Redbank Railway Workshops

Redbank Railway Workshops are a major workshops for the repair and heavy maintenance of locomotives and rolling stock for Aurizon.

History

1225 outside the workshops

With its North Ipswich Railway Workshops becoming increasingly cramped, in July 1958 Queensland Railways opened a new workshop facility in Redbank to maintain its new diesel locomotive fleet.[1][2][3] However it would be 25 years before all the functions were transferred from Ipswich.[4]

The works perform heavy maintenance on Aurizon's locomotive and wagon fleet. It also has a contract to maintain rolling stock for Queensland Rail.[4]

In May 2014, Aurizon announced that it would cease maintaining Queensland Rail rolling stock at Redbank from June 2015, with the entire works to close by June 2017.[5][6] In November 2014, the site was sold to the Goodman Group who will lease it back to Aurizon.[7]

In 2016, as part of a contract to outsource Aurizon's rolling stock maintenance to Progress Rail Services, it was announced that the workshops would remain open.[8][9][10]

Locomotive Museum

In February 1970 the Redbank Locomotive Museum opened as an open air museum with 13 members of the Queensland Rail Heritage Fleet (6, 48, 102, 106, 221A, 290, 444, 700, 771, 1000, 1009, 1051 and 1089) on display.[11][12][13] It closed in 1992 with the locomotives transferred to the North Ipswich Railway Workshops.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Redbank Centre for the Government of Queensland
  2. ↑ Redbank Then & Now City of Ipswich
  3. ↑ "Behind the Tin Fence: A history of the Ipwich Railway Workshops". Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 5 (1). June 2011.
  4. 1 2 "Aurizon to close Redbank and Townsville Workshops" Railway Digest July 2014 page 18
  5. ↑ Aurizon job cuts hit workers at Townsville and Redbank ABC News 8 May 2014
  6. ↑ End of the line for Redbank railway workshops Queensland Times 9 May 2014
  7. ↑ Aurizon finalises sale of maintenance assets at Redbank Aurizon 4 November 2014
  8. ↑ Auzizon to achieve new efficency gains with long-term rollingstock maintenance deal Aurizon 18 March 2016
  9. ↑ Aurizon and Progress Rail announce maintenance agreement Railway Gazette International 21 March 2016
  10. ↑ "Aurizon sign maintenance deal with Progress Rail - Redbank Workshops to be retained" Railway Digest May 2016 page 15
  11. ↑ "Queensland museum project" The Railway Magazine issue 824 December 1969 page 708
  12. ↑ "Locomotives in Retirement" The Railway Magazine issue 837 January 1971 page 38
  13. ↑ Bromby, Robin (1983). Rail Preservation in Australia. Neutral Bay: Cromarty Press. pp. 37–39. ISBN 0 949675 04 0.

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