UGL Rail

UGL Rail is an Australian rail 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, Spotswood and Bassendean. While it used to operate a factory in Taree, the plant has currently shut down and the equipment sold off.

History

Pacific National NR class
New South Wales 43 class
Sydney Trains Tangara
Sydney Trains C Set
Metro Trains Melbourne X'Trapolis in November 2009
Hong Kong Light Rail Phase III LRV

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 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]

Factories

While most items were manufactured at Broadmeadows, it did purchase Comeng's Bassendean, Western Australia plant. This plant rebuilt many Pilbara Alco locomotives with General Electric components in the 1990s as well as building 17 Westrail P class and 60 NR class locomotives.[4]

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. It later built the 2800 class.

Products

National

New South Wales

Victoria

Queensland

Western Australia

Hong Kong

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 Electric Carriage Workshops and Eveleigh Carriage Workshops.[5] 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.[6]

References

  1. 1 2 3 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. ↑ Clark, Peter (2012). An Australian Locomotive Guide. Rosenberg Publishing. p. 24. ISBN 9781921719554.
  5. ↑ "Goninan's Maintrain Centre Officially Opened" Railway Digest May 1994 page 9
  6. ↑ Melbourne's trains to get Metro brand Railway Gazette 3 September 2009

External links

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