Cardiff Locomotive Workshops

The site is currently occupied by Downer Rail, where rolling stock is assembled, maintained and stored.

The Hunter River Railway Company established meagre maintenance facilities adjacent to its line at its eastern terminus, near the current day Civic station.

However, by 1925 the decision had been taken to abandon Honeysuckle Point as a locomotive centre and to build a new workshop with modern facilities, on a site where greater expansion could take place.

[3] In November 1925, 172 acres (69.6ha) of land was purchased from the Newcastle Wallsend Coal Company and design of the new workshops began.

The Annual Report of the New South Wales Government Railways to 30 June 1928, shows that by that date Cardiff Workshops had already overhauled 14 locomotives and repaired 15 boilers.

The traverser lined up with five inwards roads from which locomotives could be drawn and conveyed to any of 22 pits in the two erecting shops inside.

The works manager's office, which included accommodation for his assistant and other clerical staff, was situated near the main line.

A large ammunition factory was built at Rutherford and many dies, tools and jigs were required for that facility.

Cardiff was selected to handle the overhauls, but the length of the locomotives at 109 feet (33.22 m) posed a problem as they were not going to fit on the traverser.

The first was the decision to maintain all wagons at a One Spot facility, a centre where freight rolling stock could receive all its necessary maintenance at one location.

Clyde Engineering was awarded the contract and constructed a depot on Kooragang Island to service the 82 and 90 class locomotives.

[1] As members of the 44, 442 and 45 classes were replaced by the new arrivals they were brought to Cardiff for store before being auctioned with 81 present in October 1994.

[1][10] In June 1998, Downer Rail was successful in tendering to build a fleet of 140 electric suburban carriages, the Millennium Trains.

[14] Downer have also assembled diesel locomotives at Cardiff with the underframes built at EDI's Port Augusta workshops.