Newmarket Workshops
Encyclopedia
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
was a major New Zealand Railways Department
New Zealand Railways Department
The New Zealand Railways Department, NZR or NZGR and often known as the "Railways", was a government department charged with owning and maintaining New Zealand's railway infrastructure and operating the railway system. The Department was created in 1880 and was reformed in 1981 into the New...
facility, one of 13 workshops nationwide. It was one of two main railway workshops of Auckland, used mainly for maintenance; the older facility at Newmarket
Newmarket, New Zealand
Newmarket is an Auckland suburb to the south-east of the central business district. With its high building density, especially of retail shops, it is considered New Zealand's premier retailing area, and a rival of local competitor Auckland CBD...
was replaced in 1929 by Otahuhu Workshops
Otahuhu Workshops
Otahuhu railway workshops were a major rolling stock maintenance and repair facility of the New Zealand Government Railways Department, in the south Auckland suburb of Otahuhu in New Zealand's North Island...
.
First Workshops
The original Auckland Railway Workshops constructed in 1875 consisted of buildings for machining and blacksmithing work, carriage maintenance, locomotive maintenance and a boiler house. Due to the unsuitable site on which the facilities were constructed, at the beginning of the Northclimb to Newmarket, there were soon plans to relocate the buildings.Relocation to Newmarket
The Public Works DepartmentNew Zealand Ministry of Works
The New Zealand Ministry of Works, formerly the Department of Public Works and sometimes referred to as the Public Works Department or PWD, was founded in 1876 and disestablished and privatised in 1988...
announced on 13 October 1879 that it had purchased a suitable site for the workshops in Newmarket. Also motivating the workshops relocation was the need to use the land on which the existing buildings were sited to rearrange of the yard for the new Newmarket railway station
Newmarket Train Station, Auckland
Newmarket Train Station is located in the Auckland, New Zealand suburb of Newmarket, on the Southern and Western Lines of the Auckland railway network. Serving the busy commercial centre of Newmarket, the station is the second-busiest train station in Auckland, after Britomart...
.
The contract for construction of the new workshops was let in March 1883 and completed by 30 November 1883. Relocation of plant and workshop staff to the new site occurred between October 1884 and February 1885. The new site was on both sides of Remuera Road, from Mahuru Street in the south to just north of the junction with the North Auckland Line, and bounded by Broadway on the western side, Middleton Road on the east.
Up to 1908, while the Auckland section was isolated from the rest of the North Island rail network, the workshops were responsible for the construction of new carriages and the maintenance of all rolling stock used on the section. This remained the status quo until 1912, when the Auckland Harbour Board initiated a reclamation project that included an area reaching out to Campbell’s Point. Included in this project was a plan to extend King’s Drive (Quay Street) out to the point, but in order for this to happen the locomotive depot had to be moved as it straddled the road. Following a Harbour Board request, the Railways Department purchased land at Newmarket. Because the land was in a small gully, extensive earthworks were required to prepare the site, which were done by hand with the aid of horse-drawn muck trucks.
Then plans to use the new site for the locomotive running shed were abandoned. The idea of moving the engine sheds to Newmarket from the Auckland Railway Station
Auckland railway station
Auckland Railway Station is the former main railway station of Auckland, New Zealand, and is located on the eastern edge of the Auckland CBD near Mechanics Bay...
was mooted as early as 1912, and cited as one of the reasons why the Parnell Tunnel
Parnell Tunnel
The Parnell Tunnel is a railway tunnel under Parnell, Auckland, New Zealand. It is long, and allows the Western and Southern lines coming from Newmarket Train Station to Britomart Transport Centre to pass under the Parnell Ridge before the line drops to harbour level...
would have to be duplicated. General Manager E. H. Hiley reported on 1 August 1914 that because its reclaimed land at Mechanics Bay
Mechanics Bay
Mechanics Bay is the name of a former bay on the Waitemata Harbour in Auckland City, New Zealand. It is also the name used to describe the area of the former bay that is now mainly occupied by commercial and port facilities...
would all be required for an extension of the station yard and other traffic sidings, the locomotive depot would be sited on reclaimed land in Hobson Bay and that the land that had been designated for this purpose at Newmarket would be used to extend the workshops. The extension of the Newmarket site was delayed by the war, but the land was eventually used for the construction of a carriage and wagon workshop, which freed space in some of the other workshops for locomotive maintenance. It was reported on 21 July 1916 that work on the new workshops was well underway, and the new buildings were ready for use towards the end of the year. They included a timber drying shed, a wood mill, a carriage and wagon shop, a lifting shop, a blacksmiths' shop, a tarpaulin shop and a trimming shop.
