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Keep them running

The Chief Mechanical Engineers (CME) branch provided all of the rolling stock, carriages, wagons and locomotives. Steam locomotives were vital to railway operations, and underwent maintenance and improvement between trips.
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Spring into life

The smooth operation of the railways relied upon the manufacture of springs which were utilised in every carriage and wagon.
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The Davy Press

Silent, hulking and muscular looms the Davy Press - brooding centrepiece of the Blacksmiths Shops. Installed in 1922, the Davy took the brunt of heavy forging work at Eveleigh.
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Alchemy

Surrounding the Davy Press, remain the steam hammers, forges and tools of the blacksmith’s trade - grinders, blowers and a great tangle of steam pipes, electric shears, cranes, lathes, anvils, hammers and tongs which produced a maelstrom of smoke, sparks and racket whilst in the throes of Eveleigh's iron alchemy.
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  • Eveleigh Locomotive Running Sheds, circa 1885 view

    1884

    The Triple-domed Eveleigh Running Sheds are completed.
  • Blacksmiths' Shop, Eveleigh Railway Workshops, circa 1890s view

    1887

    The Blacksmith's Shop is erected.

  • 1902

    Spring Shop is erected where Innovation Plaza stands today.

  • 1914

    Electrification of Eveleigh Railway Workshops machinery is completed.

  • 1920

    Spring Shop activity peaks at Eveleigh.
  • Forging metal on the Davy Press, undated view

    1922

    A Davy Press (1,500 ton capacity) is installed, together with a new crane and two boilers and an intensifier to provide steam to drive the compressor which drives the press.

  • 1950

    Spring making activity is at its height at Eveleigh. It manufactures or repairs an average of 33,200 laminated springs and 25,500 coiled springs per year for locomotives, carriages and wagons on the NSW system.
  • The double arch drop hammer was where the sparks flew and often spewed to the furthest doors 30 metres away. At times oil sprayed from the top and the bottom die blocks, and as the tup (hammer) rose a cloud similar to an atomic bomb rose skywards. view

    1966

    20 CWT (hundredweight) hammer in the Blacksmith's Shop closes as there is no longer any work for it.

  • 1970

    The Spring Shop relocates to Bay 3, where machinery remains on display today.

  • 1991

    Wrought Artworks recommission blacksmiths' forges and electrically-powered equipment in Bays 1 and 2.

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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 paddocks

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.
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An Indigenous Place
The paddocks
Like a living thing
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Eveleigh stories in time...
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”.
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