Petone Workshops
Encyclopedia
The Petone Workshops were a government-owned railways maintenance and repair facility located in Petone
, in Lower Hutt
in the Wellington
region of New Zealand
’s North Island. It took over construction and maintenance of rolling stock in the Wellington region from the Pipitea Point facility, starting in 1876, and became the only such facility in the region from 1878 until the opening of the replacement Hutt Workshops
facility in 1929.
. 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
. The building was 100 ft (30.5 m) long by 48 ft (14.6 m) wide, with a seaward side lean-to 50 ft (15.2 m) long and 24 ft (7.3 m) wide. A single road entered the building, in which facilities were provided for blacksmiths with four forges, woodworking and carpentry, and a machine shop. A stationary steam engine
was used to power the machinery using a system of shafts and belts. A 10-ton overhead crane
straddled the track.
The Petone Workshops did not start to take shape until 1878 when, under the direction of the manager of the Wellington Section, Mr Ashcroft, work began in earnest, a decision largely prompted by the destruction of the Pipitea Workshops in a fire. Many of the buildings that would comprise the workshops facilities were erected between 1878 and 1881, though the nature of the site allowed for the later construction of other buildings as required. The arrangement of the workshops yard included a machine shop, boiler shop, and foundry at the northern (station) end, and a car and wagon depot, the lifters and paint shop at the southern end.
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. The workshops began expanding beyond the confines of the original station yard early in the 20th century. Some railway houses were located at the periphery to house workshop and station staff.
Seven “F”, “L”, and “J” class locomotives were rebuilt into other classes at Petone. The only locomotives built at Petone were three NZR L class in 1903; and E-66
in 1906, later derisively dubbed “Pearson’s Dream”.
Perhaps some of the best-known locomotives to frequent the Petone Workshops were the H-class Fells used on the Rimutaka Incline. From 1900 these locomotives were in need of new boilers and annual returns show that while this work was done there was one locomotive at a time at Petone undergoing major repairs leaving the other five locomotives to handle the traffic. Other changes made at the time included the fitting of steel Belpaire fireboxes, larger cabs with trapdoors in the roof, and a second funnel to separate the two exhausts (a change that was reverted several years later). 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.
Petone was involved in the assembly of various experimental railcars following trials of an earlier type of “railcar” based on an idea from the United States. Due to the inadequacy of the types of motive power available at the time, all of these experiments were unsuccessful.
The first railcar 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. The power plant was a 6-cylinder petrol engine with a 90 hp generator driving two 60 hp electric motors, for a maximum speed of 35 mi/h. It was to be used on the Johnsonville line with a trailer, but the grades proved to be too much for the car alone. After frequent mechanical difficulties, it was withdrawn in 1917.
Another early petrol-electric railcar assembled at Petone was put into service in 1916. It used bodywork manufactured at Petone; underframe, bogies, and transmission from Thomas Transmission Ltd. of the United Kingdom; and a motor from J. Tyler and Sons. After a few months' service, a vital part broke and could not be replaced until after World War I
. In 1920, when the replacement part arrived and the car was put back into service, it proved to be unreliable and was withdrawn in 1925.
Three more railcars were constructed at Petone in 1925 and 1926. The 1925 model did not survive tests on the Hutt lines, and given its ungainly design, this is hardly surprising. It caused its passengers to experience an uncomfortable pitching motion, necessitating its withdrawal. The 1926 models were more like small motor busses on flanged wheels with an 11 ft (3.4 m) long body. They first saw service on the Greytown Branch
before being transferred to the Glenham Branch
and Switzers Branch
where they were withdrawn in 1930.
In the 1920s, workshops around the country were upgraded with electric power plants. Petone had been relying on a gas power plant, and this was replaced between 1925 and 1927 with electric motors.
