History Of The International Heavy Haul Association Inc.
By John G German,
Former Executive Director

Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to trace the history and activities of the International Heavy Haul Association. The International Heavy Haul Association, Inc. (IHHA) is a non-profit, non political entity organised to facilitate and participate in he development or acquisition and distribution of knowledge germane to heavy haul railroad technology and operations. Membership is open to any heavy haul railroad regardless of country of origin. A heavy haul railroad is defined as one that meets at least two of the following requirements:

• Regularly operates or is contemplating the operation of unit or combined trains of at least 5 000 metric tonnes.
• Hauls or is contemplating the hauling of revenue freight of at least 20 million gross tonnes per year over a given line haul segment comprising at least 150 km in length.
• Regularly operates or is contemplating the operation of equipment with axle loadings of 25 tonnes or more.

Origin
Based upon the work done by the Melbourne Research Laboratories of the Broken Hill Properties Co Ltd (BHP) for the Mt Newman Mining and Hamersley Iron railways in the Pilbura region of Western Australia the idea sprang up in 1975-76 to disseminate the knowledge gained in that research program with other heavy haul railways of the world. After discussions with other countries it was determined that they were not alone in their concerns and problems. Therefore, they sent out invitations world-wide to those railways that were involved in using dedicated unit trains to haul such commodities as coal, grain, iron ore, etc.