NRS-19278 | Electric Car (Elcar) record cards

Full description

These cards relate to maintenance service details for electric railway cars. The cards bear the heading 'Electric Car Record' and are pre-printed with the following headings: Out of Workshops - From, To and Miles; Number 1 Bogie - Serial number, Axles; Traction Motors; Number 2 Bogie - Serial number, Axles; Motor Generator; Compressor; Pantograph; Voltage Regulator; D.B. [Deadman's Brake] Valve; Air Reservoirs. Each card is sequentially numbered by Electric Car number, and provides a service number and the month and year when the service took place. Some cards indicate changes in the Electric Car number, with some filed under their original number whilst others are not. Some cards also give information on when State Rail received the Electric Car and from where, and/or on the eventual method of disposal of the Electric Car. This series also includes a letter, dated 28 July 1994, listing certain old scrap metal cars sold and removed prior to the closure of Elcar. The cards are arranged numerically by car number and within that sequence chronologically by date of action.

This series is similar in content to NRS 19279 and relates to Electric Car numbers beginning 3000, 3100, 3200, 3300, 3400, 3500, 3900, 4000, 4100, 4200, 4300, 4400, 4500, 4600, 4700, 4800, 4900, 6000, 9000, 9100, and 9200. Some car numbers appear to have been re-used. For example, Car 3003 in Series 19278 was in use by 21 August 1946 and was sent to AG Simms, Botany, for stripping on 8 August 1973. Car 3003 in NRS 19729 was a new car manufactured by Gonians and received by State Rail on 19 March 1979.

According to David Keenan and Howard Clark servicing of the Electric Cars in the 1960s occurred annually with a minor and major overhaul in alternative years, and with additional work done in the fifth year. Items examined or replaced included bogies, plunger and plunger lines, auto couplers, drawgears, diaphragm pins, transoms, trip gear, window wipers, motor generator, compressor, voltage regulator and deadman's brake valve. The fifth year service also looked at the pantograph, the air reservoir and slack adjusters and also included painting of the exterior and parts of the interior of the car. (1)

Custody History
From 1995 until 2000 the State Rail Authority of New South Wales maintained an 'in house archives' consisting of the archival records of the Authority, its predecessor agencies and the private railway companies taken over by the government. The date ranges of the records were from 1849 until 2000. When the decision was made to close the 'State Rail Archives' the parts of the collection that were required as State Archives were transferred to the State Records Authority of NSW. Those records were incorporated into the State Records series system of archives control and were re-numbered.

This series was formerly part of the State Rail Archives collection. It may have been viewed in the State Rail Archives as R217B and could have been previously cited as such in notes by researchers at State Rail Archives or in publications or unpublished works.

Endnote
1. David R Keenan and Howard R Clark, First Stop Central: the electrified system and cars of the New South Government Railways (Sydney: Australian Electric Traction Association, 1963), pp.59-60.