Railways of Australia (ROA) was an association of railways operators. It was established in November 1963 when the government railway operators of Australia and New Zealand decided to unite to promote the industry on a national scale."Network Makes its Bow" Network June 1964 page 1
The inaugural members were the Commonwealth Railways, New South Wales Government Railways, New Zealand Railways Department, Queensland Railways, South Australian Railways, Tasmanian Government Railways, Victorian Railways and Western Australian Government Railways."The Significance of Railways of Australia" Western Australian Government Railways News Letter March 1971 page 4 Headquartered in Melbourne, it also maintained a sales office in London, England.
The Indian Pacific passenger train that was jointly operated by four operators, launched in 1970, carried Railways of Australia branding on its carriages.
When most of the government train operators were privatised in the 1990s, Railways of Australia was superseded by the Australasian Railway Association,"Farewell and Hail" Network January 1995 page 4 which comprised 150 member organisations, including listed and private rail-related companies, government agencies and franchisees, passenger and freight operators, track owners and managers, suppliers, manufacturers, contractors and consultants.
Periodical Beginning in 1964, the ROA published Network, initially published monthly; in the 1980s it became quarterly. In 1997 it was renamed Network Rail, becoming a bi-monthly publication."Welcome" Network Rail February 1997 page 5 Publication ended in 1999."It's also vale Network Rail" Network Rail June 1999 page 5
National freight fleet recoding
From late 1978 the railway operators around Australia - Australian National Railways (the combined South Australian Railways, Commonwealth Railways and Tasmanian Government Railways), New South Wales' Public Transport Corporation, Queensland Rail, Victorian Railways and Western Australian Government Railways - began a project to recode all bogie goods rolling stock to a uniform system that would help to keep track of train composition and capabilities. The recoding was not applied to New Zealand railways.
In general, only bogie wagons were to be recoded, and some classes were skipped if they were expected to operate only within state boundaries. The application of the new codes was made over roughly a five-year period starting in 1979. Later changes introduced codes for guard's vans, track maintenance vehicles and a handful of other types, and a check letter system was introduced in 1984-1985 to assist with computerisation. The check letters could also apply to locomotives and passenger rolling stock, though application was patchy and depended on the operator. Later expansion accommodated private rail operators.
Original concepts for the scheme go back to at least 1970, with references to a "national code" being made in wagon design documentation from that time. In the mid to late 1970s some wagons entered service with codes that did not fit their operator's prior patterns, but which could have easily been absorbed into the new national scheme. For example, the Victorian Railways' QMX flat wagons could have become VQMX (though in practice they ended up as VQFX).
Swapping out only the first letter may, or may not, indicate an identical vehicle owned by one of the other systems. For example, the South Australian AOBX and Victorian VOBX open wagons were coincidentally the same general design; both are slightly different from the New South Wales' NOBX.
The first Victorian Railways wagons to enter service with the new codes were timber wagons VFTY, paper roll wagons VFNX, and open wagons VOCX.
Examples of codes that were expected to be used by the Victorian Railways, as of September 1979, are listed below. Note that not all these codes ended up being used, and many others have been introduced since. Old class New class Type Notes MBK JMCY Automobile wagons J prefix did not end up being used. BMX VBAX Covered van BMF VBAY Covered van BLX VBBX Covered van BLF VBBY Covered van BFW VBCW Covered van BP VBPY Covered van Source says VBY, missing "P" Q VFAA Flat wagons QF VFBY Flat wagons QAB VFCA Flat wagons Not used a/c QAB2 stored, 1 & 3 scrapped S VFDA Flat wagons SX VFEX Flat wagons SCX VFFX Flat wagons QH VFGA Flat wagons QS VFHA Flat wagons Not sighted by Sep’79 SBX VFJX Flat wagons SKX VFKX Flat wagons SKF VFKY Flat wagons SFX VFLX Flat wagons SFF VFLY Flat wagons FPX VFMX Flat wagons Not sighted by Sep’79 ? VFNX Flat wagons CSX VFSX Flat wagons Timber VFTY Flat wagons Not given pre-ROA code JAF VHAY Hopper wagons JBF VHBY Hopper wagons CJ VHCA Hopper wagons JCX VHCX Hopper wagons JCF VHCY Hopper wagons JDF VHDY Hopper wagons JPF VHFY Hopper wagons GJX VHGX Hopper wagons Not sighted by Sep’79 GJF VHGY Hopper wagons VHGY64 accidentally coded VHEY64 QN VHNA Hopper wagons JQF VHQY Hopper wagons JSF VHSY Hopper wagons NN VHWA Hopper wagons UB VLAA Louvre van Not sighted by Sep’79 UF VLAY Louvre van All UF’s scrapped by time of recoding VF VLBY Louvre van VLX VLCX Louvre van VHX VLDX Louvre van VSX VLEX Louvre van VSF VLEY Louvre van UB VLLA Louvre van VP VLPY Louvre van AX VMAX Automobile wagons ALX VMBY Automobile wagons ALP VMPY Automobile wagons E VOAA Open wagons ELX VOBX Open wagons ELX (ridge) VOCX Open wagons ESX VODX Open wagons QR VOWA Open wagons JX VPCX Pneumatic discharge FX VPFX Pneumatic discharge FVF VQAY Container wagons FVF1 and 2 stored at NWS TVX VQBX Container wagons TVF VQBY Container wagons FQX VQCX Container wagons FQF VQCY Container wagons FCW VQDW Container wagons QGF VQEY Container wagons Not sighted by Sep’79 QMX VQFX Container wagons TP VRPY Refrigerator van Not sighted by