Overview
The AI Class passenger carriages were a class of four-wheel composite coaches with compartments operated by the Western Australian Government Railways.
History
in May 2014 The first two carriages of this class were ordered from the Metropolitan Railway Carriage & Wagon Company of Birmingham, England. They arrived in Geraldton on board the barque Fitzroy on 7 November 1875 and had finished being assembled in April 1876 and entering service in 1877 on the Northern Railway. The two coaches at that time were numbered NR 1 and NR 2. On 13 June in 1885 the Delcomyn arrived with a new four-wheeler which became No.13 to replace No.1. In July 1885 all these four-wheelers were classed 'AB' with No.1 classified 'A' due to its role. In March 1886 five more of the class entered traffic on the Eastern line the reason that they had been purchased was because of their apparent light weight which made it easy to shunt another coach to a train to accommodate more passengers if needed.
The last of the class was NR No.5 which formerly worked on the Bunbury Tramway. In 1899 AB No.21 and No.23 were converted to louvred meat vans but this design proved to be expensive to maintain and a 'non-standard design'. Also in 1899 the Northern Railway coaches were put into the AB classification and Numbered from 258 to 262. In September 1900 the WAGR reclassified its rolling stock and the AB small coaches became AI class four-wheelers. In 1901 AI No.3 was converted to a P class travelling workmen's van with AI No.259 also being converted the next year. In 1902 AI No.262 was sold to the Canning Jarrah Timber Company to be used on the Kalamunda Zig Zag line and it is not known what happened to it afterwards. Four coaches of the class were then sold of in 1904 and 1905. The first ER coach AI No.1 was broken up around 1960 at Jarrahdale in ownership of Millars.
And at the start of 1905 just four of the AI class remained. AI No.260 and No.258 both left and went to Mundaring with AI No.13 being sold and its current disposition is unknown. In March 1912 AI No.258 was sold to the Public Works Department and converted to a 'Tramcar' for use on the Carnarvon Jetty and Tramway Railway. In 1914 AI No.2 and No.260 were sent for work at the WAGR's Banksiadale Saw Mill both met their fates there. AI No.22 was converted to a 'tramcar' for Carnarvon after being sold in 1925.
Preservation
AI No.258 was still intact at Carnarvon until it was separated from its frames and placed in a nursery with Steam Locomotive Kimberly for company.
Incidents
On 15 August 1898 a four-wheeled coach caught fire at Mingenew and despite the locomotive crews Trying to put the blaze out it burnt the entire body of the coach which isn't identified in the report but likely to be AI Class No.261. On 24 June 1914 No.2 caught fire at Banksiadale and was likely broken up as a result.