Guard’s Van, Echuca, Victoria

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Port of Echuca Discovery Centre

From information panels:

Guard's Van
In Australia, guard's vans were often also used for carrying parcels and light freight and usually had large compartments and loading doors for such items. Some of the larger vans also included a compartment for passengers travelling on goods services or drovers travelling with their livestock. The small compartment at the front of this van would have been used to carry passenger's pets or a drover's dog.

Guards Van (Brake Van) (ZL 448)
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This of is an example of the most numerous type of brake van used by Victorian Railways over a very long period. It was built at Newport Workshops and entered traffic in 1914. In 1961 it was altered to. incorporate long travel draft gear.

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Locomotive, Echuca, Victoria

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A2 steam locomotive, Port of Echuca Discovery Centre

The A2 class was an express passenger locomotive that ran on Victorian Railways from 1907 to 1963. A highly successful design entirely the work of Victorian Railways' own design office, its long service life was repeatedly extended as economic depression and war delayed the introduction of more modern and powerful replacement locomotives.
Wikipedia.

Video of restored locomotive.

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Railway Station, Echuca, Victoria

Railway station at Echuca including interior, public toilet, platform & some surrounding structures.

The railway reached Echuca in 1864, and transformed the town into a major river port, with the opening of the Echuca Wharf and substantial urban growth in the 1870s. In 1876, the Deniliquin and Moama Railway Company opened their 71 km (44 mi) long private railway northwards to Deniliquin. The brick station building at Echuca was provided on opening of the line, along with a double gable roofed brick goods shed, and three road locomotive depot. The station building was expanded in 1877, a large water tower being erected in the same year (demolished in 1977), and the iron footbridge was added in 1880. The concrete rail bridge over the Murray River to the north of the station opened in 1989, replacing a road and rail bridge which opened in 1878.
Wikipedia.

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Produce Wagon, Echuca, Victoria

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Port of Echuca Discovery Centre

From information panel:

Produce Wagon
This very significant van is one of 71 box vans built at Newport Workshops in 1893 with a solid timber door and a barred door to provide ventilation when carrying fruit or vegetables. These vans were the last design of H class box van on Victorian Railways, and only remained in their intended use for a relatively short time.

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Krauss Locomotive

Krauss locomotive
Several of these Krauss locomotives operated on Tasmania's West Coast. This particular engine once belonged to the Mt Lyell Mining Company. It runs on narrow (2 feet) gauge lines. By using these narrower tracks, the mining companies were able to build railway lines more cheaply to access areas that would have been very expensive to reach by other means.

Another Krauss locomotive.

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Mail van

From Chums, 4 January 1893


OK maybe there is a bit more to it. So, here is A Run with the Mail Van:

The Western Mail is one of the most remarkable trains in this country. It leaves Paddington station each evening at nine o’clock, and goes its way to the Land’s End like a great feeding machine, supplying in its transit nearly every western town with letters. It was with this train that I was to journey, and at half-past eight o’clock I found myself in Paddington Station, chatting with Mr. King, the superintendent of the two mail vans, the general custos rotulorum, and the especial guardian of all the important documents and parcels which go from London by this mail. The whole scene was then very busy. The terminus glowed with dozens of fine huge electric lights, porters were bawling, passengers were hurrying, luggage was being hurled here and there, a great express locomotive was being backed against the night express, and all was confusion, bustle, and method.

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