During the later months of 1962 we common people noticed that certain steel fittings had appeared on the ends of the On ore trucks and it dawned on us that the fitting of automatic couplers was probably nigh. Questioning revealed that it was planned to change all bogie ore trucks from “chopper” hook couplers to automatic knuckle couplers during the Broken Hill mines Christmas/New Year shut down of 1962-63 when all ore trucks were idle. The tight timing of the project was revealed in an article from the March-April 1963 issue of the South Australian Railway Institute Magazine:-

Quite a big job was carried out at Peterborough recently when 396 On wagons were converted from hook type couplers to automatic. In addition, 130 wagons were handled by the Silverton Tramway Co. making a total of 526 vehicles converted. This project was carried out while the Broken Hill mines were in recess and had to be handled quickly in order to permit the vehicles to return to traffic. Much careful planning was necessary and the utmost co-operation was received from all grades employed on the work.

The advantages to be gained from this type of coupler were amply illustrated when the first test train equal to 110 vehicles (Note 1) and hauled by locomotive 403 worked from Peterborough to Paratoo. As part of the project it was also necessary to replace the existing train pipe cocks with Westinghouse A-2-R type (note 2). The train pipe has been extended to bring the operating cocks out beyond the vehicle head stop. These improvements on the existing On wagons and the supply of a further 100 new 35 ton roller bearing ore wagons (note 3) will greatly improve facilities on the Peterborough Division.

The new diesel bays at the roundhouse are nearly completed and add quite a new look to the steam shed (note 4).
All concerned on these projects are to be congratulated on the speed with which they were handled.

It is desired to mention that the conversion of 396 vehicles was carried out between December the 15th, 1962 and January 2nd, 1963. 
A very remarkable accomplishment. 

The auto couplers fitted to the On’s were the “Alliance” top lift type, supplied by Bradford Kendall (uncoupling was effected by lifting the knuckle locking block vertically with a lever/chain mechanism mounted above the coupler), however converted locomotives were fitted with bottom lift couplers (the block was pushed up by rods from below the coupler). 

Each system’s trucks were converted by their respective owners, as they were accounted for individually. That necessitated segregating the red S.T.C. On’s from the grey S.A.R. On’s and then forwarding them to their respective headquarters. The ten S.A.R. 400 class Beyer-Garratt locomotives were included in the conversion as were the Silverton Tramway Company’s Goodwin-Alco diesels 27, 28 and 29. 
The S.T.C. converted their On’s and locos at the Railwaytown depot in Broken Hill. S.T.C. Barclay 0-6-0 diesel mechanical shunter No.26 (“Sam”) was not converted, nor were the Broken Hill Associated Smelters diesel and remaining steam locos at Port Pirie, even though all continued in use after the conversion.

To enable hook fitted vehicles to couple to auto fitted vehicles, portable adaptor couplers were manufactured and issued to traffic to co-incide with the conversion date. They were based on a Commonwealth Railway design, but were “beefed up” for S.A.R. use. Inflexible instructions regarding their usage were laid down in a Standing Train Notice and subsequent amendments to the General Appendix and Working Timetable of the day. Trains were to be marshalled with auto fitted vehicles leading and hook vehicles trailing the adaptor. Only one adaptor was permitted per train and the load trailing the adaptor was limited to 600 tons.

Every loco was required to carried an adaptor and certain yards and depots were issued with them, as was the S.T.C. at Broken Hill and the B.H.A.S. at Port Pirie. A steel pin for the purpose of securing the adaptor coupler when not in use was welded to the running plates of the steam locos. It was situated behind the second adhesion block on the fireman’s side of the T class and adjacent to the buffer beam, fireman’s side on the Garratts. More often than not though, the adaptor ended up in the more convenient “duck pond”, i.e. the running plate between the frames in front of the smoke box of the T’s, or the water tanks of the Garratts. The 830 class diesels carried theirs secured on top of the coupling pocket casting. 
Brake vans (GB’s) did not carry them as standard equipment, but if no adaptors were in use in the consist of the train, instructions were that one was to be placed in the van for that movement only. (I don’t know what that instruction envisaged, because the loco carried one. There could be no such thing as a totally auto coupler train because all GB’s had hook couplings. Conversely, to attach an auto fitted vehicle to a total hook coupler train, which would have to be Y class or unconverted T class hauled, would require the use of two adaptors, in contravention of the “one per train” rule.)

