East Town Railway Workshops - 1980

 

History of East Town Railway Workshops - NZR - 1980

History of East Town Railway Workshops - NZR - 1980 Pg 1-2

History of East Town Railway Workshops - NZR - 1980 Pg 3-4

History of East Town Railway Workshops - NZR - 1980 Pg 5-6

History of East Town Railway Workshops - NZR - 1980 Pg 7-8

History of East Town Railway Workshops - NZR - 1980 Pg 9-10

It's 1980, and the NZ Railways Department has published a leaflet commemorating the 100th anniversary of the workshops opening. At the time, NZR had five major railway workshops, four in the (then) four main centres (Otahuhu, Hutt, Addington and Hillside) and a fifth located in Whanganui (then Wanganui). It was built initially to produce and maintain rolling stock in the central North Island in Taranaki, Manawatu and Hawke's Bay. This leaflet indicates that at the time of publication, East Town was overhauling the DE diesel locomotive fleet (NZR's first diesel locomotive that were not shunters) and re-engining the DSC shunting locomotives. It notes it employed 450 people. The footnote at the end of this leaflet indicates the future "must surely be assured" was not anticipating the effects that deregulation of land transport competition and commercialising the railways would have on its operations.

Ultimately the workshop closed on 17 October 1986 as the NZ Railways Corporation needed to cut costs and consolidate its workshop capacity.  The Booz Allen Hamilton report in 1984 was scathing about the operations of some of the workshops, and recommended two workshops be closed rapidly so that capabilities could be consolidated in the remaining three (the ones proposed for closure were East Town and Addington). The report noted that each workshop produced many of the same items for the system, such as rivet manufacturing, which could be more cheaply sourced externally, and recommended that the each workshop pecialise so there would be economies of scale, and capability building.  Despite campaigning in the 1984 General Election to save the workshop, the Labour Government of the day approved the NZ Railways Corporation closing the workshop in its efforts to get back to profitability.  The news was devastating for the town at the time, as recession and unemployment was already high, and the workshops were a major employer.