The 17.07 metre long KLY high cubic capacity louvered vans were built in two batches by Commonwealth Engineering at Granville in Sydney. The first batch (originally coded KLV and numbered 18601 to 18651) were built in 1973, and the second batch of vans (numbered 18551 to 18600 and 18651 to 18750) were built in 1975/1976. Cosmetically, the batches differed slightly - the first batch had louvers only on the top and bottom side panels, whilst the second batch had louvers on all panels. In 1974/1975, all KLV's were fitted with 2CM bogies and reclassified to KLY. All KLV and KLY wagons entered service in the Public Transport Commission blue livery.

These vans have worked over the entire standard gauge network in various traffics over the years. The KLY's were designed for forklift loading two standard pallets wide inside the van. Commodities carried included all forms of palletised goods such as pet food, newsprint rolls, white goods, fruit & vegetables and bagged cement. The KLY's were fitted with high speed bogies and as such were also attached to passenger trains for carriage of parcels traffic and mail.

In the 1979 Railways of Australia recoding initiative, the KLY vans were recoded to NLKY. With the creation of the State Rail Authourity in the early 1980's, many NLKY vans were repainted red. With the formation of National Rail, all NLKY's were transferred to this new entity in 1994/1995. In National Rail ownership, a number of wagons were reclassified to RLSY for carrying traffic on behalf of Sadleirs and were painted in a lime green & yellow livery. From 2005 onwards, a number of vans have been painted into a dark blue livery and have received Pacific National logos and still see extensive revenue service.

NSW NLKY LOUVERED VAN – PROTOTYPE PHOTOS