UGL Rail

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UGL Rail is an Australian rail engineering company specialising in building, maintaining and refurbishing diesel locomotives, diesel & electric multiple units and freight wagons. It is a subsidiary of UGL Limited and is based in Melbourne, with a staff of 1,200 across Australia and Asia. It operates factories in Broadmeadow, Chullora, Taree, Spotswood and Bassendean.

History

Hong Kong Light Rail Phase III LRV
Metro Trains Melbourne X'Trapolis in November 2009

Founded in Australia in 1899 by Cornish brothers Alfred and Ralph Goninan as an engineering and manufacturing company for the coal industry. A Goninan & Co Limited was incorporated as a public company in 1905.[1]

It entered the rail business in 1917 via Commonwealth Steel Products Company of Waratah, Newcastle, a wheel and axle manufacturer because they could no longer be imported from Belgium due to World War I. A Goninan & Co moved to more convenient freehold land at Broadmeadow in 1919 and built a flourishing business in general engineering.[1] They made pitheads, boilers, wagons and a huge, cast 41-ton block for the district's coal trade.[1] In October 1964 A Goninan & Co was purchased by Howard Smith Limited.

In August 1999 A Goninan & Co was sold to United Group and rebranded United Goninan.[2] In 1983 a factory was established in Townsville to fulfill a contract for Queensland Railways 2600 class locomotives that required them to be built locally.

In 2005 it was renamed United Group Rail as part of a reorganisation following United Group purchasing of Alstom's Australian subsidiary, Alstom Transport Australia and New Zealand.[3]

Products

Current

  • passenger cars
  • freight wagons
  • locomotives
    • 12 C40acidiesel locomotives (Aurizon 5000)
    • 19 C44acHi diesel locomotives (Aurizon 5020)
    • 121 C44aci diesel locomotives+
    • 3 UGL Rail PH37ACmai
  • Bogies
  • spare parts

+As at January 2013 111 built, 10 on order

Previous

CityRail

UGL Rail has been responsible for the maintenance of all of CityRail's EMU fleet at Maintrain, Auburn since March 1994 following the closure of Elcar and Eveleigh Carriage Workshops.[4] In the early 1990s A Goninan & Co refurbished S and V sets at Broadmeadow as part of the Citydecker program.

Metro Trains Melbourne

UGL Rail owns 20% of Metro Trains Melbourne, the consortium that has run Melbourne's metro railway network since November 2009.[5]

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Goninan, Alfred (1865 - 1953) Australian Dictionary of Biography
  2. "United Group Buys Goninan from Howard Smith" Railway Digest October 1999 page 12
  3. United to acquire rail business Alstom Sydney Morning Herald 2 June 2005
  4. "Goninan's Maintrain Centre Officially Opened" Railway Digest May 1994 page 9
  5. Melbourne's trains to get Metro brand Railway Gazette 3 September 2009

External links

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