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Evolving Eveleigh

Stories from the Paint Shop

The first railway line was constructed between Sydney and Parramatta in 1855. Five years later construction began on the first workshops for the railway trains.

One of the iconic ‘Red Rattlers’, this carriage was painted blue and white due to the influence of Phillip Shirley, originally from Britain. Built in 1950 in Rhodes by Tulloch, the same company that built boats for the Royal Australian Navy in WWII.
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These springs on rail car bogies provided an improved level of comfort for travellers. Used on ‘U-Boat cars’, so known due to the target-plate numbers starting with a U.
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Commonwealth Engineering in Granville built 80 of these single deck trailer cars between 1955 and 1958. Their target-plate numbers started with S for suburban, but they were nicknamed ‘Sputniks’, with the original S cars the first to have powered doors.
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This was the guard’s compartment of railcar 7485. It shows a drivers chair, handbrake wheel and handrail.
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Built by the Richie Brothers at Auburn in 1913, originally a steam engine, in 1926 it was converted to electric. The 90º join from the ceiling to the walls show later modifications where the body was widened and doors added to the sides.
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Maintenance workers used this pit to work underneath carriages. On the left of the 103 year old wooden trailer car in the centre is an ‘interurban’ carriage and on the right, an air conditioned railcar.
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This is one of 40 cars built between 1955 and 1958 for ‘intercity’ services from Sydney to Katoomba or Gosford. This ‘CF’ motorcar, designed with stainless steel exterior panels, had two types of trailer cars; ETB first class and TF second class.
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This 1955 ‘Sputnik’ carriage was built by Commonwealth Engineering in Granville. Passengers enjoyed the comfort of venetian blinds and padded seats. It has been fully restored by a dedicated team of passionate railway aficionados.
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These carriages were the first double deck trains in Australia and possibly the world. They were built in 1964 by Tullochs in Rhodes. This workshop shows noise reducing baffles along the ceiling and this area is where restoration work is undertaken.
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This workshop was added onto the Paint Shop for suburban electric cars and their service overhauls by rail workers.
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Stories from the Paint Shop

The first railway line was constructed between Sydney and Parramatta in 1855. Five years later construction began on the first workshops for the railway trains. The Eveleigh Railway Workshops were developed between 1882 and 1887. Described as an industrial city within the City of Sydney and a river of steel, connecting city with country, the workshops are now heritage listed.

The North Eveleigh Precinct includes the Carriage Works, Stores, Chief Mechanical Engineer's Office and the Paint Shop. The heritage of railway travel during days gone by is being painstakingly restored by passionate railway aficionados from the Australian Railway Heritage Society - NSW Branch based in Redfern.

UrbanGrowth NSW has captured the character of train travel around Sydney inside the Paint Shop. Volunteers from the Australian Railway Historical Society – NSW Branch provided the stories and we engaged Lost Collective to take photos of steam train carriages, Red Rattlers and Sputnik cars as they undergo restoration.

Between 1884 and 1887 the fan of rails was laid and the Car and Wagon Workshops, the Paint Shop and Mechanical Engineers Office were completed. The larger brick wing of the Paint Shop was completed in 1887 and the iron Suburban Car Workshops extension was completed in 1912.

The Paint Shop has eight in-floor rail lines in the brick section and five in the adjacent metal clad Suburban Car Workshop. Each rail line is separated by a single row of cast iron columns which support the distinctive saw tooth roof as seen by passing rail passengers today.

The workshops were open every day of the week until 1892 when Union negotiations led to the workshops being closed on Saturdays. The need for workers’ housing stimulated residential development around the workshops in modern-day suburbs such as Darlinghurst and Macdonaldtown.

The Paint Shop is owned by RailCorp and utilised by the Office of Rail Heritage to store heritage rolling stock and moveable relic collections from railway facilities throughout NSW.

Text sources

NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, UrbanGrowth NSW

NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, UrbanGrowth NSW North Eveleigh Concept Design 2008, Eveleigh Railway Workshops Interpretation Plan and Implementation Strategy 2012 3-D Projects, Australian Railway Historical Society NSW Branch

Image sources

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Urban Growth NSW

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An Indigenous Place

Eveleigh is Gadigal country. We acknowledge their ownership of this land and pay our respects to past, present and emerging elders.

The second half of the nineteenth century saw a rapid expansion in New South Wales railways. In Sydney, this meant both the early stations and workshop facilities quickly became too small, and had to be expanded or relocated.

40,000 BC

Pre contact – Members of Cadigal, or Gadigal, people inhabit Redfern, Erskineville and surrounds. The Gadigal Traditional Owners who today speak for the Sydney clan area stretched “from the south side of Port Jackson from South Head to Petersham”. The Gadigal people spoke the coastal Eora dialect of the Darug language and are often referred to as the Eora people. Redfern as a site was important to its people because it had a source of water – Shea's Creek, which today is Alexandra Canal, as well as a source of food from the wetlands that drained into the creek. Redfern’s high point on the terrain offered views of the trade route from Circular Quay to Parramatta, on which the colony’s first railway would be built. These trade routes connected with larger routes which linked the north and south, and east and west of Australia. Not only goods, but ideas, songs, ceremonies and news travelled along these routes.

1788

The British arrive in January with catastrophic effect on the Aboriginal way of life. The Eora people do not flee, as Captain James Cook predicted, but stand their ground. Governor Phillip attempts to create good relations, but these soon disintegrate due to the persecution of the Aboriginals by the convicts. The Aboriginals are pushed out of Sydney town with fear of being shot, and with the quick pollution of the Tank Stream by tanneries, they are forced to use water sources near Redfern.

1789

The smallpox plague devastates the Aboriginal people. Without immunity to the disease brought by the British, a large percentage of the Cadigal clan is wiped out. Following the plague, survivors from surrounding clans join together to survive, and to participate in the guerrilla movement led by Pemulwuy.

1791

James Chisholm arrives in the colony of New South Wales aged 19 as a non-commissioned officer.

1793

Settler David Collins observes Cadigal people performing a ceremony “between the town and the brickfield”.