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As
part of the mainline upgrade program in the mid 1990’s, QR
introduced three new triple-slot container wagons to its
fleet. All three
wagons shared a similar “60ft” design capable of carrying
three 20ft containers, or one 40ft container together with one
20ft container. The
wagons were to be largely used on intermodal services along
the Queensland coast. The
three wagon classes were to be coded BAZY, BCZY, and BEZY.
The
first of the new triple-slot container wagons to be introduced
was the BCZY Class, with the first delivered from QR’s
Ipswich Workshops in 1993.
A total of 170 BCZY’s were built with the last
delivered in December 1994.
The BCZY’s were followed by the BAZY Class which 88
were built by Redbank Workshops during 1988.
The main difference between BAZY and the earlier BCZY
was the fitting of auto twistlocks for securing the containers
in place of spigots.
The
BEZY was the last of this family of triple-slot container
wagons to be introduced. A
total of 299 BEZY’s were built between November 1999 and
November 2000 at QR’s Redbank Workshops.
Running numbers for the BEZY were 47554 to 47852.
The BEZY Class is equipped with a conventional QR59
bogie which easily identifies them from the earlier BAZY and
BCZY which was fitted with a long wheelbase QR54A bogie.
In
July 2004, BEZY 47612 was selected for conversion to standard
gauge for trial use with QR’s expansion into interstate
standard gauge intermodal operations.
The trial proved successful and a further 32 were
converted in late 2004, followed by a further 40 in late 2005.
When converted to standard gauge they were classified
as QQAY Class with each wagon also receiving a check letter
after its number. The
QQAY wagons are fitted with a uniquely modified 1435mm gauge
QRWEH 70T bogie where
a 12-inch centre bowl has been welded above the standard
14-inch centre bowl.
Aurizon
announced on 14 August 2017 that it would be exiting the
Intermodal business with the non-Queensland operations to be
wound down by the end of the year. Seven of the remaining 70
QQAY class were allocated to the Sydney ports shuttle, which
continued into 2018. The other 63 were transferred to the
Aurizon Bulk West operation in WA, for use in their container
wagon fleet. The first of these entered service in December
2017. The Sydney
Ports shuttle was sold to LINX Cargo Care Group at the end of
March 2018.
During
2018 Aurizon announced the sale of its Queensland intermodal
business to Linfox. This
deal also included the sale and transfer of all remaining BAZY,
BCZY, and BEZY wagons to Linfox who continue to operate the
fleet in 2024.
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