Newport Railway Workshops
Encyclopedia
The Newport Railway Workshops is a facility in the Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

 suburb of Newport
Newport, Victoria
Newport is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 7 km south-west from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Hobsons Bay. At the 2006 Census, Newport had a population of 11,244.-History:...

, Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, that builds, maintains and refurbishes railway rollingstock
Rolling stock
Rolling stock comprises all the vehicles that move on a railway. It usually includes both powered and unpowered vehicles, for example locomotives, railroad cars, coaches and wagons...

. It is located between the Williamstown and Werribee railway lines.

History

Plans for a workshop at Newport started in the 1860s, to replace the temporary Williamstown Workshops
Williamstown Workshops
The Williamstown Workshops was the first railway workshop operated by the Victorian Railways, located in the Melbourne inner western suburb of Williamstown.-History:...

 but nothing came of it. It was not until 1880 that work begun, when the Victorian Railways purchased annexes used at the 1880 Melbourne Exhibition and erected one of them at Newport, calling it the Newport Carriage Workshops when it began operation in 1882.

Construction of the permanent workshops commenced in 1884, and was completed in 1889. Although the earlier carriage workshop closed at this time, it reopened in 1895 to manufacture signal equipment. The first carriages
Railroad car
A railroad car or railway vehicle , also known as a bogie in Indian English, is a vehicle on a rail transport system that is used for the carrying of cargo or passengers. Cars can be coupled together into a train and hauled by one or more locomotives...

 built by the workshops were completed in 1889, but locomotives were manufactured by the Phoenix Foundry
Phoenix Foundry
The Phoenix Foundry was a company that built steam locomotives and other industrial machinery in the city of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. Over 30 years they built 352 locomotives for the Victorian Railways, of 38 different designs.-History:...

 in Ballarat, the first locomotive
Locomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...

 being built in 1893. The main elements of the workshops are a central office block and clock tower, the 'East Block' for carriage and wagon works, and 'West Block' for heavy engineering and locomotive building. Expansion followed in 1905–1915, and 1925–1930. During World War II the workshops were turned over to military production, with the rear fuselage, and empennage
Empennage
The empennage , also known as the tail or tail assembly, of most aircraft gives stability to the aircraft, in a similar way to the feathers on an arrow...

 of Bristol Beaufort
Bristol Beaufort
The Bristol Beaufort was a British twin-engined torpedo bomber designed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, and developed from experience gained designing and building the earlier Blenheim light bomber....

 bombers being built there.

At the peak of operation it was one of Victoria's largest and best-equipped engineering establishments, with up to 5,000 employees on site. The workshops had its own cricket ground, and in the 1920s the game of Trugo
Trugo
Trugo, or alternatively TruGo, is a sport invented in the Newport Railway Workshops in the Western suburbs of Melbourne, by railway workers in the 1920s. The first club was in the suburb of Yarraville...

 is said to have been invented by workers on their lunch hour. In the 1980s the original segments of the workshops were removed from everyday use, and modern workshops built along the eastern side of the site, which remains in use today.

Tenants

Current revenue operations are carried out in the eastern section of the workshops by EDI Rail
EDi Rail
Downer Rail is a rail company based in Australia. Formed by a merger of Walkers and Clyde Engineering, it is currently a division of Downer EDi...

, who carry out work including locomotive and carriage maintenance, and diesel engine, bogie
Bogie
A bogie is a wheeled wagon or trolley. In mechanics terms, a bogie is a chassis or framework carrying wheels, attached to a vehicle. It can be fixed in place, as on a cargo truck, mounted on a swivel, as on a railway carriage/car or locomotive, or sprung as in the suspension of a caterpillar...

 and wheelset overhauls; for customers including V/Line
V/Line
V/Line is a not for profit regional passenger train and coach service in Victoria, Australia. It was created after the split-up of VicRail in 1983. V/Line is owned by the V/Line Corporation which is a Victorian State Government statutory authority...

. The workshops is also provided with the only broad gauge underfloor wheel lathe in Victoria. A section of the workshops is also leased to Siemens
Siemens AG
Siemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company....

 for maintenance of their Siemens suburban trains
Siemens (train)
The Siemens Nexas comprises 72 triple car electrical multiple unit trains built by Siemens Mobility for the suburban railway network of Melbourne, Australia from 2002-2005. The design of the trains was based on the Siemens Modular Metro concept built in Austria...

.

The original 1880s workshops have been maintained for heritage uses. The 'West Block' area are occupied by a number of railway preservation groups such as Steamrail Victoria
Steamrail Victoria
Steamrail Victoria is a not-for-profit volunteer group established in 1965 to the restore and operate historic locomotives and rolling stock used on the railways in Victoria, Australia. The main depot of the group is at the Newport Railway Workshops in suburban Melbourne...

 and R707 Operations, while the 'East Block' has been retained by the Department of Infrastructure for the storage of disused trams and other rail rollingstock. The ARHS Railway Museum is located south of the workshops, near North Williamstown railway station.

External links


Further reading

  • The Newport Story Doenau, G Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin
    Australian Railway History
    Australian Railway History , is the premier magazine covering railway history in Australia...

     November;December, 1979 pp249-272;274-288

  • Reminiscences of an Apprentice at the Victorian Railways' Newport Workshops 1959-1963 Clark, A.J. Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin
    Australian Railway History
    Australian Railway History , is the premier magazine covering railway history in Australia...

    , February, 1996 pp35-55

  • Experience at Newport Workshops 1941-1946 Whalley, S.C. Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin
    Australian Railway History
    Australian Railway History , is the premier magazine covering railway history in Australia...

    , November, 2002 pp403-406
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