Single Deck Interurban Car

A single-deck interurban car at the Eveleigh Paint Shop sits on one of the workshop's restoration tracks, the steel body painted in the chocolate-and-cream livery of the NSW Government Railways. The carriage is longer than the suburban single-deckers and has a different door pattern: end vestibules with sliding doors rather than the multiple side doors of a stopping-train car. Through the open vestibule door, the bench seating inside is visible: long bench seats arranged in pairs facing each other, with reading lights and brass luggage racks above. The body sides carry the rivet lines of standard mid-century interurban steel construction. The car is on heritage trucks; the wheels are unpolished but the springs are intact.

The interurban cars handled the longer-distance commuter services on the NSW network: trains running from Sydney to Newcastle, Wollongong, and the Blue Mountains. The seating is set up for longer journeys than the suburban stock. The Historic Electric Traction volunteer group at Eveleigh Paint Shop holds several examples of the interurban fleet alongside the suburban stock, with restoration work continuing on individual carriages as parts and resources allow. The carriage in this photograph is on the working side of that restoration program: bodywork largely complete, mechanical work in progress.