Carriage TCW 23 (originally BL 1040)

Current Status: 75% Restored
Built: 1923
Retired: 1999
Type: Economy Class carriage (48 Economy seats + 6 compartments)
Weight: 25.9t
Length: 15.850m
Width: 2.665m
Gauge: 1,065mm gauge (3ft 6in)

TCW 23 in the Warwick Railway Precinct yard.

Built at Ipswich Workshops and entering service as BL 1040 in November 1923, this carriage was built especially for the Sydney Mail train that ran between Brisbane and Wallangarra.

Other carriages that entered service to form the two Sydney Mail train sets were:

  1. AL 1036, AL 1037, BL 1040, BL 1041, BL 1042, CL 1046 and PARL 1048 – entering service in November 1923.
  2. AL 1038, AL 1039, BL 1043, BL 1044, BL 1045, CL 1047 and PARL 1049 – entering service in December 1923.

Sydney Mail hauled by BB18 1/4 1077, passes the Gorge Tank.

BL 1040 remained in service on the mail train and other services to Wallangarra until the 1970s.

In February 1981 it was converted to TCW 23, which was a Camp Wagon with 6 berths, shower, toilet, gas stove and gas heater for shower, gas and electric lights, hand pump to pump water from a 500 litre water tank underneath the carriage to another tank in the ceiling

It was retired by QR in 1999 and on 6 September 2004 it was purchased from Ipswich Workshops by SDSR.

This carriage is to be restored and turned into a refreshement car with wheelchair access.