History of Addington Railway Workshops

 

History of Addington Railway Workshops

Like a previous post on East Town, it is unclear quite why NZR published a leaflet on the history of the Addington Railway Workshops in November 1979. It was still a Government Department at this stage, and was heavily engineering focused.  The history indicates that plans to build workshops at Addington were approved in July 1878, and the official site moved to Addington in May 1880, so perhaps it was to celebrate a centenary of the workshops, more or less. 

Notable parts of its history include producing the first saloon passenger cars in New Zealand, and "birdcage" cars enabling outdoor viewing of scenery. It also produced many steam locomotives, from W and Wa class, to A class and the large K class. The almost ubiquitous Ab locomotive was also produced here, providing much of the backbone of many secondary lines across he country.  However, as a steam locomotive producer its time ended in 1926 as it was decided to focus Addington on car and wagon work, with Hillside specialising in locomotives. 

It wasn't just for railway rolling stock though, it also produced bodies for lorries and bridge beams, skips for coal mines and even a radio mast for AM station 3ZB!  It also produced two gold dredges for Kanieri and Arahura on the West Coast.  It was also a munitions factory in WW2. 

After the war it focused on rebuilding old wooden passenger cars as car vans (for guards/luggage), repairing wagons and assembling kit-set wagons from overseas.  It produced DSC diesel shunting locomotives from 1962-1967, then container wagons in the 1970s and Nh four-wheel wagons. It was also notably the workshops where 56ft carriages were refurbished for the Southerner and Northerner "prestige" passenger trains.

The end of the leaflet notes Addington covers 41 acres and employed 900 staff, but also fatefully said it was "sure to continue".  Beyond assembling DSJ shunting locomotives in the early 1980s, it was Addington that followed East Town for closure in 1990.  As with East Town, the Booz Allen Hamilton report in 1984 on the future of the NZ Railways recommended the workshops be consolidated from five to three, and Hillside proved to be the focus for the single South Island workshop (of course subsequently in 1992 Otahuhu closed as well).

The Addington site closure saw the rail network in Christchurch be reorganised to enable a direct link from the Main North Line to the Main South Line southbound, so trains could operate from Picton towards Dunedin without shunting.  It also became the site for the new Christchurch passenger station.