Following the recommendations of the Commission, the Railways Department embarked on a three-year programme of workshop upgrades in 1925. Two sites for a replacement facility were considered, at Tawa Flat and Woburn, with the latter option being selected. Eighty acres of land were set aside at a new industrial area behind Hutt Park for the new workshops. The Hutt Workshops were completed in 1929, resulting in the transfer of all functions from Petone to the new site and the closure of the Petone Workshops.
Petone
Petone is a major suburb of the city of Lower Hutt in New Zealand. It is located at the southern end of the narrow triangular plain of the Hutt River, on the northern shore of Wellington Harbour...
, in Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt is a city in the Wellington region of New Zealand. Its council has adopted the name Hutt City Council, but neither the New Zealand Geographic Board nor the Local Government Act recognise the name Hutt City. This alternative name can lead to confusion, as there are two cities in the...
in the Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
region of New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
’s North Island. It took over construction and maintenance of rolling stock in the Wellington region from the Pipitea Point facility, starting in 1876, and became the only such facility in the region from 1878 until the opening of the replacement Hutt Workshops
Hutt Workshops
The 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...
facility in 1929.
Predecessor
The first railway workshops in the Wellington region were near Wellington’s first railway station at Pipitea PointPipitea Point Railway Station
Pipitea Point Station and Lambton Station were successive names for the main Wellington Railway Station in Wellington, New Zealand before the opening of the current Wellington Railway Station in 1937....
. These workshops started out as a set of storage sheds for rolling stock
Rolling stock
Rolling stock comprises all the vehicles that move on a railway. It usually includes both powered and unpowered vehicles, for example locomotives, railroad cars, coaches and wagons...
when the first section of the Wairarapa
Wairarapa
Wairarapa is a geographical region of New Zealand. It occupies the south-eastern corner of the North Island, east of metropolitan Wellington and south-west of the Hawke's Bay region. It is lightly populated, having several rural service towns, with Masterton being the largest...
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
John Brogden and Sons
John Brogden and Sons was a firm of Railway Contractors, Iron and Coal Miners and Iron Smelters operating from roughly 1837 to the bankruptcy in 1883. However the business essentially started when John Brogden moved from his father's farm near Clitheroe to set up in business in the rapidly...
, who arranged for the workshops to be fitted out with equipment imported from England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The building was 100 ft (30.5 m) long by 48 ft (14.6 m) wide, with a seaward side lean-to 50 ft (15.2 m) long and 24 ft (7.3 m) wide. A single road entered the building, in which facilities were provided for blacksmiths with four forges, woodworking and carpentry, and a machine shop. A stationary steam engine
Stationary steam engine
Stationary steam engines are fixed steam engines used for pumping or driving mills and factories, and for power generation. They are distinct from locomotive engines used on railways, traction engines for heavy steam haulage on roads, steam cars , agricultural engines used for ploughing or...
was used to power the machinery using a system of shafts and belts. A 10-ton overhead crane
Crane (machine)
A crane is a type of machine, generally equipped with a hoist, wire ropes or chains, and sheaves, that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. It uses one or more simple machines to create mechanical advantage and thus move loads beyond the normal capability of...
straddled the track.
Replacement at Petone
The Pipitea Workshops site had not long been in operation when the volume of work required of it expanded beyond its capacity. Several sites for a new railway workshops facility were suggested, and it was eventually decided that Petone was the best option. In 1876, a small start was made on the new facility with the construction of a shed for the storage of four new Fell-type locomotives until they were required for the construction of the Rimutaka Incline.The Petone Workshops did not start to take shape until 1878 when, under the direction of the manager of the Wellington Section, Mr Ashcroft, work began in earnest, a decision largely prompted by the destruction of the Pipitea Workshops in a fire. Many of the buildings that would comprise the workshops facilities were erected between 1878 and 1881, though the nature of the site allowed for the later construction of other buildings as required. The arrangement of the workshops yard included a machine shop, boiler shop, and foundry at the northern (station) end, and a car and wagon depot, the lifters and paint shop at the southern end.
