NLDF Newsprint Van

Partial view of a NLDF in original body condition.

These large vans were introduced to move newsprint paper rolls from Ettamogah to Ultimo. The steel bodied vans have external bracing with large outside hung double sliding doors. The interior was lined with plywood to create a smooth surface to reduce damage to the newsprint rolls. They were loaded with 65 1.7m high, 930mm diameter rolls.

Builders:

- 40 vans were built by Mittagong Engineering between 1981-82 and were numbered 23161-23200.

Length: 21.6m Tare: 28t Capacity: 51t Gross: 79t

Bogies: 2CL

Coding:

- They were coded NLDF from introduction.

- Some were fitted with 2CM bogies for faster operation and were recoded NLDY.

- When the class was transferred to NRC in 1994-95, their first letter was changed to ‘R’.

Colour Scheme:

- As introduced, the body was painted SRA red with a silver roof and chrome yellow doors. They had a 2-tone blue L7 on a white background logo attached to the body side. Bogies and underframe were black.

- Later repaints saw the roof painted SRA red.

- The vans weathered into a dusty grey, and on some vans, their original livery is still visible under the grime.

- To date they have not received any other paint scheme.

Further Modifications:

- Additional external bracing was added to the body at some stage.

Operation:

The vans were used in dedicated paper traffic from the Australian Newsprint Mills plant at Ettamogah (near Albury) to Ultimo for delivery to Sydney’s newspaper printers in the area. They continued in this traffic until it was lost to road transport in the mid 1990’s. After that time the vans were used on Uncle Ben’s pet food traffic from Raglan and later were used to convey palletized bagged flour for Manildra Group from Manildra to Clyde. The last vans were stored in late 2003.

Modelling:

A HO scale kit is available from Ian Lindsay Models.

NLDF’s in the Manildra Group’s plant at Clyde in late 2003. Josh Beveridge