Terminology

Find on this page the terms and wording used within or without the VR for the many events and happenings. In some cases slang may be used. Terms used will include equipment and words used that had a common meaning understood by most in the rail employ. This list may appear in present or past tense for the era 1880s to the 1990s. Many terms will continue as the practices are brought forward by people from that era.

• Bona - An engine and guards van transfer move. Word comes from the telegraphic code used to transmit data between stations and train control points ( as distinct from 'Train Control' established in the 1930s ).
• Built New - This is a generic term to indicate the 'age' of a vehicle for accounting purposes. The actual expression is derived from two descriptions

  1. Where Placed On Line - ie the location where it was first placed onto the running line and available for traffic
  2. When Placed On Line - ie, the date of the event shown above

  For accounting purposes, a date must be used to indicate when the vehicle has been fully constructed and ready for use. This date has been subject of many discussions. As an overview the owner of the vehicle was the 'Rolling Stock Branch' and the 'Built New' date is the 'Register'(ed) date. Even though the vehicle may not get into traffic at this point, this is the 'start' date. This date and the method of deriving it has also led to the viewing and photographing of many interesting events over the past 110 years.

  The vehicle can be constructed, numbered and classed and sit within the confines of the workshop ( ie Newport, Bendigo, Ballarat) for weeks, months or years but until it actually leaves the site it will remain unRegistered ( barring special circumstances, of course). It is for this reason that many vehicles have been seen and photographed never to appear in the official records. Rel;iance on these photographs without this understanding can lead to mistaken events and histories being presented. Only when the vehicle leaves the yard on a train does the paperwork start for logging the vehicle and identity into the system. The following events are presented as examples:

  • Haydn Baggs notes in his diary a visit to Newport Workshops during 1897. He mentions cars of the AV and BV class with numbers in the 280 to 290 range. This was a continuation of the AA number group. However AV 287 was renumbered to 1 and all cars renumbered. The 'phantom' cars were never officially logged.
  • In 1899 VR introduced a new bogie vehicle to service 'OO 1'. After trials and some use the vehicle was deemed a failure. Yet in 1902, FIVE other wagons were placed into service. Strange if the first one was unsuccessful. But not so strange if there was a construction of six vehicles for expected traffic. I am presuming that with the first vehicle a failure, the remaining vehicles were completed and remained in storage for a couple of years until "..they..figured out what traffic to use them for...". The remaining or all vehicles, after modifications to the first, then entered service in 1902.
  • There is a photo of an IB underframe converted to a WTT in the 1940s. The WTT carries a wrong number. However this conversion is not mentioned but it appears that the vehicle in the photo was given a wrong number in the workshops and when issued to service carries another number.
  • In the 1950's editions of the VR Newsletter there are photographs of newly constructed vehicles in the Newport Workshops yard. Amongst them is a photo of the start of auto coupler conversions to Way And Works sleepers. Old four and six wheel vehicles in this group had the bodies lifted off the underframe and placed onto auto coupled chopped and shortened carriage underfarmes. Photo shows the class W and the next available number. By the time the conversions went into service they had been reclassed and renumbered into the WW group. No mention of the bogie W car.
  • I have a photograph of a duplicate GH number in Newport Workshops which had just been constructed. Duplicate because Newport were starting to use the same number group as Ballarat and a vehicle with this number was already in service. The vehicle was renumbered and entered service without any mention of it in official records.

  At the end of the day, what you see is not always what you get.

