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 the Depression and in 1931 the workforce fell to 143, eighty eight of which were apprentices. A slight ray of sunshine was a contract in 1935 with the Tasmanian Government to build six Q class locomotives. They also manufactured Australian Standard Garrett's over this period and built twenty eight between 1936 and 1945 for Queensland Government railway. Business began to pick up again at the end of the 1930s when they received contracts for working on 'Saddle Tank' engines like the 'Burrawa' built in 1938. In the same year they were also contracted by Victorian Railways to make the first five 'C38' locomotives but the onset of WW2 delayed delivery until 1943.

Clyde's fortunes took an upward turn during the Second World War as it became an integral part of 'Factory Australia'. New locomotives were also made such as the three C38's made for New South Wales Government Railway in 1942. They also began producing 'B Class' locomotives for Australian Iron and Steel and one 'T Class' for Lysaght Ltd. As well as this they continued to produce ancillary stock for numerous Australia companies.

By 1950 Clyde Engineering had become the largest engineering enterprise in New South Wales.

Geoff Barker, April 2008

References
Lee, R., The Greatest Public Work; the New South Wales Railways 1848 to 1889, Hale and Iremonger Pty Limited, Sydney, 1988
Gunn, J., Along Parallel Lines, Melbourne University Press, 1989
Murray, J., Phoenix to the World; the Story of Clyde Industries and Sir Raymond Purves, CBE, Playright Publishing Pty Ltd., 1992

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