Pilbara Railway Pages Rolling Stock Siding

It is envisaged that this page will detail information and images of the rolling stock and maintenance machines used by BHP Iron Ore and predecessors Mt Newman Mining and Goldsworthy Mining.
BHP currently has inexcess of 12,000 ore waggons, as well as ballast (both bottom discharge and side dumping), fuel and 'steel' or rail transport waggons. Several special waggons like the weighbridge test and jumbo flats have been either scrapped or stored out of service. The original 'steel' or rail train consist is stabled on the Goldsworthy line out at Allen Siding.
BHP also owns and operates various ballast tampers, ballast regulators, a track inspection vehicle [Mermec Roger 800] and Hi-Rail mounted track machines. Along with both Loram and Speno owned and operated rail grinders. Various contracting companies also have their own hi-rails and track machines.

Ore Waggons

The original one hundred and forty-four ore waggons that came with the purchase of the original rotary waggon unloader, or 'Car Dumper', were called 'Oro's' as they had come from the Oroville Dam construction project which was located within the State of California in the United States of America. These waggons were numbered upwards from 521 to 664. They were all built in 1963 by Magor in the USA with a ninety-one-ton capacity.
If you're wondering why the word 'waggons', it was on a sign on the original Car Dumper One, which was bought second hand from the USA with the original Oroville Dam waggons. The sign read 'KEEP CLEAR OF WAGGONS LIMITED CLEARANCE'.
Here is a website with some images from the Oroville Dam tunnel accident. Since 2025 it seems the images are no more, but the text remains.
A Facebook post which is publicly available here: here with a picture of the dumper which became Car Dumper One at Nelson Point and some of the original waggons.

Other Oro's had been converted to weighbridge test waggons with various axle weights, some were cut-down to form compressor and brake sets for the Nelson Point car dumpers and some modified to become index or spotting waggons which are painted white and these were originally used at the new car dumpers at Finucane Island, and later at Nelson Point.
One compressor / brake set CC6 received the corporate BHP blue livery and one CC7 was painted orange while all others were white.

The Oro waggon fleet was supplemented with an order from Comeng WA to build a fleet of ore waggons with a 110-ton capacity, these were built in several batches starting with ore waggon 2001 in 1969.
By 1971 they had reached ore waggon number 2999 so numbering started again, this time upwards from 1001. And then by 1976 subsequent batches of ore waggons from Comeng WA had grown the fleet up to ore waggon number 1999 including several replacement waggons numbered to fill the gaps in numbering caused by waggons written off, so numbering started again, this time upwards from 4001.

In 1976 Transfield built eighteen ore waggons along similar designs to the Comeng style waggon, but with a tapered floor and these were numbered 4501 to 4518. These were the only waggons from this manufacturer.

The 1979 Mount Newman Mining Rolling Stock Book has nineteen-hundred and seventy-six Comeng WA built ore waggons and one hundred and twelve Magor USA built 'Oro' waggons on the register but does not make mention of the Transfield waggons.

By 1982 the waggons from Comeng WA had reached waggon number 4137. For a total of approximately twenty-one-hundred and seventy ore waggons.

In 1988, three-hundred and fifty ore waggons arrived from Arad, Romania built by Astra Vagoane. These are thought to have been via Lang Hancock and his ownership of the McCamey's Monster iron ore mine and his plan to swap raw minerals to Romania for railway waggons (the McCamey mine was later bought by BHP).
Due to some issues with Customs, two hundred and eighty-four of them were stored in an embargo compound alongside the Broome Road and never used and were eventually scrapped.
Approximately seventy-five of these Romanian built ore waggons did make it into service with BHP Iron Ore in 1988/89 and were numbered between 3294 to 3368. Of these waggons I have managed to photograph or seen fifty-one of them.

Between 1997 and 1998 Goninan WA completed an order for one hundred and twenty-six waggons which were very similar to the Transfield designed waggons with the tapered floor and also saw the introduction of 3CR12 type stainless steel. These waggons were numbered 4138 to 4264 and had a model designation by Goninan of HC7081.

Throughout 1999 to 2000 an order for one hundred and twenty waggons was placed with Goninan WA as replacement waggons re-using existing but written off waggon numbers. This order was with a flat waggon floor and using the 3CR12 steel.

Golynx Waggons

Further waggon orders were placed with Goninan WA from 2001 onwards, but this time the waggon body was designed to be more aerodynamic in an effort to reduce drag and thereby improve the fuel efficiency of the consist. This design was created by Lynx Engineering WA (since owned by Wabtec circa February 2018) and the waggons were built by Goninan WA at their Bassendean facility. This waggon body style is known as the Golynx ore waggon. Several batches of these waggons went into replacement waggon numbers to fill out the waggon roster numbering sequence.
The first new waggon number being 4600 and was built in 2003.

The original orders for the Golynx style waggons used the 3CR12 stainless steel for the bodies, this was later changed to 5Cr12Ti stainless steel in subsequent orders.

