Industry Engineering Products Railway rolling stock Founded 1921 | Defunct 1990 Headquarters Australia Ceased operations 1990 | |
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Number of locations Dandenong
Rocklea
Bassendean Locations Dandenong, Rocklea, Bassendean Parent organization Australian National Industries | ||
Commonwealth Engineering was an Australian engineering company that designed and built railway locomotives, rolling stock and trams.
Contents
History
Commonwealth Engineering was founded in 1921 as Smith & Waddington, in the Sydney suburb of Camperdown building bodies for motorcars and buses. It was reformed after the Depression as Waddingtons Body Works and moved to Granville. The Government of Australia took control of the company during World War II to produce materials in the Granville factory. The government purchased a controlling stake in the company in 1946 and changed the name to Commonwealth Engineering.
In 1949 a factory was established in Rocklea, Queensland. This was followed in 1952 a plant in Bassendean, Western Australia and in 1954 by another in Dandenong, Victoria. In June 1957, the government sold its shares. In November 1982 Comeng was taken over by Australian National Industries.
The Granville factory closed in 1989 and has been demolished. The site, which sat between the Great Western Highway and Main Western railway line west of Duck River, has been replaced with new developments that include high rise housing and light industry.
The Dandenong plant was sold in 1990 to ABB Transportation and is now operated by Bombardier Transportation while the Bassendean facility was sold to A Goninan & Co.
The history of Comeng has been published by John Dunn:
Products
Commonwealth Engineering's products included: