New South Wales 1100 class railcar

During the 1950s, the Department of Railways New South Wales ordered rolling stock for the Brisbane Limited, including some stainless steel double deck sleeping carriages. Due to financial constraints only ten conventional sleeping carriages were built. To use the excess materials that had been stockpiled, Commonwealth Engineering constructed five cars, four self-propelled Budd Rail Diesel Cars, and a matching non-powered trailer car. While following Budd RDC layouts, these cars were smaller than standard, being only 77 feet in length and narrower in width to fit the NSW loading gauge. ==Construction==

Commonwealth Engineering built four power cars and a fifth unit as a trailer car. The four power cars (FPB 1101/1102 and PHB 1141/1142) were each powered by the standard Budd Rail Diesel Car equipment of two 300 hp 6-cylinder Detroit Diesel 6/110 engines coupled to Allison RC3 transmissions. BRB 1181 was the only Budd Rail Diesel Car in the world built as an unpowered trailer. This vehicle was fitted with a 6-cylinder Leyland O.350 diesel to power the air-conditioning, buffet and lighting. This was later replaced with a Leyland O.400 diesel engine. BRB 1181 was easily distinguished from the other cars by having a smaller roof dome. The FPB class were all passenger vehicles, seating 72 economy class in two compartments. The PHB class featured a 2-ton capacity luggage compartment at one end and seating for 60 economy class passengers in two compartments. The trailer car had a buffet providing light refreshments located at one end and seating for 50 first class passengers. ==Service history==

The first two cars entered service in 1961 on the Goulburn Day Train with a U set trailer, before all entered service in March 1961 on the train they were built for, the South Coast Daylight Express. The set generally operated with four carriages. However, PHB 1141 was sent to the Commonwealth Engineering plant at Granville for the fitting of Cummins engines and Voith transmission, but was destroyed by fire during the conversion. Following the cessation of the South Coast Daylight Express in January 1991 they were redeployed to operate services on the Main South line to Moss Vale and Goulburn. Following their replacement by Endeavour railcars in 1993, all five members were scrapped in January 1994. ==References==