Between 2003 and 2010 all waggon builds were Goninan Golynx style builds, along with Goninan changing to United Goninan, UGL and finally UG Rail.
Over twenty 120 waggon rakes of new waggons were delivered including a couple of hundred replacement bodies as well.
In 2006 a order for 480 Golynx waggons numbered 6345 to 6824 was signed with UGL and delivered between March 2007 through to January 2008. This ordered followed on from 2000 Golynx waggons already delivered.

In late 2004, Bradken NSW delivered twenty flat sided waggons that looked totally different to the Gonlyx style. The twenty were numbered 9100 to 9119.

GML Golynx Waggons

In 2001 a Golynx waggon was converted from a standard rotary dump ore waggon body by BHP's Ore Car Repair Shop at Nelson Point into a bottom discharge ore waggon for use on the former Goldsworthy line for rail operations between Yarrie / Nimingarra mines and the unloader at Finucane Island. This waggon was numbered 8400 and stencilled GML ONLY, due to the quite low profile of the bottom 'bomb-bay' style discharge doors. This waggon carries Goninan serial number 950088-176 and a build date of 03/2001.
Goninan started building modified Golynx version waggons with bottom discharge 'bomb bay' style doors for use on the GML line in October 2001, with waggon number 8401 with serial number 950088-331 and a build date of 10/2001 being the first such waggon constructed by Goninan.
The 8400 series GML waggons differ also from the standard Golynx design by having scalloped ends and an angle section welded to the top long edge of each waggon. They also have visible burn or weld lines where the internal plates for the sloped hopper are visible on the external 5Cr12Ti steel body.
Thirty bottom discharge ore waggons were built to this style by Goninan in two batches, the first in November 2001 numbered 8401 to 8419 and then the second batch in May 2005 numbered 8420 to 8430 and were utilised on the former GML line traffic that fed the original Finucane Island plant via an unloader.
All thirty-one of these waggons, including 8400, were all converted back to conventional rotary style gondola ore waggons but they still carry the weld markings from the internal sheeting and the same numbers 8400 to 8430.

Tank Waggons

BHP utilises a fleet of tank waggons to rail diesel fuel oil from their Nelson Point facility in Port Hedland, to their mining hubs located at Mount Whaleback in Newman and the Jimblebar Mine located just to the south east of Newman.

The original tank waggon fleet also had a water tank numbered 0001, one of two such tanks built by Comeng NSW in 1970 with 82,000-litre capacity. The other tank numbered 0002 was converted to a weed spray tank waggon and then later converted to become fuel tank waggon 0002.

Comeng NSW also built six 82,000-litre fuel tank waggons between 1970 and 1971 numbered 0003 to 0008. Tank waggon 0006 ended up being cut up and used as a water tank for the ballast stand pipe located at the Flash Butt Welding yard immediately to the north of Bing Siding.

A further order with Comeng NSW in 1972 resulted in a further three tank waggons being built albeit with a larger capacity of 113,000-litres and these were numbered 0010 to 0012.

More tanks were later ordered from Comeng and built in WA between 1974 and 1975 with six being delivered and numbered 0013 to 0018 with a 114,000-litre capacity.

Two further fuel tank waggons, numbered 0019 and 0020 both with an 82,000-litre capacity were originally owned and operated by BP Australia and built by Comeng NSW in 1972 as RTC 01 and RTC 02 before being absorbed in the Mt Newman Mining roster.

Only two tank waggons, numbered 0015 and 0018, where repainted from the BHP corporate blue livery into the BHP Billiton 'Earth' or bubble livery.

Then a major upgrade of the fuel fleet happened. Some twenty-five tank waggons numbered 0021 to 0045 with a 116,000-litre capacity were built in China by QRRS in two batches between 2014 and 2015. Several of the waggons carry safety slogans and they all wear a grey livery.
Since delivery and final commissioning of the new QRRS tank waggon fleet in August 2015 the original seventeen Comeng fuel tank waggons were subsequently scrapped.

Ballast Waggons

The ballast waggon fleet originally consisted of about twenty second hand Oroville, or Oro, ballast waggons originally built by Magor in 1963 in the USA and numbered 501 to 520 and were a bottom discharge style ballast hopper with a ninety-one-ton capacity. Several of these survived in service as ballast waggons until replaced with Chinese built replacements in 2011. Other Oro waggons were later converted by the Mount Newman Mining's workshops into ballast waggons along with one becoming a ballast plough converted from Oro waggon 519 with its original markings still very visible.

During the expansion phase of the iron ore industry from 2004 onwards a fleet of hire ballast waggons were leased from CFCLA and these consisted of imported former USA railroad hopper waggons which were coded by CFCLA as CHRY and CHQY types.

In 2010-11 a fleet of Chinese built ballast hopper waggons were delivered which spelt the end of the original Oro waggons and the leased CFLCA waggons in active mainline ballast service. These new hopper style ballast waggons were built by CNR-QRRS of China with a 99 tonne and 60m³ capacity and are in a yellow livery.