Class DE Explosives vans

A very battered old van (DE1343) at Woodman's point. It had served as a DE class explosives van since 1957.

This group consisted of a motley collection of former D vans converted to carry explosives. By rights they should have been in the O class group with the other explosives vans.

Conversions/reclassifications started in 1954. The oldest were those on the NZR type underframe. This included three vans which had run as D vans all their lives and also another three rebuilt from horseboxes in the second world war. There were a further three vans which were nominally re-bodied examples of this type but see further down.

Details are colour coded in the table below

1954 1183 from D (N.Z.R. type)
1957 1343 from D (N.Z.R. type)

5130 from D (converted A)

1959 5117, 5126 from D (converted A)
1961 580 from D (N.Z.R. type)

1343 written off

1968 5117 written off
1970 580, 5126, 5130 written off
1971 1183 written off

The WAGR outline diagram for the class depicts one of the NZR type vans and is shown below.

Three of the 15' D vans built on a GB style wooden underframe were converted to DE in the 1950s. They were disposed of as follows in the table below.

1954 16, 61 from D(15'-0")
1957 45 from D(15'-0")

16 written off

1962 45 written off
1970 61 written off ( to Woodman's point)

There were two standard 16' D vans converted to DE and two other vans (nominally rebuilds of a 14' MRCWCo van and GSR type van) but in all likelihood 16 footers.

1954 5157, 5168 from D(16'-0")
1957 5157 written off
1958 5168 written off
1964 251 from D
1970 251 written off
1971 4174 from D
1976 4174 written off

A rather battered late survivor at Woodman's point at least 10 years after it was written off. All of the 1953 vans had a distinctive steel fillet immediately behind the buffer beam not found on the earlier D vans.

In 1953 40 old D vans were "re-bodied". These appear to have been completely new 16' vans but I can't be sure. Some were converted to DE from 1964 and they are listed below colour coded by the type that they notionally came from thus:

rebuilt from 15' NZR type vans

rebuilt from 15' GB frame vans

rebuilt from 16' vans

1964 40, 59, 160, 1191, 5152 From D
1967 59 to D
1969 160 to D
1970 40, written off
1971 27, 149, 566, 1334, 1451, 5008, 5176 from D
1972 149, 566 written off
1973 59 from D
1974 5152 written off
1975 59, 1334, 1451written off
1977 27, 5176 written off
1978 1191, 5008 written off

Former MRWA BLA class van D40506 became a DE in 1973 followed by nearly all of the remaining vans in this group (40501, 40505, 40507-40512) in 1974. They were all written off together in 1983 but some could still be seen in traffic as late as 1985.

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