Petone Workshops

These workshops started out as a set of storage sheds for rolling stock when the first section of the Wairarapa Line was being constructed from 1872 to 1874.

Later a repair and erecting shop was built at the site at the behest of Messrs Brogden and Sons, who arranged for the workshops to be fitted out with equipment imported from England.

A single road entered the building, in which facilities were provided for blacksmiths with four forges, woodworking and carpentry, and a machine shop.

[10] At the time Western Hutt Road did not exist and the Railways Department owned all of the land up to the base of the hills.

[15] This pattern of one of the six H-class locomotives at a time being at Petone (and later Hutt) for repairs seems to have been fairly standard, with annual returns showing this to be the case for most years.

[16] Petone was involved in the assembly of various experimental railcars following trials of an earlier type of railway carriage based on an idea from the United States.

[17] The first railway carriage in service in the Wellington region was assembled at Petone in 1914 using bodywork built there and an underframe and traction equipment from Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company.

[23] A Royal Commission established in 1924 to examine the issue of railway workshop facilities around the country reported that much of Petone's machinery was out of date or obsolete, and that there were serious congestion problems owing to the lack of space for expansion.

[3] Following closure the site was cleared of buildings, with some structures moved adjacent to the new workshops to form the NZR Road Services bus garage.

Construction of the Western Hutt Road, realignment of the Petone station yard, and neighbouring industrial, commercial and urban development have obliterated any sign of the workshops.