The Newport Railway Workshops is a facility in the Melbourne suburb of Newport, Australia, that builds, maintains and refurbishes railway rollingstock. It is located between the Williamstown and Werribee railway lines.
Plans for a workshop at Newport started in the 1860s, to replace the temporary Williamstown Workshops but nothing came of it. It was not until 1880 that work began, when the Victorian Railways purchased annexes used at the 1880 Melbourne Exhibition and erected one of them at Newport, naming it the Newport Carriage Workshops when it began operation in 1882.[1]
Construction of the permanent workshops commenced in 1884, and was completed in 1889.[2] Although the earlier carriage workshop closed at this time, it reopened in 1895 to manufacture signal equipment. The first carriages built by the workshops were completed in 1889, but early locomotives were manufactured by external contractors such as the Phoenix Foundry in Ballarat. The first locomotive built in house at Newport was Z Class 2-4-0T No.526 'Polly 'in 1893.[2] The final locomotive built at the workshops was diesel-hydraulic M Class M232 in 1959.
The main elements of the 1889 workshops are a central stores block and clock tower with offices, the 'East Block' for carriage and wagon works, and 'West Block' for heavy engineering and locomotive building.[3] Expansion followed in 1905–1915, and 1925–1930. During World War II the workshops were turned over to military production, with the rear fuselage, and empennage of Bristol Beaufort bombers being built there.[4]
At the peak of operation it was one of Victoria's largest and best-equipped engineering establishments, with up to 5,000 employees on site.[5] The workshops had its own cricket ground, and in the 1920's the game of Trugo is said to have been invented by workers on their lunch hour. In the late 1980's, the original segments of the workshops were removed from everyday use, with operations continuing at the 1930s complex along the eastern side of the site.
On 15 January 2000, ownership of the workshops passed from the Public Transport Corporation to Clyde Engineering.[6]
Current revenue operations are carried out in the eastern section of the workshops by Downer Rail, who carry out work including locomotive and carriage maintenance, and diesel engine, bogie and wheelset overhauls;[7] for customers including Pacific National and V/Line. The site also has the one of 3 broad gauge underfloor wheel lathes in Victoria, the others being at Metro Trains Melbourne's Craigieburn and Pakenham East Depots. From 2018, High Capacity Metro Trains have been constructed at Newport by Evolution Rail.[8] The former Boiler Shop is leased to Metro Trains Melbourne for maintenance of their Siemens Nexas trains.
The original 1880s workshops have been maintained for heritage uses. The 'West Block' area are occupied by a number of railway preservation groups such as Steamrail Victoria, Diesel Electric Rail Motor Preservation Association Victoria and 707 Operations,[9] while the 'East Block' has been retained by VicTrack for the storage of disused trams, buses and rail rollingstock.[3] The Newport Railway Museum is located south of the operating workshops, near North Williamstown railway station.[10]