commissioners was put in charge, responsible to the Minister of Railways (the Minister of Transport from 1935 onwards). The Chairman of Commissioners of the Victorian Railways were: Richard Speight: 1883 to 1892 Richard Hodge Francis: 1892 to 1894 James Syder: 1894 to 1896 John Mathieson: 1896 to 1901 William Francis Joseph Fitzpatrick: 1901 to 1903 Thomas James Tait: 1903 to 1910 William Francis Joseph Fitzpatrick: 1910 to 1915 Charles Ernest Norman: 1915 to 1920 Harold Winthrop Clapp: 1920 to 1939 Norman Charles Harris: 1940 to 1950 Robert George Wishart: 1950 to 1955 Edgar Henry Brownbill: 1956 to 1967 George Frederick Brown: 1967 to 1973 After the Bland Report of 1972, in May 1973 the Railways (Amendment) Act 1972 passed the management of the Railways from the Victorian Railways Commissioners to a Victorian Railways Board. The board could have up to seven members, with six being initially appointed. This remained until 1983 when the board was discontinued under the Transport Act 1983. Fleet The Victorian Railways operated a wide variety of locomotives and rolling stock to provide passenger and goods services. This included equipment acquired from the private companies that built the first railways in Victoria. The majority was the fleet was broad gauge, with a specialised fleet used on the narrow gauge lines. In later years, gauge conversion was used to place stock from the main VR fleet onto standard gauge. In 1936, the company owned 590 locomotives, 38 railcars, 819 coaches, 716 brake vans and 20.945 goods wagons. The first locomotives used in the state were small steam locomotives, the majority being imported from the United Kingdom, with later years seeing larger units being built locally. Electric locomotives were acquired with the electrification of the suburban railways, with more powerful units acquired when the mainline to Traralgon was electrified. Dieselisation occurred from 1951, but the B class of 1952 revolutionised main line operations. Apart from the F class shunters, Clyde Engineering had a monopoly on Victorian diesel-electric locomotives, as the Australian licensee of General Motors EMD engines and traction motors, fitting them into locally designed bodies. Early passenger services were operated with 4 and 6 wheeled "dogbox" passenger carriages, but larger bogie rollingstock started to appear from the turn of the century. On the Melbourne suburban network electric multiple units were introduced speeding up services. Experiments were also made with various diesel and petrol railcars for use on smaller