Redbank Railway Workshops

Redbank Railway Workshops are workshops for the repair and heavy maintenance of locomotives and rolling stock for Aurizon, located in Redbank, City of Ipswich, Queensland, Australia.

History

1225 outside the workshops

With the 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 workshops 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, with the workshops to close by 2017.[5][6] In November 2014, the site was sold to the Goodman Group who leased 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]

As of late 2018, Queensland Rail longer maintains their city network there, having relocated to North Ipswich Railway Workshops^[citation needed]

Locomotive Museum

In February 1970 the Redbank Locomotive Museum opened as an open air museum with 13 members of the Queensland Rail Heritage Fleet (2, 6, 48, 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.^[citation needed]

See also

• Rail transport in Queensland

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. "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. "Media Releases Aurizon finalises sale of maintenance assets at Redbank". Aurizon. 5 February 2015. Retrieved 7 February 2025.
8. "Aurizon to achieve new efficiency gains with long-term rollingstock maintenance deal | Aurizon". Aurizon. 27 March 2016. Retrieved 7 February 2025.
9. "Aurizon and Progress Rail announce maintenance agreement - Railway Gazette". Railway Gazette. 24 March 2016. Retrieved 7 February 2025.
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.

27.5949°S 152.8735°E / -27.5949; 152.8735