197903 – Bodger – Railway Rules & Signalling

The amalgamation of three Railway systems and the introduction of one set of common general operating rules for the system thus formed is a situation not generally met in a Railway Signal Engineers working career.

This situation has arisen in recent times however, brought about by the decision in 1973 of the Australian Government of the day, in offering the various State Governments the opportunity of shedding the responsibility of conducting Railway operations in their States. In 1975 this offer was accepted by the State Governments of South Australia and Tasmania and so it was on the “Declared Date” of 9.3.78 that a combined Railway System operating as the Australian National Railways Commission was formed by the amalgamation of the original A.N.B. (formerly Commonwealth Railways) the non urban portion of the South Australian Railways and the Tasmanian Government Railways.

In the new system the former Australian National Railways portion administered from Port Augusta became the Northern Region, the non urban portion of the South Australian Bailways became the Central Region and-the Tasmanian Railways became the Tasmanian Region.

In order that a minimum of constraint be placed on the possibility of staff transferring from one region to another a common set of Service Rules was adopted.

Williams a retired traffic officer of the On 22.12.76 Mr A.B. Australian National Railways and the Chairman of the Service Rules Committee addressed State Transport Authority – Rail Division (S.A.R.) Rule Book Committee regarding the preparation of General Rules to operate following amalgamation.

Although at this initial meeting it was not envisaged that a formal type Committee would be formed, early in 1977 a Committee was formed under the chairmanship of Mr. A.R. Williams, a retired A.N.R. traffic officer to prepare for adoption a Common General Operating Rule Book and Appendices.

At the sudden and unfortunate death of Mr. Williams, Hr M.L. Nayda, the Chief Planner of the A.N.R. was appointed Chairman of this Committee.

The Committee has met regularly since the beginning of 1977 and in fact is still continuing the preparation of one of the Appendices to the Rule Book.

I, being a member of the Committee from its inception, requested the opportunity of presenting this paper to the members of the I.R.S.E. to acquaint you with some of the experiences of this unique situation.

As you are aware many of the Rules governing the operation of any Railway do not in any way relate to Railway Signalling and I will therefore attempt to confine my remarks to those matters which will be of interest to those present and for any departure from this principle I apologise.