Commonwealth Engineering

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Commonwealth Engineering
Type	Nationalised, later Private
Founded	1946
Headquarters	Australia
Industry	Engineering Rail

The Commonwealth Engineering Company Limited was a major Australian engineering and railway rolling stock manufacturer. It began in 1921 as Smith & Waddington, a small company in the Sydney suburb of Camperdown building bodies for motorcars and small buses. It was reformed after the Depression as Waddingtons Body Works and moved to Granville. The Commonwealth government took control of the company during World War 2 to produce materiel in the Granville factory. The government bought up a controlling stake of the shares in 1946 and changed the name to Commonwealth Engineering.

The company name was changed to Commonwealth Holdings Limited in 1963. It was taken over by Australian National Industries Limited in 1983 and Comeng became ANI's rolling stock division.

ANI sold Comeng to ABB Transportation in 1990. This later became Adtranz and is now part of Bombardier Transportation.

The first of a three volume history of Comeng by John Dunn was published in 2006.

[edit] References

• Comeng, A History of Commonwealth Engineering Vol I 1921 to 1955 by John Dunn, Rosenberg Publishing, 2006. ISBN 1877058424.