Clyde Railway and Rolling Stock - Powerhouse Museum Collection

William Henry Hudson set up the firm of Hudson Brothers in 1855 in a small shop in Redfern, Sydney. While initially specializing in woodworking they soon began to focus on metal work and the making of railway rolling stock.

The first rail line in New South Wales was opened in 1855. Like locomotives the first carriages imported into New South Wales came from England. This sense of attachment to the British Empire ensured a certain level of conservatism in the purchase of both locomotives and carriages. The first locally made goods wagons were largely timber with imported iron work but in 1865 thirty-six goods wagons were made locally. Following this, in 1874, P. N. Russell delivered the first locally made passenger carriages which were also the first to include the innovative bogie design for supporting the carriages.

Hudson brothers benefited from the opening up of contracts to Australian (and American) manufacturers and in 1876 were contracted to build 200 D wagons. In 1878 they took on an even larger contract for the New South Wales Government to build 1,895 rolling stock carriages. By 1879 Hudson Brothers had delivered to the Railways department about 76,000 pounds worth of rolling stock.

In 1881 the expanding business moved to a new work shop on two hundred acres of land at Granville in the Western suburbs of Sydney. The new workshops had access to its own rail station on the Parramatta to Sydney line which provided a conduit for moving large pieces of machinery. These were moved from the workshops on an internal rail system which Henry Hudson based on the one used by the Wason Car Manufacturing Company which he had visited on his American trip in 1881.

Their system was designed by its Director George C. Fisk and used small and standard gauge rail to traverse, connect and even go through large erecting shops and other buildings. Wason also made use of the pivoting jib and overhead traversing cranes. By 1883 Hudson's had a near monopoly on making rolling stock for the Government Railway and between 1884 and 1887 they made nearly 1,460 good wagons and 200 carriages and vans. In 1886 they had completed 13 sleeping carriages based on an American design first imported to New South Wales by Jackson and Sharpe in 1877.

The quality of the early wagons produced by Hudson Brothers is attested to by the fact that some of this rolling stack was still in use in the 1970s. The contacts also contributed substantially to the industrialization of the country as between 1877 and 1888 around 1.8 per cent of New South Wales gross domestic product was committed to rolling stock. By 1890 Hudson Brothers was employing 1000 people nearly 8.0 per cent of New South Wales total manufacturing workforce.

Unfortunately the recession of the 1890s hit Hudson Brothers hard forcing it into receivership. The Clyde Engineering Company was reconstituted from the collapse of Hudson brothers and the fortunes of the new company fell in step with the newly formed Commonwealth. Clyde Engineering continued to make carriages but 1905 saw their fortunes change when they won a New South Wales Government contract to produce thirty 'P Class' and thirty 'T Class' locomotives.

The first 'T Class' was delivered 1907 and the remaining were delivered ahead of schedule by 1912. This was a time of huge growth for the railways and this stimulated the production of more locomotives and led to the expansion of the Clyde works. In 1914 Clyde took on another contract for the delivery of a further 160 T Class locomotives all of which were delivered by 1917.

Another important event for Clyde was the opening of Broken Hill Proprietary Limited's works in Newcastle 1915. This led to further contracts for wagons and heavy machinery. The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 led to the longest period of sustained growth for Clyde and its locomotive production. From 1918 to 1930 two hundred and sixty four locomotives were built and in 1923 fifty two K class locomotives were built at the rate of one a week.

Locomotive production took a downturn during th

Subjects:

+ Engineering
+ Rail transport industry
+ Photography
+ Trains

Objects

Photograph of Clyde workshop with C38 lo

Photograph of 200th steam locomotive bui

New South Wales Government Railways (N.S

Photograph of cylinder casting for D57 l

Photograph of a man isitting on unidenti

Photograph of girder ender at the Chullo

Photograph of a T class locomotive boile

Photograph of locomotive fitting shop wi

Photograph of narrow gauge railway wagon

Photograph of a brake van, No.4, built f

Photograph of Shell railway tank wagon 2

Photograph of American suburban first-cl

Photograph of a New South Wales Governme

Photograph of New South Wales Government

Photograph of bogie refrigerator car 176

Photograph of steel S railway wagon 1601

Photograph of a heavy bogie steel bolste

Photograph of Portland cement kiln and g

Photograph of components for a railway c

Photograph of bogie bolster wagon, numbe

Photograph of steel open goods wagon D12

Photograph of bogie covered goods van BC

Photograph of four-wheel sheep van SV840

Photograph of Lancashire boiler on tubul

Photograph of Commonwealth Oil Corporati

Photograph of four-wheel tank wagon No.9

Photograph of Lambton Colliery B Pit tim

Photograph of thirty four wheel coal hop

Photograph of 4-6-4 side tank locomotive

Photograph of private railway tank wagon

Photograph of British Australian Oil Com

Photograph of machinery for eight ton lo

Photograph of cylinder casting for 57 cl

Photograph of an overhead electric crane

Photograph of large building being erect

Photograph of an assortment of locomotiv

Photograph of the back wheel differentia

Photograph of a colonial boiler for Parr

Photograph of a scene in Clyde works yar

Photograph of Fowler compound road locom

Photograph of a 0-6-0 saddle tank locomo

Photograph of two cast sliding bearing h

Photograph of a steam locomotive "Robin"

Photograph of a three P Class locomotive

Photograph of a TF class locomotive boil

Photograph of a four-wheel bogie for tan

Photograph of a model of the first locom

Photograph of two cylindrical vessels on

Photograph of industrial side tank steam

Photograph of a geared mechanism on flan

Photograph of railway locomotive fire tu

Photograph of slewing and luffing railwa

Photograph of locomotive fire tube boile

Photograph of fourth section of Portland

Photograph of steel open S wagon, number

Photograph of workman inside steam locom

New South Wales Government Railways good

Photograph of a private railway coal hop

Photograph of interior of second-class s

Photograph of sprinkler car No. 100W for

New South Wales Government Tramways coun

Photograph of an engineering article L.M

Tasmanian Government Railways Q class 4-

Photograph of a C38 steam locomotive 380

Photograph of a C38 steam railway locomo

P class 4-6-0 express passenger steam lo

E class No.36, a 2-6-4 tank steam locomo

E class 2-6-4 tank No.423 at Clyde railw

Ploughs on S wagons bound for Wagga Wagg

Saddle tank steam locomotive for Austral

Industrial side tank steam locomotive, 2

New South Wales Government Railways Rail

Photograph of C36 steam railway locomoti

Photograph of Australian Standard Garrat

Photograph of cylinder castings on a lar

Photograph of front unit of Australian S

Photograph of a D57 Class Locomotive 570

Photograph of an underground haulage loc

Photograph of Fowler team locomotive 122

Photograph of a Fowler road steam locomo

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