Fay-Raven Commission, 1925
In 1925 a Royal Commission consisting of two English railwaymen, Sir Sam Fay and Sir Vincent Raven, was asked to report on New Zealand Railways. They made several recommendations regarding workshops around the country, particularly for Auckland and Wellington. With respect to the Newmarket site they were especially critical of the woodworking & machine shop, which was too small, the yard arrangement was inadequate and the separation of various facilities by Remuera Road necessitated shunting through a busy and congested yard, resulting in costly delays.The Minister of Railways
Minister of Railways (New Zealand)
The Minister of Railways was the minister in the government responsible for the New Zealand Railways Department 1895–1981, the New Zealand Railways Corporation 1981–1993, and New Zealand Rail Limited 1990–1993...
reported in 1928 that it was possible to extend the existing workshops at Hillside
Hillside Engineering
Hillside Engineering Group is a trading division of the rail operator KiwiRail in Dunedin, New Zealand. Most of its work is related to KiwiRail, but it also does work for the marine industry in Dunedin.-History:...
and Addington
Addington Workshops
The Addington Railway Workshops was a major railway facility established in the Christchurch suburb of Addington in May 1880 by the New Zealand Railways Department. The workshops were previously in Carlyle Street and closed in 1990.-Description:...
in the South Island, but that the sites of the two main workshops in the North Island, at Newmarket and Petone, were hopelessly inadequate and that land was to be acquired at Otahuhu and Lower Hutt respectively to replace them.
Otahuhu Workshops
The new Otahuhu Workshops were opened after Christmas 1928, and Newmarket Workshops closed.Maintenance
Unlike the other main centre workshops, locomotives were not constructed or rebuilt at Newmarket or Otahuhu, which specialised in repair and maintenance work. The only exceptions weres one FA class (FA 276) in 1896, and nine rebuilds of FNZR F class
The NZR F class was the first important class of steam locomotive built to operate on New Zealand's railway network after the national gauge of 1067 millimetres was adopted. The first locomotives built for the new 1067 mm railways were two E class double Fairlies for the Dunedin and Port Chalmers...
and L classes (Lloyd page 188).
An experimental MacEwan-Pratt Railcar
NZR RM class (MacEwan-Pratt)
The NZR RM class MacEwan-Pratt petrol railcar was the first railcar to run on New Zealand's national rail network, though it was never used in revenue service. It was built in 1912 at a time when the New Zealand Railways Department was seeking alternative methods of providing rural passenger...
was built at Newmarket in 1912, but it did not prove satisfactory and was dismantled in 1913.
See also
- Otahuhu WorkshopsOtahuhu WorkshopsOtahuhu railway workshops were a major rolling stock maintenance and repair facility of the New Zealand Government Railways Department, in the south Auckland suburb of Otahuhu in New Zealand's North Island...
(replaced Newmarket Workshops) - Addington WorkshopsAddington WorkshopsThe Addington Railway Workshops was a major railway facility established in the Christchurch suburb of Addington in May 1880 by the New Zealand Railways Department. The workshops were previously in Carlyle Street and closed in 1990.-Description:...
- Hillside Workshops
- Hutt WorkshopsHutt WorkshopsThe Hutt Railway Workshops is a major railway engineering facility in the Lower Hutt suburb of Gracefield in the Wellington region of New Zealand’s North Island...
- New Zealand Railways DepartmentNew Zealand Railways DepartmentThe New Zealand Railways Department, NZR or NZGR and often known as the "Railways", was a government department charged with owning and maintaining New Zealand's railway infrastructure and operating the railway system. The Department was created in 1880 and was reformed in 1981 into the New...