197907 – Purcell – Pilbara Area – Hamersley Iron

I want to spend a couple of minutes telling you where the Signal and Conmunication Department fits into Hamersley Railway operations. I am just sending around to you a document there which is a P.R. brochure but it does have some technical information in it. Please peruse it at your leisure but i f you would turn to about page 82 in that document I can draw your attention to the economics of the heavy haul railway like ours, because in that is the key to the place of the Signals Department in such a system. The table on page 82 called ‘analysis of freight rate’ is basically an analysis of the Hamersley iron freight rate. You will notice there a column on percentage of the total freight rate that is attributable to the various Departments or cost centres in our railway.

Nearly 60 per cent of the whole freight rate is the track and over 60 per cent is what we would call the permanent way, (Track and signals).

Other elements in the system are rolling stock, and fuel. Fuel of course is a topical much debated cost. They are all fairly relatively minor costs in our system.