Sep’79 LF VSAY Livestock wagons Not sighted by Sep’79 MF VSBY Livestock wagons Source says FP>VSBY FP VSPY Livestock wagons Not sighted by Sep’79 TW VTBA Tank wagons – Bitumen TWX VTBX Tank wagons – Bitumen TWF VTBY Tank wagons – Bitumen TW VTGA Tank wagons – L. P. Gas Not sighted by Sep’79 TWX VTGX Tank wagons – L. P. Gas TWF VTGY Tank wagons – L. P. Gas Not sighted by Sep’79 TW VTHA Tank wagons – Hazardous VTHA197 accidentally coded VTQA197 TWX VTHX Tank wagons – Hazardous TWF VTHY Tank wagons – Hazardous Not sighted by Sep’79 TW VTOA Tank wagons – Petroleum TWX VTOX Tank wagons – Petroleum Not sighted by Sep’79 TWF VTOY Tank wagons – Petroleum Not sighted by Sep’79 TW VTQA Tank wagons – Petroleum TWX VTQX Tank wagons – Petroleum Not sighted by Sep’79 TWF VTQY Tank wagons – Petroleum QB VWAA Well wagons QW VWBA Well wagons Not sighted by Sep’79 QWF VWCY Well wagons Not sighted by Sep’79
Possible early attempts From the late 1960s many South Australian wagons entered service with four-letter codes; for example some of the FBX flat wagons were recoded SFBX in 1970. Most of the classes in that category had an "S" prefix; the list included the SFCW and SFQX container wagons, PFBF, PFBR, SFBX and SFKX flat wagons, SHBX hoppers, SGMX open wagons, SHCX pneumatic discharge hoppers and STAX and STWX tank wagons. Many of these were the then-normal South Australian codes (some of which were shared by Victoria).
Vincent suggested that the use of the "S" prefix on some South Australian Railways rolling stock could have been an early attempt to conform to the national code, with the "S" indicating South Australian ownership. This could be supported by correspondence or documentation establishing the derivation of the "P" prefix on the PFBF and PFBR wagons being applied to privately-owned wagons. Alternatively, the "S" prefix as applied in the late 60s and early 70s could have been a flag for standard gauge rolling stock, using an idea cribbed from the Commonwealth Railways' use of the "N" prefix to flag narrow gauge rolling stock which was otherwise identical to its standard gauge counterparts. It is known that the SHBX grain hoppers in particular were specifically being designed for use on the new standard gauge line linking Broken Hill with Port Pirie, linking to the Trans-Australian Railway. Vincent also notes some correspondence from within the Victorian Railways, dated 1970 and relating to rolling stock then planned for construction, which suggested four-letter codes in line with a "National Coding" system.
Guards vans and check letters Codes for guard's vans New South Wales guards vans had been allocated new codes with the NVxx prefix as early as 1980, with ten different classes allocated. These were, respectively, EHG, FHG, GHG, IHG, JHG, KHG, MHG, PHG, SHG and UHG, to NVEF, NVFF, NVGA, NVIF, NVJA, NVKF, NVMF, NVPA, NVSA and NVUF. Generally speaking, the "HG" suffix was replaced by an "NV" prefix, and a fourth letter added to denote the bogie type and speed restrictions. New codes were not generated for vans affiliated with passenger trains, like the LHO and MHO vans for intrastate and Victorian trains, or the MHN and PHN vans for the Southern Aurora and the HG and HGM vans of the Indian Pacific.
From late 1982 South Australian, and later Victorian, guards vans were incorporated into the ROA coding structure. In South Australia the majority of the guards vans were of the 8300 class, and these became the AVAY class (later AVAP, with recodings to ABLP and AZXP for other uses). Other changes were HRD to AVDY and HRE to AVEY, as with New South Wales retaining the unique letter from the old code and surrounding it with new context.
In Victoria, the guard's vans previously coded CA, ZLP, CP, ZF and ZMF became VVAP, VVBP, VVCP, VVDY and VVEY respectively. In this case the new unique third letters were simply in order of class introduction, ignoring the short-lived and unique ZZ van. As with New South Wales, van classes that were generally used on passenger trains - the C, CE, CW, CV and joint stock classes - were not recoded. Furthermore, many of those vans were being withdrawn around the same time as the recoding was taking place; the final nineteen C vans were all struck from the register on . Later, a handful of VVCP vans reverted to the CP classification as additions to the V/Line fleet in passenger service, and some VVBP vans were recoded MD for use on maintenance trains. However, this was around the same time that two-person train operation, without guards, was being introduced, so not every van received the new code. Of the 15 CA vans, for example, only eight are known to have been recoded. In practice only about two-thirds of the Victorian guard's van fleet was recoded, with nearly the whole fleet withdrawn in 1985.
Introduction of check letters
In the mid 1980s Australian National introduced a new, computerised Train Monitoring System (TMS) as a database to keep track of the complete rolling stock fleet, including characteristics like utilisation, reliability and maintenance requirements. The system was developed through the 1984/85 financial year and implemented from April 1985. A subset of the system was the Wagon Monitoring System (WMS), which was implemented on the standard gauge system between October 1984 and December 1985, and later in the Eyre Peninsula and Tasmania. The WMS required a system of check letters appended to the end of vehicle codes, to catch and avoid errors that would have interfered with the database's reliable operation. The check letter system was designed to detect errors in either the wagon code, number or check letter, by testing for mismatches, and prompt the user to correct the information before submitting it to the database.