Australian Society of Section Car Operators

ASSCO was founded in November 1999, after a series of informal meetings, by a group of motor section car owners who were running in South Australia.

[1] At the time, many cars were being run using the insurance and systems of a number of heritage railways, including Steamtown, and often under the "work for ride" banner.

[1] ASSCO was established to hold the accreditation, and in 2000, work commenced on the preparation of a safety management case for the group.

Interim accreditation was achieved in June 2000 [1] Work to prepare the safety case was done by one of the founding members, with operational experience coming from a former railwayman, whilst a number of the processes used by the North American Railcar Operators Association were considered and, were necessary, modified to meet Australian Regulatory requirements.

The committee at the time, and subsequently, has avoided taking (long term) responsibility for any infrastructure, because of the work and cost associated with its maintenance.

[3] After gaining accreditation, the group made a number of approaches to heritage and commercial railway operators for access.

Its first run on the QR network was over the now closed line between Theebine and Kingaroy in April 2003[7] The group has accessed a limited number of heritage railways, including the Mary Valley Rattler.

The largest group of participants ever attended its Monto Loop Run (19 cars and 32 people) on a trip between Biggenden and Calliope in Queensland in April 2010.

ASSCO was eventually invited into a group insurance scheme run through the Council of Historic Railways and Tramways of South Australia Inc, enabling it to restart operations.

More recently, the group moved into other pooled premium schemes, and the cost of insurance on the open market has fallen considerably.

That is, there must be a benefit for the organisation which hosts a run, or for a commercial railway owner, the access should be cost neutral, if not at a small profit.

Like all railway operators in Australia, ASSCO has been subjected to regulatory intervention by the Office Of the National Rail Safety Regulator (ONRSR).

ASSCO did so to bring its Rail Safety Management System (RSMS) up to comply with current legislation and standards.