Islington Railway Workshops
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Location | Kilburn |
| Operator | South Australian Railways |
| Opened | 1883 |
The Islington Railway Workshops were the chief railway workshops of the South Australian Railways. It was established in 1883 and is still in operation today.[1] As part of William Webb's revitalisation of the railways, the workshops were expanded in the 1920s. In 2012, the site was given provisional listing as a heritage site.[2]
Located in Adelaide's northern suburbs, it built many of the locomotives and items of rolling stock that served the South Australian Railways including:
- 14 R class steam locomotives
- 1 Y class steam locomotives
- 78 T class steam locomotives
- 2 Z class steam locomotives
- 12 520 class steam locomotives
- 10 620 class steam locomotives
- 10 710 class steam locomotives
- 2 350 class diesel locomotives
- 34 500 class diesel locomotives
- 10 900 class diesel locomotives
- 12 Brill 55 railcars
- 38 Brill 75 railcars
- 18 Bluebird railcars
- 111 Redhen railcars
- 9 RL class diesel locomotives
It also built 13 Australian Standard Garratts for the Queensland Railways and Western Australian Government Railways.
During World War II, the workshops were involved in the construction of a number of armoured vehicles for the AIF, most notably the LP1, LP2, LP3 and LP4 series of armoured cars, based on Ford chassis; and the LP1 and LP2 Universal (Bren Gun) carriers.[1]
In 2013/14, parts of the workshops were demolished to make way for the Churchill Shopping Centre, that opened in May 2014 and has Adelaide's first Coles Superstore, as well as an expansion which saw the demolition of another part of the workshops, this added an Aldi and over five specialty stores.[3]