At Rooty Hill/EM Baldwin & Sons Pty Ltd, 1984-5

摘要

This is the first of a series of articles in which the late Craig Wilson took up the Baldwin story from where he left off in his book Built by Baldwin [Ed]. The 1980's saw a decrease in the number of orders for rail equipment, with canefield locomotive orders slowly drying up and colliery orders barely better. Balancing this, however, was the work flowing from constructing agricultural tractors that had been undertaken with a shortfall of rail work in mind. While the tractors were constructed at Castle Hill, their size brought home the inadequacy of even the fabrication shop, only built in 1978, for producing these vehicles on a production line basis. In 1984 the search commenced for suitable premises. By June, a property in Kellogg Road, Rooty Hill, had been purchased and was being expanded to accommodate the firm's Castle Hill operation. These additions resulted in a doubling of the workshop area together with extra office space. Castle Hill staff were informed of the move in June 1984. The first employees to move were a half dozen Assembly Department staff. They took possession of an area in the existing structure and commenced the assembly of a number of tractors while in the balance of the new shops the expansion and fit out continued. Equipment and staff moved progressively with most relocating in December and January around the normal Christmas closedown. The last area to relocate was the flameproof shop early in the new year. Apart from the gantry cranes, equipment was transferred wholly from Castle Hill.