Code of Practice – Locomotive Boilers

The closing date for comments – Tuesday 31 March 2026.

The Code of Practice – Inspection, Maintenance, and Repair of Locomotive Boilers is now open for Public Consultation.

How this product helps the rail industry

This Code of Practice brings together knowledge gained from government operations from the past century, as well as contemporary practices in boiler maintenance and repair. 

The rail heritage industry in Australia continues to grow, with increasing numbers of passengers travelling behind steam locomotives on mainlines and tourist railways. The continued use of steam locomotives, some over 100 years old, requires careful inspection and maintenance to ensure the safety of both heritage rail safety workers and the broader public. 

About

The Code has been significantly updated to reflect the risks associated with steam locomotive boiler operation. This includes alignment with the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator Code of Practice for steam locomotives, and increased requirements for Rolling Stock Operators (RSOs) and Independent Boiler Inspectors.

The updated Code provides greater clarity of the role of competent persons, independent boiler inspectors, and RSOs. It also includes changes in inspection requirements to a risk based approach, rather than a time based approach to better recognise high use and low use locomotives.

How to contribute

The Code of Practice – Locomotive Boilers is available for public consultation for 30 days. All interested parties are encouraged to provide comments during this time.

It is available to download here.

To make comments on the draft, please use the commenting tools in Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader to comment in-line with the text. If needed you can find instructions here.

Please return your PDF with comments to cfitzhardinge@ariso.org.au by Tuesday 31 March 2026.

As the rail industry’s only accredited Standards Development Organisation (SDO), ARISO collaborates with government, rail operators and industry leaders to improve the efficiency and harmonisation of the Australia’s rail network, ensuring national interoperability, safety and sustainability into the future.