• Bulk traffic - Bulk traffic refers to any loose, heavy commodity that is loaded directly into a wagon without packaging. Examples of this traffic would be wheat, oats, barley, coal, cement, briquettes, petrol and quearry products. It is also possible to transport these products in bags, cartons, drums and could even be palletised. But once packaged, this traffic becomes "non-bulk" and effort required for stowage and offloading becomes more labour intensive. Up until the 1930s wheat was transported by the bagload requiring the effort to bag the wheat, stack the wheat into the wagons and then offload the bags at the terminal location. By providing wagons for bulk transport such as the GZ, G (1st type) and later GY, the manhandling costs were reduced and the total transit time from fields to terminal improved.
• Circle Book - These were a set of books that logged the corrrespondence of vehicle changes in chronological order. The earliest copies of the book date back to 1911 and exist right through to the late 1980s until supplanted by computer methods. The reason for the name has never been determined but may have originated from 'Circular Book' in reference to the incoming records.
• Circular - Important information broadcast through the network. Could be printed, rhoneo'd, photocopying or typed. Provided information about planned train movements, traffic changes, equipment updates or safeworking modifications. Generally dispensed to specific areas depending upon the information presented. Alerted staff to changes.
• Condemned - Vehicles that require maintenance but no money is to be spent on account of a downsizing agenda were usually flagged by a CONDEMNED stencil on the wagon, correspondence indicating disposition and a stamp or notation in the Register. At this point the vehicle is still on Register but is stored pending action
• Corre(s) - Correspondence and memos (memorandums) sent through internal postal network for dissemination of information
• Correspondence Register - all Branches and main workshops kept an inventory of correspondence received, date, reference number and action taken.
• Electrol - This originally a building in Batman Avenue and was operated by the Electrical Engineering Branch. It was the central control room for monitoring the overhead power supply for the suburban network and could remotely operate the various substations. With the redevelopment of the Flinders Street yard area, the operation was moved to a building near Burnley station.
• Metrol - Up to 1981, the inner Melbourne suburban area was still being signalled manually from signal boxes at Flinders Street and Spencer Street with all major junctions still worked by signalbox. A suburban train control panel existed to co-ordinate train movements. Whilst the points and signals were electrically operated in most cases, the work was still manual. At Flinders Street station, the major train fleet yard and choke point of operations, signals and points were of the basic type, requiring the physical exertion of lever pull. The introduction of a Underground Loop segment to reduce loading from Flinders Street saw the entire area converted to electric operation with the conversion of points and signals to remote electric operation. This centralised all signalling operations to a building in Batman Avenue called 'Metrol'. Operations were still split however, with signalmen operating computerised displays and Train Control officers overseeing train movement changes. To introduce this system, train movements were reduced by about 20%. With the redevelopment of the Flinders Street yard area, Metrol was relocated to Transport House in Collins Street.
• Off Register - For inventory purposes and an accounting milestone, 'Off Register' is the marking off of the vehicle from the records, generally a red line through the main entry. By the time the entry occurs the vehicle has already been removed from service and is usually in storage waiting for the disposal authority. This term can also be used when a vehicle is untraced and the date recorded is the official removal from inventory and accounting use.
• On Register - the action taken to record a vehicle in the official inventory. This was usually used to restore a vehicle back to service after being marked 'Off Register'
• Memo(randum) - correspondence between two parties either to gather information or to inform.
• Not Traced at Stocktake - This is an indication that during a tri-ennial stocktake, the item of interest was not found. In later years stocktakes were co-ordinated across the States so that interchange vehicles could be cross referenced. In general, six to twelves months elapsed from the initial finding to an action being taken. The action taken was usually removing the vehicle from the Register ( Off Register or Redlined and the reason "Not Traced at Stocktake [date]". If 'found' the vehicle was restored to Register. This was taken very seriously by the department as the VR had a mandate from the government to maintain records and keep all equipment in good order.
• Redlined - term for 'Off Register'. Describes the action taken to strike a vehicle from the books.
• Register - The official records for the rolling stock. These were inventory records for accounting purposes and only logged the basic characteristics of the vehicle.
• Rolling Stock Register - see Register
• Scrap(ped) - This is a reference to a vehicle that has been removed from the official 'Register' and is no longer being tracked in the records system. Going to 'Scrap' means the vehicle will be disposed of by some method such as
  1. Physically destroyed
  2. Sold off

  'Scrapping' is where the vehicle is cut up into pieces or is physically separated from the underframe, bogies or body and is sold. This can also be a reference to the selling of the complete vehicle to a scrap metal merchant. In this case the date of scrap is the date the vehicle was transferred to the merchant.