At the time Western Hutt Road did not exist and the 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...
owned all of the land up to the base of the hills. The workshops began expanding beyond the confines of the original station yard early in the 20th century. Some railway houses were located at the periphery to house workshop and station staff.
Operations
Petone assembled or maintained hundreds of locomotives and carriages.Seven “F”, “L”, and “J” class locomotives were rebuilt into other classes at Petone. The only locomotives built at Petone were three NZR L class in 1903; and E-66
NZR E class (1906)
The E class comprised a single steam locomotive operated by New Zealand Railways from 1906 until 1917. Classified as E 66 and nicknamed Pearson's Dream after its designer, it was an experimental Mallet locomotive designed to work on the Rimutaka Incline...
in 1906, later derisively dubbed “Pearson’s Dream”.
Perhaps some of the best-known locomotives to frequent the Petone Workshops were the H-class Fells used on the Rimutaka Incline. From 1900 these locomotives were in need of new boilers and annual returns show that while this work was done there was one locomotive at a time at Petone undergoing major repairs leaving the other five locomotives to handle the traffic. Other changes made at the time included the fitting of steel Belpaire fireboxes, larger cabs with trapdoors in the roof, and a second funnel to separate the two exhausts (a change that was reverted several years later). 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.
Petone was involved in the assembly of various experimental railcars following trials of an earlier type of “railcar” based on an idea from the United States. Due to the inadequacy of the types of motive power available at the time, all of these experiments were unsuccessful.
The first railcar 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. The power plant was a 6-cylinder petrol engine with a 90 hp generator driving two 60 hp electric motors, for a maximum speed of 35 mi/h. It was to be used on the Johnsonville line with a trailer, but the grades proved to be too much for the car alone. After frequent mechanical difficulties, it was withdrawn in 1917.
Another early petrol-electric railcar assembled at Petone was put into service in 1916. It used bodywork manufactured at Petone; underframe, bogies, and transmission from Thomas Transmission Ltd. of the United Kingdom; and a motor from J. Tyler and Sons. After a few months' service, a vital part broke and could not be replaced until after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. In 1920, when the replacement part arrived and the car was put back into service, it proved to be unreliable and was withdrawn in 1925.
Three more railcars were constructed at Petone in 1925 and 1926. The 1925 model did not survive tests on the Hutt lines, and given its ungainly design, this is hardly surprising. It caused its passengers to experience an uncomfortable pitching motion, necessitating its withdrawal. The 1926 models were more like small motor busses on flanged wheels with an 11 ft (3.4 m) long body. They first saw service on the Greytown Branch
Greytown Branch
The Greytown Branch was a five-kilometre branch line railway off the Wairarapa Line at Woodside in the Wairarapa district of New Zealand's North Island. It followed an almost straight course over flat terrain...
before being transferred to the Glenham Branch
Wyndham Branch
The Wyndham Branch, also known as the Glenham Branch, was a branch line railway in Southland, New Zealand. The first section was opened in 1882 and it operated until 1962. Although its name would imply that it terminated in Wyndham, an extension to a terminus in Glenham operated for forty years...
and Switzers Branch
Waikaia Branch
The Waikaia Branch, also known as the Switzers Branch, was a branch line railway in Southland, New Zealand. Proposed as early as the 1870s, it was not opened until 1909 and was operated by the New Zealand Railways Department for half a century until its closure in 1959.-Construction:In the late...
where they were withdrawn in 1930.
In the 1920s, workshops around the country were upgraded with electric power plants. Petone had been relying on a gas power plant, and this was replaced between 1925 and 1927 with electric motors.
Demise
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.Following the recommendations of the Commission, the Railways Department embarked on a three-year programme of workshop upgrades in 1925. Two sites for a replacement facility were considered, at Tawa Flat and Woburn, with the latter option being selected. Eighty acres of land were set aside at a new industrial area behind Hutt Park for the new workshops. The Hutt Workshops were completed in 1929, resulting in the transfer of all functions from Petone to the new site and the closure of the Petone Workshops.