Page 9 - October 2021 Track N Times

LORAM PTY LTD.

single day to the 64-mile peg south of Port Hedland, smashing the previous world record of 2.88 miles set in the Unit-
ed States. This incredible feat required 32 strings of welded rail, 13,050 sleepers, 28,200 anchors and the driving of
52,200 spikes. A plaque commemorating this feat is located at the Don Rhodes Mining Museum in Port Hedland. The
Mt. Newman Railroad was completed in 1969 and is now part of BHP’s WAIO network.
The MKMO joint venture went on to extend the Hamersley from Tom Price to Paraburdoo from 1970 to 1972 and
construct the Robe River Railway from Robe River to Cape Lambert from 1971 to 1972. Today, the Hamersley and
Robe River form the Rio Tinto Iron Ore rail network.
Various railway construction and maintenance jobs were won in the intervening years, including New South Wales
Government Railway (Autosled operation in Broken Hill and Double Track Plow sale); Commonwealth Government
Railways (Winch Cart operation and Ballast Sled sale), South Australian Railways (Ballast Sled, Multipurpose Machine,

and Winch Cart), and Western Australian Government Railways.
Loram formed a joint venture with Tamper called Australasian Rail Services in 1983. ARS assembled RG7, a Loram-
designed 44-stone rail grinder with profile grinding carriages, in Brisbane for an initial three-year contract on the Mt.
Newman Railway. Final assembly of RG7 was completed in the Pilbara in June 1983, and Thomas Smith spent six
months training the ARS crew.
The joint venture was then awarded the supply contract for the first rail grinder on Queensland Rail (QR). MMY003,
a Loram-designed 32-stone SPM (or ‘WMATA’ style) machine, was assembled in Brisbane with the help of QR trades-
people, including Graham Creese. It was commissioned with QR in 1987 under the guidance of Don Minge, a member
of Loram’s 40-Year Service Club. This machine went on to be operated by many of Loram’s current employees, in-
cluding Ross Martin, the longest continuous serving member of the Australian rail grinding team.
By 1988, RG7 had established a service record of 99.8% availability on Mt. Newman. The late Jan Whitehead managed
the office in Port Hedland, before she and the office moved to Perth, and her later move out east. That year, Loram
bought Tamper out of the JV and RG7 was modified to 32-stones. It was the first successful trial of Loram’s full flex
electric motor carriages, permitting both plainline and turnout grinding. Loram also manufactured the gauge converti-
ble SX10 for operations on Western Australian Government Railways (now Arc) and other Customers performing
plainline and turnout grinding until it was sabotaged in 1999.
As a result, MMY003 then began its three-month campaign grinds in Western Australia, a rite of passage for crews
from Queensland including Aaron Worth. This was the first third party rail grinding contracting performed by QR.
Graham Forbes was involved in MMY003’s upgrade projects funded by these successful campaigns, including PLC con-
trol, as it continued to grind turnouts in Queensland, and all track for Customers in Western Australia. MMY019 was
purchased from another supplier but Loram maintained Customer Focus and, after side-by-side comparison tests, it
was converted to use Loram grindstones. MMY003 was retired after 22 years in 2009 and was cut up by Chris Zarb.
Smith returned to Perth in 1998 to finish the BHP contract
with RG7 and with orders from headquarters to wind down
operations. However, he instead obtained a contract with
ARTC, moved to Adelaide, and upgraded RG7 again in 1999
with 30hp motors, a vision system, caboose and water wag-
on. The old motors were sold to QR, and Darren Flynn col-
lected them at Mile End in Adelaide. In 2000, SBC7 was
modified and delivered to Melbourne also for a contract on
ARTC.
Through the 1990’s, Loram had expanded from its core mar-
kets in North America to become a contract service opera-
tor in Australia, the UK and Europe. However, without
economies of scale in any of those countries and struggling to
be profitable, Loram decided to exit those markets in mid-

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