The Real Redfern Workshops

I mentioned that I joined HET recently. Having been approved and recieved my members card, I wandered off down to the Redfern Workshops to meet the people. It was a quiet day so I basically just met the General Manager and a few other regular people (a couple of directors and members) and they were all really cool.

I had the grand tour, and was surprised at exactly what they have stored down there... I think its one of RailCorp's greatest secrets, but unfortunately with the site under threat of redevelopment, its a secret that is not doing rail fans any service. People should know whats down there, otherwise the assumption is that its just a bunch of empty old buildings, taking up space. Its far from it - In the 15 track, two building workshop facility there is not a single space where another carriage could be parked. The place is completely full of antique trains in varying states of restoration. They even have a couple of Tangara's in there (well... models of Tangaras anyway hehe).

I think its a big problem. Developers see what looks like an empty site and come up with a big plan. The councils and government representatives assume the place is abandoned and are keen to do something to make use of the empty space. Its not empty! My personal opinion is that it should be turned into a rail museam. It certainly has enough exhibits inside!!

Its the home of W3 and F1, the last two working red rattler sets in Sydney. I got to sit in the cabs of both so that they could show me the differences between them. The W set cab is slightly similar to the S set cabs. (it seems SRA carries designs over from one model to the next - indeed, many of the physical features of the Tangara interior can be traced back to the original Tulloch double deck cars)

Theres a few other red rattler carriages - including one that was part of the first train across the Harbour Bridge in 1932, and some of the earlier wooden electric carriages with spoked wheels. They have the first ever Tulloch Double Deck car that was built. Theres a U-boat (the old silver interurban trains before the V sets) and a 900 series rail car, as well as several decomissioned passenger carriages from more recent diesel hauled services on the Broken Hill line, and lots of other stuff as well, including a few maintenence trikes.

Im sure I will be down there a lot, and will try to get a few pictures to post here. My first job when I go back there will be to help restore some office space upstairs and set up a computer system for them. Later I will be working on other restoration projects, and helping to prepare the W and F sets for use occasionally.

Redfern Workshopz

I put a banner together to use in the forums. Its true, Im new to Trainz, and I havn't uploaded any content yet, but as they say good things are worth the wait. Im a geek, and I pick up new stuff fast. Ive only been using Gmax a few weeks, and Im progressing well. Ive read the Content Creation Guide and it makes sense and I understand the key concepts, and know what I need to do to build models that will work, and work as I have promised below.

Trainz is a great program, and if we all get together and fill it with some good content, we all win. Im concentrating on my corner of the world, and I plan to see it through, over time. The banner is to show that Im serious about that.

There is (or was) a huge group of people who were inspired enough to start building almost the whole Sydney Cityrail network. Alas one by one they seem to have found other interests, many of them (according to forum posts) frustrated by the lack of suitable Sydney or NSW content, which they needed to model our rail network. The guys from Cardiff Workshops have been a tremendous help, giving us some high quality local content, but more can be done. Hopefully as more NSW based assets are created, some of the Cityrail route creators may return and complete what they have started.

About the name
Sydney's electric suburban passenger network began in the early 1900's. As the railway grew, a large workshop sprang up at Eveleigh, in the inner city, and the existing Redfern platorm (it wasnt even a station at that stage) was relocated from where the Eveleigh workshops are now, to its present location. The original electric passenger trains, affectionately known later in life as "Red Rattlers" were built during the 20's and 30's in the Redfern Suburban Carriage Workshops, a part of the Eveleigh Workshops, located on the other side of the line, near the present Redfern Station.

Sadly the Redfern workshops were closed many years ago, and are now just derelict buildings. There are plans to redevelop the site and we may lose the heritage value of the buildings. The Eveleigh workshops across the line are still operating, though at a greatly reduced capacity. They are currently used to house and prepare the Milenium Train, and Endevour Explorers. A small section at Eveleigh houses 3801, the most well known heritage steam locomotive in NSW, which is still running tour trains from time to time (See the photo in the archive). Eveleigh is a shadow of its former self, and large sections have already been redeveloped. With the rise in price of inner city land, its only a matter of time until it is closed forever. That may happen sooner than we think as Railcorp have indicated that they will not be renewing the operators lease of 3801, when it expires next year. The future of the locomotive, and the facilities to maintain it at Eveleigh are in doubt.

All of this is just down the road from me, so when I was thinking of a name to tag my Trainz content creations with, living in Redfern, it was only natural to call it Redfern Workshopz.

Blah. I type too much, and I still didnt say half of what I was going to.