  From the mid 1970s the ARHS Victorian Division 'Newsrail' publication regularly reported vehicles as 'Scrapped'. This was incorrect as the vehicles in general had only been 'Recommended for Scrap'. At this time, the fixed wheel fleet was being downsized rapidly. Some vehicles from this list were restored to traffic.

  Some official records also mention vehicles as being scrapped but still visible many years later. This generally occurred when vehicles had only been placed 'Off Register' and it was inferred the vehicle would be scrapped. Until later data is found, the term 'Scrap' can also be a reference to 'Off Register'.

  The term 'Scrap' has probably only come into use since the 1920s and the use of arc welding with the ability to cut up vehicles easily and in most cases convert the vehicle to 'Scrap metal'. From the 1880s to the mid 1940's the VR used a term called 'Broken Up'. Historically this a reference to vehicles made of wood and iron that were physically 'broken up' by hammer and chisel.

  Scrapping vehicles was usually a low priority. It was reserved for times when new construction and maintenance cycles saw little work at the workshops. Vehicles were placed out of service and stored until such time as they could be disposed of. Welding staff were then sent out to dismantle the stored rolling stock. This was usually at a specific site in the yard and shunting staff supplied stored wagons to the siding used. There have been occassions when the wrong wagons were supplied and the mistake not found until too late. Oops.

  Many vehicles 'disappeared' during the 1970s due to scrapping but they were never recorded. Lettering fades and disappears with long term storage. In the belief that 'somebody knows' (the identity), vehicles were cut up at Spotswood Reclamation Depot and Newport Workshops with no identification. Using the best lettering possible correspondence was returned to Head Office with the following codes

  • '- -' - ie code is dash, number is dash
  • NLDW 881 - NLDW is 'Newport Lift Due Workshops' with the number being the month and year
  • Variations on the above

  One example of this would have been 'N 1' a ballast plough that had been in storage for about 10 years or more with all lettering obliterated. Only a reference to the stamped number tag proved the identity. Scrapping staff would not have known about the tag or tag location and probably would not have cared. If any documentation was submitted it may have been simply as '- 1' ( ie dash one) and given the spate of other incorrect codes and numbers, the reference would have been useless.

• Stet - An administrative term to correct a mistake.
• Stocktake - Following a legal battle (Speight vs Syme) in the 1890s where the VR was shown to be accepting government funds for unaccounted rolling stock, a stocktake procedure was adopted at regular intervals. In later years this was every three years. It was an enormous effort conducted on a Sunday usually towards the end of the finiancial year. Victoria was broken up into sections and all staff were co-ordinated into inspecting each section. For the Rolling Stock Branch all rolling stock and bogies were logged. Special care was taken for trains that would be en-route during the stocktake interval, generally a 24 hour period. Results were then compiled. Within a few weeks notices would be issued looking for specific vehicles which had gone unreported.

• Traced at Stocktake - This usually occured when a vehicle had been unaccounted for and was picked up in one of the tri-ennial stocktakes. The vehicle was restored to Register by rewriting in the details and the date returned. The original construction date was used and an entry made about the discovery.
• Train Control - A method of centralised train running to co-ordinate train movements along major lines. Until the 1930s, train movements were orchestrated by timetable and station officers with safeworking by signalboxes, station staff or train crews on low density lines. The Train Controller worked with station officers and signalmen to expidite train movements. This system was introduced in the mid 1930s. The central location was at Head Office in Spencer Street with district train control rooms at Bendigo, Seymour and Ararat. There was also a suburban Train Control with several panels to cover the different lines. The Westcode panel for Train Control operation on the standard gauge line between West Footscray and Wodonga opened in about 1962. This was for remote control operation of points and signals at crossing loops, junctions and diamond crossings. The next major installation was Metrol for the Melbourne suburban area.

Peter J. Vincent, June 2007