From the 1887 there was a group of baggage/mail vans assigned in Melbourne - Adelaide traffic on the 'Intercolonial Express'. During 1907, these evans were replaced by new express vans coded EEB_ and EES_. The EEB class were were coded D in the 1910 recoding. The EES class was recoded to _DS_ before coversion to D vans in 1923.
By the 1960's, the wooden vans had been scrapped.
The only remaining van was D 1 built in 1932 to replace a van destroyed in a derailment in 1923.