In practice they were always in short supply and the spares were always being called on, which exacerbated the problem. The exception was the Silverton Tramway Company, who seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of them judging by the number which we removed from some of their “trams” at Cockburn. The S.T.C. was not a stickler to S.A.R. train marshalling rules and regulations and regularly used more than one adaptor coupler in their trains. The record in my days at Cockburn was nine in an 11am “tram” on one occasion! That habit often resulted in much remarshalling of trains from Broken Hill at Cockburn and consequential delays to the S.A.R. service. The loco/guard change over on the “down” Broken Hill Express at Cockburn provided another example of S.T.C. autonomy. They regularly attached ore empties with their loco, then just over the N.S.W. border at Burns, the train was backed onto even more empty ore wagons. That resulted in a lengthy train with the coaching in the middle (hook couplers with adaptors each end) sandwiched between two long strings of ore wagons (autos), no brake van at the rear and an interesting ride for the passengers from Burns to Broken Hill. The ore wagons were detached at Railwaytown station before the Express proceeded the few blocks to Sulphide Street station.

The 600 ton limit of the adaptor negated the benefits of T class locos double heading with Garratts to Belalie North (or anywhere else) and robbed the T’s of 500 tons capacity from there to Port Pirie, so it was found expedient to fit certain T class tenders with automatic couplers for Port Pirie line use. Second hand auto couplers which bolted directly onto the buffer beam were fitted to the tenders of T’s 206, 228 and 252 (January 1963 after the On’s had been completed) and T 183 (November 1963). Those couplers contained no draught springing whatsoever, so when the loco attached to a full load of ore, a resultant hard jarring shock was experienced in the loco cab on impact. It is misleading to state that specific T class locos were converted to auto couplers, as only certain tenders were and they were swapped from loco to loco as required. The front coupling on all T class locos remained the hook type until the end, as did most of the tender couplings. To eyes used to the much smaller and lighter “chopper” hook couplings, the autos looked disproportionate on T class tenders, however that was only an aesthetic shortcoming which diminished with time.

The character of narrow gauge ore trains changed after the auto coupler conversion. The audible run in and run out which occurred with the hook couplers, especially when a movement started or stopped, all but disappeared. That coupling slack occasionally gave the guard a rough time and contributed to pulled drawbars if train management got out of hand, but enginemen could put it to good use to get a heavy train started. That was particularly so at Huddleston on the “down” when a lone T attempted to overcome the inertia of a 1,100 ton ore train. The tight coupling of the autos meant that the loco had to lift the whole load almost all at once, rather than truck by truck as the slackness of the hook couplings allowed. Drivers still tried to bunch the leading trucks by backing the loco into them, then spinning the reversing wheel into fore gear without shutting the regulator, but it was quite a struggle until the down grade in the cutting beyond the switches at the Crystal Brook end was reached.

The auto couplers also made life more difficult for pedestrians who preferred to cut through the middle of consists rather than walk around them. In the hook days it was a simple matter to use the hand brake corner step or the coupled side chains on the non handbrake end (no step) to step over the coupler and there was plenty of room to avoid the ore encrusted ends of the trucks. However, with auto fitted vehicles, no such chains existed so one had to look for the hand brake end step and as the trucks were now closer together, a dusting of ore somewhere on one’s clothes was almost a certainty. If one encountered two trucks with the hand brake handles adjacent, the opening was so narrow that it was ignored.

