East Town Railway Workshops

The East Town Railway Workshops were a major manufacturing, maintenance and repair facility of the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) located by the Marton - New Plymouth Line in the city of Wanganui in New Zealand's North Island. Output included not only rolling stock but also tools, equipment, huts, furniture and tarpaulins. It was a prodigious facility, and one of the larger employers in the city. Its name is sometimes formatted as Eastown or Easttown.

East Town was commissioned in August 1880 and was the second railway workshops established as part of Julius Vogel's public works programme. A contract was let in 1879 by public tender to the Wanganui firm of Gibbes and Pinches for the construction of a Locomotive Erecting Shop, Machine Shop and Wood Mill. The following year, a second contract was let to Thomson and McLean to construct the Blacksmiths Shop and attached Boiler Shop. Work up to 1900 focused on the repair of rolling stock operated in the area between Taranaki and Hawke's Bay.

In 1900, the Engine Shed was relocated to the north-west corner of the yard. A single-road Paint Shop was erected, a wagon servicing pit was built, and the Erecting Shop was extended.

As a result of the Royal Commission of 1925 conducted by English railwaymen Sir Sam Fay and Sir Vincent Raven, the output of the workshops changed. The capacity of the Locomotive Shop was dramatically reduced, and the Tarpaulin Shop augmented to handle the production requirements of the entire North Island. The Points and Crossings Shop previously located at the Addington Workshops was relocated to East Town.

East Town had been operating as two complete sets of workshops for both the Maintenance Branch and the Locomotive Branch, separated by only a road. In August 1931, it was decided to amalgamate the facilities into a single operation, a move that proved to be beneficial for the staff in the form of improved conditions and schedules. As a result of this amalgamation, it was necessary to move the Points and Crossings Shop to the Hutt Workshops and the workshops once again focused on the repair of locomotives, carriages and brake vans. Later work done at East Town also included the manufacture and repair of tools, velocipedes, track gauges, railway huts, furniture for railway stations and offices, and heavy track machinery. Overhauls on shunting locomotives were also carried out at East Town from 1963, work that was previously done at the Hutt Workshops.