East Town Railway Workshops
The East Town Railway Workshops were a major New Zealand Railways facility in Wanganui, on the Marton to New Plymouth line. They repaired, built and maintained rolling stock and also made tools, huts, furniture and tarpaulins. The workshops opened in August 1880 and were the second North Island railway workshops created under Julius Vogel’s Great Public Works policy. Initial contracts in 1879 and 1880 built the Locomotive Erecting Shop, Machine Shop, Wood Mill, Blacksmiths Shop and Boiler Shop.
Until 1900, the work mostly involved repairing regional rolling stock. In 1900 the Engine Shed moved within the yard, a single-road Paint Shop was added, a wagon servicing pit was built, and the Erecting Shop was enlarged.
After a Royal Commission in 1925, the output changed: the Locomotive Shop’s capacity was reduced, while the Tarpaulin Shop expanded to serve the whole North Island. The Points and Crossings Shop from Addington Workshops was moved to East Town. In 1931, the site was merged into a single operation, and the focus shifted back to repairing locomotives, carriages and brake vans. Over time, East Town also made and repaired tools, velocipedes, track gauges, railway huts, and furniture, and handled heavy track machinery. From 1963, it carried out overhauls of shunting locomotives that had previously been done at Hutt.
Between 1947 and 1949, land at the west end of the yard was bought and new workshop buildings were added, including a Motor Shop. The first apprentice intake in January 1949 included nine carpenters and six fitters. The Tarpaulin Shop was expanded again in 1950, and a new Wagon Shop was built. Tarpaulins for wagons were a well-known product, originally made from canvas and treated with linseed oil. Mechanisation began in 1915, and a dedicated tarpaulin factory opened in 1928, increasing output to about 50 tarpaulins a week. The Tarpaulin Manufacturing Shop burned in August 1954, and production was switched to other workshops until East Town was rebuilt by mid-1955. Two months later, the Tarpaulin Depot Repair Shop was also destroyed by fire. In 1973 New Zealand Railways switched to PVC tarpaulins, which were cheaper to make and easier to repair.
East Town closed on 17 October 1986 as part of nationwide workshop rationalisation. More than 450 people were employed there at the time. The nearby Aramoho Plant Zone workshops were kept and slightly expanded, but they too were eventually closed.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 12:01 (CET).