The team at the Lithgow Railway Workshop (LRW) have recently started working on their largest project ever.
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The local company has been tasked with converting 180 coal wagons from South Australia for use in other regions and industries.
All the extra work has meant LRW has been able to employ more workers from the local community.
“We generally have about 25 staff but we’ve put on an additional eight people this year,” said LRW Managing Director, Tim Elderton.
There is currently a team of seven working on this project and the job is predicted to take between three and six months to complete.
Mr Elderton hopes more projects of this size will continue to come to Lithgow in order to open up more job opportunities for locals and to bring more money into the town.
“The Lithgow Railway Workshop currently injects $ 2.5 – $3 million a year into the local economy,” he said.
The 180 coal wagons have started arriving in Lithgow with approximately two thirds of the fleet being converted to grain wagons.
The other third of the fleet is being modified to operate coal trains in NSW in order to discharge coal in the ports of Newcastle.
An external company Ecofab, will be working on the LRW site and will employ another two local workers. Ecofab is tasked with manufacturing the fibreglass lids for the grain wagons.
According to Mr Elderton, 90 percent of the work on the project will be modifying the discharge doors beneath the wagons to be grain tight and suitable for transporting grain.
The wagons were previously used to transport coal from the mine in Leigh Creek in South Australia to the Port Augusta coal-fired power station.
The wagons were purchased by Southern Shorthaul Railroad following the closure of the power station in 2016.
LRW usually employs around five to six apprentices at any one time.
“Our first bunch of apprentices became tradesmen in January, some have stayed, some have elected to move on so I’ve had to replenish those with three new apprentices which have just started.”
The Lithgow Railway Workshop also assists in the professional development of participants in the Work for the Dole program.
“We start off with about 15 and we nurture them and teach them new skills.Tthey eventually get re-employed.
“I think we’ve only got about four left from the last group so our Work for the Dole program is one of the most successful in the Central West with teaching new skills and getting the participants reemployed.”
