The Victorian N Cars were built by Newport Workshop between 1981 and 1984 for the then Victorian Railways. It was intended that the passenger cars would be used on inter-city services to numerous country destinations, including to Dimboola, Mildura, Swan Hill, Cobram, Albury, Bairnsdale, Geelong, Warrnambool, Bendigo, Ballarat and Shepparton. N Cars have travelled behind almost all classes of Victorian diesel electric locomotives, together with the L Class electric locomotives.

Nineteen 3 car sets were built in total, and these sets were originally numbered N1 to N19. Each set comprised of an ACN first class car with a compartment for the guard/conductor, a BRN economy class car with snack bar, and a BN economy class car. The N Cars are all numbered between 1 and 57. Power supply was provided by a motor generator set beneath each car. The N Cars were fitted with air conditioning and power operated doors.

The majority of the N Cars entered service in the tangerine and silver Vicrail ‘Tea-Cup’ livery introduced in 1981. Some of the later builds entered service in the first tangerine V/LINE livery, which incorporated the two parallel silver stripes with V/LINE logos.

The N Cars would often have D Vans attached to the consist to provide additional luggage space.

In 1995, additional Z Cars were added to some sets to increase the set length to 4 cars (FN sets) or 5 cars (VN sets).

Following completion of the conversion of the broad gauge north east line in Victoria to standard gauge in 2009/2010, the N Cars may in the future see service further into New South Wales to Wagga Wagga.

In chronological order, the N Cars have appeared in the following liveries:

From 1981 until 1985 (approx) - Vicrail Tea-Cup logo with two parallel silver bands through the windows on tangerine (orange) painted car

From late 1983 to early 90’s - V/LINE logo with two parallel silver bands through the windows on tangerine (orange) painted car

Late 80’s to early 2000’s - V/LINE logo with white and green stripes below the windows on tangerine (orange) painted car with grey roof

From 1995 to 1997 (approx) - V/LINE logo on red car with blue roof – no bottom stripes (VLP Series 1 without bottom stripes)

From 1995 to 2007 (approx) - V/LINE logo on red car with blue roof with blue and white bottom stripes (VLP Series 1 with bottom stripes)

From 2001 to present day - V/Line logo (in lowercase) on red car with blue roof with blue and white bottom stripes (VLP Series 2)

From 2007 to present day - V/Line logo on grey/white/purple/red car (VLP Series 3)

ACN, BN & BRN PASSENGER CAR – PROTOTYPE PHOTOS