Petone Workshops
| Division of NZR | |
| Industry | Railways |
| Fate | Replaced |
| Predecessor | Pipitea Point Workshops |
| Successor | Hutt Workshops |
| Founded | 1876 |
| Defunct | 1929 |
| Headquarters | Hutt City, New Zealand |
|
Area served
|
Wellington region |
| Services | Heavy rail maintenance and vehicle assembly |
| Parent | New Zealand Government Railways (NZGR) |
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.
The first railway workshops in the Wellington region were near Wellington's first railway station at Pipitea Point. These workshops started out as a set of storage sheds for 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 m) long by 48 ft (15 m) wide, with a seaward side lean-to 50 ft (15 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 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.
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Wikipedia