Carriages

The carriages for the Southern Aurora were all built of stainless steel by Commonwealth Engineering ( Comeng), to designs first developed in the late 1950s. A complete set of new air-conditioned cars were to be built for the Brisbane Limited Express, including duplex sleeping cars. In the event, these train sets were not built.

Instead, ten new single-level Sleeping Cars were built, and these were used with existing air-conditioned sitting cars to upgrade the Brisbane service from 1960. These were the first air-conditioned sleeping cars for New South Wales.

The ten 75 feet long cars were of Roomette ( coded LAN) and Twinette ( coded NAM) types, and the designs ( with just minor modifications) were built for the Southern Aurora. The Roomette is a remarkable design, with very clever features to achieve the capacity of 20.

The central feature of these Roomette cars is the zig-zag corridor which gives enough space in each compartment for a full pull-down berth, which can be lowered with the passenger standing. The passenger can also use the toilet facilities with the berth lowered.

Previous roomette design, on the South Australian/ Victorian railways broad gauge Overland required the passenger to lower the berth from outside the cabin, shrouded in a zippered curtain. The New South Wales cars overcame this difficulty, despite a narrower loading gauge, by using the central zig-zag corridor layout. An ingenious sliding door also kept out noise and light. The last photo on this page shows floor plans of the carriages.

Both types of cars had exceptional lighting, with night, reading and main lights, and the cars won a design award for their lighting. Stainless steel was adopted for its weight-saving and strength: 5 tons was saved per car over conventional NSW sleeping cars, which had far fewer features than these fully air-conditioned and luxurious cars.

The fluted stainless steel sides gave an appearance remarkably similar to the Budd-built cars of the USA railways of the late 1940s and 1950s. The reason is more than coincidence: the steel was rolled on the same equipment which Budd had used for the California Zephyr and other trains. Comeng had bought the equipment from Budd, and so all the NSW stainless steel stock has this family resemblance.

The basic features and design of the cars was repeated in the 1960s in the new trains being built for the Sydney-Perth standard gauge train, later named the Indian Pacific. Some IP cars were used on the Aurora after the 1969 Violet Town collision, as seen in the first photo below.

As a result of the Violet Town collision, new cars for the Sydney-Perth Indian Pacific were used as replacements for the seven destroyed Aurora cars, while new cars were constructed.
The Aurora is on the right at Platform 1 of Sydney station, with Motorail vehicles in the lead. The 8.10 *Spirit Of Progress* is on the left.
A Summer departure in Daylight Saving Time.
The Sydney Station Clock Tower looms over the train.
Original Interior of Twinette compartment in the NAM-type cars. Compartments were finished in varying pastel shades.
Original interior of De Luxe compartment in the DAM-type car.
Waiting on Platform One for the 8 pm departure in winter.
Interior of the De Luxe suite in the DAM -type car, viewed from the platform.
A " Railway Transportation " Magazine drawing of the principal cars used on the *Southern Aurora*

Carriage Fact File
Length of train ( 14 cars)	1076 feet
Total weight of train: tare	580 tons
Loaded weight	630 tons
Carriage length over gangways	77 ft 3 in
Body length	75 ft
Width	9 ft 9 in
Height	13ft 3 1/2 in
Passenger capacity	198
Number of passenger toilets	154
Showers	59
Dining Car seats	48
Lounge Car seats	40
Crew	Basic crew: 21( Driver, Observer, Guard, Head Conductor, 9 Car Conductors, Chef, Assistant Chef, Kitchen Hand, Chief Steward, Bar Steward, 2 stewards/ waiters, AC Technician