Those initial conversions are not the end of the story though. Over the next several years some narrow gauge bogie goods vehicles which were earmarked for later use on the standard gauge, were modified in anticipation and then returned to narrow gauge duties. The fitting of auto couplers was part of the conversion and included were 35 Vw, 22 Vcw louvre vans; 4 Rrn, 1 Rpn, 1 Rcn, 1 Rcb cool cars; 47 Gn, 5 Obn open bogies (usually used in grain traffic); 5 Fnc, 10 Fnl flats (usually used for small intersystem containers); 15 Cn cattle vans; 15 TS, 3 TV, 2 TC, 2 TB, 2 TP fuel tankers; and 1 TDS, 1 TDW (fuel), 3 TW, 1 TDW (water) departmental tanks. The 100 Omn ore wagons, which were delivered from Oct. 62 to July 63 with auto’s, were rebuilt into the larger capacity SOC’s in 1968 and returned to the n.g. Broad gauge cool cars RRP 9024 and RX 9030, which had been running on the narrow gauge as Rbn 7728 and 7729 as a result of the Broken Hill Express derailment at Paratoo on 27th December 1960, were converted to autos in 1966 and returned to the narrow gauge. Other narrow gauge vehicles were converted to standard gauge in the mid to late 60’s, but were then stored, some because they were then no longer suitable to run on the n.g. For example, the 18 Sn sheep vans converted to SSC from July ‘68 were stored because the new end sliding doors and concertinas were not compatible with the old Sn hinged end doors. Not all bogie goods vehicles and no brake vans, passenger rolling stock or four wheeled ore/goods vehicles were converted to auto couplers on the Peterborough Division. Conversely, at the closing of the n.g., the On ore wagons (all auto converted) were stored, then scrapped

Bogie vehicles which were manufactured with the standard gauge in mind, but had been issued to traffic prior to the new track opening, ran on the narrow gauge with auto couplers in the interim. The 17 HCA two compartment air discharge cement hoppers (not to be confused with the broad gauge three compartment HCA’s which exceeded the n.g. axle load) and the 3 SE explosive vans, all of which were bogie exchanged between the broad gauge and narrow gauge at Terowie and the two FAN acid container flats were examples.

Other ex N.G. rollingstock gained auto couplers when put on the standard gauge in 1970, any coupling height deficiency being rectified by fitting a packing plate under the centre plates. The 12 wheeled TB tanks (which could not be readily returned to the narrow gauge when modified), other TP tanks, and 9 ESV employees’ sleeping vans were examples. To assist with standard gauge track laying, 6 Hn ballast hoppers had earlier been fitted with s.g. bogies, but retained their chopper hook couplings and used adaptors at each end of the consist. Track construction came under the jurisdiction of the Chief Engineer, therefore G.T.M. regulations did not apply! After standardization, these hoppers were earmarked for the Wilmington and Quorn lines, but they remained on the s.g. at Peterborough. They were converted to auto couplers in 1974 and ran on the s.g. until 1984 when they were transferred to Port Lincoln. 

The Port Lincoln Division is not the subject of this essay, but it is interesting to note that auto couplers were introduced there in S.A.R. days in a 1973 program which utilized second hand auto couplers from the On ore wagons. Some vehicles needed only the couplers e.g. HAN hoppers, whereas others also needed the draft gear as well, e.g. Ogn grain opens. Eventually, all the On couplings were utilized, but once again not all vehicles were converted, resulting in the necessity for adaptor couplers. In 1975, the adaptor trailing load limit was raised to 1100 tons (imperial was cited!) on the Port Lincoln Division, which then coincided with the S.A.R.’s long standing maximum tonnage limit for heavy draw gear hook couplers. An oddity which occurred there was the conversion of eight Sfn four-wheeled sheep vans to Vfn louvre vans in 1965 and their subsequent fitting with auto couplers. That was done to facilitate their use as “take-out” vans, marshalled in the usual place next to the auto coupled loco. They were probably the only four-wheeled n.g. vehicles ever fitted with auto couplers by the S.A.R., alhough CGF 7083, a shunters’ float derived from a Cfn four-wheel cattle van, appeared at Port Lincoln in the mid 80’s fitted with auto couplers under A.N.R. ownership. 

An unusual postscript to this article is that after the Broken Hill - Port Pirie line was standardized, the Wilmington and Quorn lines became isolated narrow gauge tracks and the captive diesel locos which worked them (the former by 865 and 866 and the latter by 858 and 867) were then converted from auto to hook couplers, once again to overcome the adaptor couple restrictions and complications. In A.N.R. days, the NSU and NT class locos which replaced them also had their autos swapped for hook couplers for those duties, along with stainless steel brake van NBHR 96 which was transferred to Gladstone from the N.A.R. In 1987, s.g. SGBC 1 to 5 which had been converted by the S.A.R. from n.g. Obn 31 to 35, were re-converted by A.N.R. to their original classification and form for Wilmington line use.