In 1897, a new type of carriage entered service. The car was AV 285.
It was 50'2" long over body and featured a side corridor with compartments along the side. This interior style had been in running since 1892 when twelve AA cars were modified and reclassed to AC__. The main feature of the cars were the toilets provided. During the 1890's, there were great concerns about the lack of toilet facilities on trains, particularly the train to Adelaide and long country trips.
The new car was appended to the end of the _AA_ number group. It was given the code AV, V to indicate Vestibule. The last AA car was No.284, so the new type car became AV 285. With further construction in 1898, the car was renumbered to AV 1 and new records for the group started.
There is some belief the car entered service as AA 285, consistent with a trial car. However the official Registers only show the car as AV 285 without any recoding taking place. A sighting of cars at Newport Workshops has mentioned cars 285, 286 and 287. It appears these were reclassed prior to service.
Some published histories show the class as originally 'AVAV'. This is quite incorrect and not a reflection of official records.
Six cars were built in 1898 and twenty eight built in 1899. At the end of construction the number group was 1 - 35.
Second Class cars were also built of the same type. These were coded _BV_.
The cars remained in service until the early 1960's. They were withdrawn from service and scrapped between 1962 and 1970. Several cars were converted for Dispay Train use. Some cars were set aside for historical charter use.
Some of the cars were in service between Adelaide and Melbourne as Joint Stock cars. Apparently they entered service new and went to this traffic. They were placed back into normal Victorian country running about 1907.
Whilst the vehicles ran in traffic as "OA", they were never recorded officially as such by the Rolling Stock Branch. Cars OA 31, 32, 34 and 35 were cars AV 31, 26, 5 and 11 respectively.
Recorded references exist in diagrams books, pencilled entries in the Registers and possibly timetable consists.