The cattle van number group ran 1 to 879. The group was in continual service from 1861 until the 1980's. There were major rebuilds to the class from 1893 through 1925. The last of the vans were built in the early 1950's.
A small group of vans were known as "Elephant wagons". They featured an extended roof. They were used for the carriage of circus animals, including elephants. The original group of elephant wagons were wooden construction. These were scrapped during the 1930's and replaced by steel vans.
Through the years the vans have been used for different traffic as vehicle shortages have occurred. They have been used for carrying bagged wheat, last noted in 1923. On account of louvre van shortages in the 1930's, fifty vans were modified with wooden louvres in the side/end gaps and reclassed to _MU_.
There was a start made to replace these vans with MC cattle containers which could be loaded onto container wagons. Containerisation was for utilisation, not for the transhipment ease.
Deregulation removed all cattle traffic from the rails by the mid 1980's.
The containers were stored for many years and then sold interstate