrangement with
platform ends gave the cars a similar look to the contemporary American
carriages of the day and thus they became known as “American” cars # 8 – 11. In
1885 a further 6 “Americans” entered service and they were all classified “AB”
and then later altered to “ABA”. In the 1900 reclassifications they were
grouped with the American built “Gilbert” cars as the “AG” class.
In 1905 three of the original Americans (9,12 & 17) had
brake compartments fitted and were sent to Kalgoorlie operating as brake cars
on the local trains in the goldfields. By 1921 they had returned to Perth and
all 3 cars entered the workshops and were converted into Buffet cars “AGB”
class for use on trains which did not justify the use of the larger AV dining
cars. The conversions involved the building of completely new bodies in a
similar style to the AQ & ARS cars. The most obvious changes included a
wider car body and the “Bull nose” style roof. Each AGB could accommodate 24
diners in the ornately finished, varnished timber saloon areas.
By 1935 the Buffet Cars had become redundant due to
continual loss of revenue and once again the 3 AGB cars entered the Midland
Workshops. #17 was converted to “Shower Car” AGS 22. #12 was converted to a survey car as
AGB 2 later to become AL2.
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| Z9 at BHP's Kwinana siding, on a ARHS tour train - Rail Heritage WA Collection - P6549 |
AGB 9 re-entered service in 1938 as a suburban brakevan classified as AGV
9 retaining its body style, however this conversion was not successful in this
form and it was rebuilt with tongue and groove match wood sides to its current
configuration, losing all of its side windows. In addition it had a brake
compartment with guards lookouts fitted along with dog boxes and centrally
located sliding doors, and was re-classified Z 9 in October 1938 when it was
then transferred to wagon stock for use as a general brakevan.
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| Z9 - WAGR Outline Drawing |
Z 9 soon found a new
lease of life with operation on “Reso” (Resources) trains throughout the
Eastern, Southwestern and Southern districts of Western Australia. Its icebox & food storage capacity were found to be most suitable on these services. In 1975, Z 9 was exclusively used to convey frozen & perishable traffic from Perth to Narrogin. When this service ceased in 1976, the brakevan was then used specifically on Perth suburban goods services. In later
years it was commonly used on specials and also extended tours by the
Australian Railway Historical Soc.
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Z9 On and ARHS tour at Bringo - Rail Heritage WA Collection - T3984
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During its life, changes to this vehicle since 1938 have
essentially been the changes of colour scheme. In the mid 1950’s the Indian red
livery gave way to a coat of all over of larch green. This colour remained
until the larch green and cream colour scheme was applied early in the 1960’s.
In 1983 the standard Westrail “yellow” colour scheme was later applied in which
it remained until its withdrawal from service. During the mid 60’s the roof
ventilators and other fittings were removed no doubt when a new roof skin was
applied. Time also caused some deterioration with the horizontal side board
detail slowly being removed leaving the vertical tongue and groove side and
then later the dog box doors being filled in.
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| Z9 on an ARHS Tour to Nannup 1962 |
In 1985, Z 9 became surplus to Westrail’s requirements &
Z9 was purchased by Hotham Valley Tourist Railway. Before being withdrawn from
active service at 101 years of age, it was the oldest piece of rollingstock
operated by Westrail. Today Z9 resides undercover at the Hotham Valley Tourist Railway depot at Dwellingup. It has seen use on many mainline tours with HVTR travelling over much of the state rail narrow gauge network, as far east as Newdegate, south to Albany and Pemberton and north to Geraldton.
Z9 is recognised as a historical and iconic item of preserved WAGR rollingstock.
Z9 - The Model
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| WestOzModels Z9 |
During early 2010 I commenced down the path of researching
and producing a model of AGS 22 the WAGR shower car (as previously blogged). At the time I was
convinced by others in the S scale group that I should have a go at producing
the AGS as a urethane kit, and so after some deliberation I decided to give it
a go. With the basics of the AGS body framework complete, I decided that I
would replicate that framework again to build a model of Z9 at the same time,
as I considered that this was then a easy scratchbuild using castings of the
floor and roof parts from the AGS project to achieve a model of sister car Z9. I also considered that it was an easy scratchbuild for anyone else to produce and thus not worthwhile progressing into a kit of its own. Construction
of these two cars would compliment my ARS, AQZ and AV cars to enable operation
of a “Reso” style train. Work on these projects continued throughout the winter
and in Oct 2010, the Z9 scratchbuild and the AGS 22 kit prototype were
completed, with the AGS kit released for sale to members of the S scale group
at the November meeting.
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| Scratchbuilt Z9 and AGS 22 kit completed in 2010 |
During the following months some needling by group members
took place, asking me to consider making a kit of Z9, something I was not
really keen to do as I now already had a model of this vehicle. To make a kit
would mean doubling up and I really wanted to move on and so consideration
turned to some other projects until early in July 2012, I found some interesting pictures of
Z9 (above) whilst scanning through the “Rail Heritage WA Archive Photo Gallery”. The
main picture (P-6549) showed a version of Z9 I had not seen before and made me realise that
most existing models made of Z9 were based on a much later 70’s – 80’s period and in
the form we know it to be, in preservation today. Further research revealed a
much nicer version of Z9, with roof and car body detail that I could not
resist, and so later in July, armed with measurements I had taken from the real
Z9 at HVTR’s Dwellingup carriage shed on a previous visit, work commenced on
patterns for a new model/kit.
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| New side patterns for Z9 kit |
As the model would use parts from the previous
AGS kit, it only required making patterns for the 2 car body sides and the end
wall. Existing AGS parts included the roof, floor/underframe and the platform
end decking. These patterns were retrieved from storage and prepared for use
whilst making the new parts. This enabled a new Z9 version to come to life relatively
quickly with the first roof, side and end castings being turned out in the middle of August and a
prototype body was soon assembled.
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| Basic assembled body next to an AQZ |
Some
time was then taken organising a new brass etch for a “lazy S” style gate to
enable the car to have suitable platform end gates. The new gate etch arrived
in late October and work recommenced on completing the prototype for the Z9 Kit.
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| Gates, underfloor roof and general detail added - ready to paint |
After spending the first week of November in the paint shop, the new Z9 was
completed, exactly 2 years to the day from my first Z9 scratchbuild. Kits became
available at the November S scale meeting that following week.
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| Painted Lazy S End gates |
Although I never intended to produce a second model of Z9, I am now happy that I did. The project has helped me to improve my skills and enabled a much better model than the one I originally scratchbuilt. It also caused me to look at and explore some other areas of modelling which I had not considered previously, so it ended up being a worthwhile exercise.
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| Completed Z9 kit prototype. |
This kit by WestOzModels is now available, although stocks are limited.
Essentially it is a "Body" kit only, with some detailing parts
(specific to this car) included.
The modeller will need a basic grounding in assembling of
urethane kits and a reasonable level of modelling skills to complete the
model.
Prototype information complied from “A History of WAGR Passengers
Carriages” by A. May and B. Gray and
