1457 - BVJ class lounge car

BVJ class lounge car

Built: 1909

Builder: New South Wales Railways, Eveleigh

Current status: Static display

1457 started life as the identical twin of 897- an AM sleeping car. It, too, was rebuilt in the 1930s as an FJ second-class sitting car. In the 1960s it was retired from service, but rather than be scrapped it was retained for a very unusual purpose. It was towed to the railway yards at Sydney, stripped of all its interior fittings, and kitted out with a bar and tables. At each table, a set of seats was installed, identical to those used in dining cars on the NSW network. Finally, the carriage was removed from its bogies and placed on hydraulic jacks, which could simulate the rocking motion of a moving train. It was reclassified as a TCS Hostess Training Car, and was used to train hostesses on carrying food and drinks aboard a moving dining car.

It was withdrawn in 1977, and moved to Macdonaldtown sidings for storage, where it was bought by the Canberra Railway Museum and returned to working order as a lounge/dining car, given the inauthentic classification of BVJ. After years of regular service on heritage trains, in the early 2010s the now 100-year-old carriage was retired and placed on display.