for the steamship , built by Hillside Railway Workshops in 1933 Hillside was founded as the
Hillside Workshops of the
New Zealand Railways Department in 1901, though workshops had existed close to the current site in South Dunedin since 1875.
Sale and closure In November 2012, KiwiRail announced it had sold part of the business to Australian firm Bradken, and the rest would be closed. Hillside had earlier lost a contract to build new wagons for KiwiRail after it was revealed that it was not competitive and would not be able to deliver the wagons within the time frame specified. KiwiRail said they intended to allocate some work to the new owners, while other work was to be done at the company's Hutt workshops near Wellington.
Reconstruction, 2019–2024 In the intervening years, Hillside Engineering's workshops continued to be used for some locomotive and wagon maintenance work by
KiwiRail with a skeleton staff for overflow work from the KiwiRail Hutt Railway Workshops and maintenance and conversion work on South Island rolling stock. On 30 October 2019, Regional Development Minister
Shane Jones announced that the
Sixth Labour Government would be investing $20 million into re-establishing Hillside workshop as a mechanical hub and heavy engineering facility to service KiwiRail's locomotives and rolling stock. This investment involves upgrading the two main workshop buildings and overhauling the mechanical plant. To promote the refurbishment of Hillside and the 2021 budget, Prime Minister
Jacinda Ardern, Deputy Prime Minister
Grant Robertson, and Dunedin MPs David Clark and
Ingrid Leary visited the factory on 25 May 2021. The opposition
ACT Party and the
New Zealand Taxpayers' Union claimed the Hillside investment was wasteful, likening the Government's actions to
Communist policies in
North Korea and
Poland. In response to criticism, Railways and Maritime Union national secretary Wayne Butson contended that the Hillside redevelopment project would benefit both the Otago region and New Zealand. In early January 2022, the ACT Party obtained documents under the
Official Information Act 1982 showing that
KiwiRail officials had expressed concerns about the Government's NZ$85 million budget allocation to reopen the Hillside workshop in Dunedin; estimating that it would cost between NZ$305 and 400 million to properly equip the factory. KiwiRail had recommended allocating NZ$771 million from the budget for the National Land Transport Fund to be spent on rail, NZ$197.9 million in capital for resilience and a further $1.27 billion for new rolling stock and mechanical depots. The Government had reduced these bids by about NZ$800million. In addition, KiwiRail estimated that it would have to import 780 wagons during the two-year period when Hillside Engineering was being rebuilt. While the ACT Party's transport spokesperson
Simon Court claimed the Hillside project was unsound and based on political expediency, Transport Minister Wood and State Owned Enterprises Minister Clark claimed that the Hillside factory would bring good, high-paying engineering jobs back to Dunedin after the previous National Government shut it down. In mid-August 2022,
Newshub reported that KiwiRail had altered the design of Hillside Workshops due to increasing cost pressures. According to a document obtained by Newshub, the assembly facility's benefit cost ratio was reduced from an already low 0.22 to 0.2. By 2022, the New Zealand Government had allocated NZ$105 million to the Hillside workshop redevelopment programme including NZ$20 million from the Provincial Growth Fund and NZ$85 million form the
2024 New Zealand budget. By early September 2023, two back shunts had been installed at the back of the facility. These tracks will be used to move locomotives, rail wagons and carriages around the facility. They are expected to be completed by the end of 2023. By February 2024, KiwiRail regional manager Alan Hill confirmed significant progress in the redevelopment of the workshops, which were expected to be completed by mid-2024. 90% of the demolition material had been recycled. The redevelopment was funded with nearly NZ$20 million from the Sixth Labour Government's Provincial Growth Fund in 2019, NZ$85 million from the
2021 New Zealand budget to fund upgrades and wagon assembly, and NZ$23 million in government investment to replace ageing locomotives and wagons. These investments included a multi-purpose 5,500 sqm workshop with 21 work stations, cranes, jets and a new rail yard layout with fully electric shunt engines.
Reopening, 2025–present Wagon assembly began in March 2024, with 401 wagons assembled by April 2025. By mid-August 2024, KiwiRail had reached an agreement with the Takutai Trust and Southern Heritage Trust to repurpose the former Manager's House on Hillside Road as a heritage site. Hillside Engineering officially reopened on 16 May 2025 during a reopening ceremony attended by Deputy Prime Minister
Winston Peters, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones, former Labour MP
Clare Curran, local Labour MP Ingrid Leary and KiwiRail CEO Peter Reidy, and
Rail and Maritime Trade Union general Secretary Todd Valster. During the ceremony, Peters said that the return of Hillside Engineering was a statement of the
Sixth National Government's "belief in the city of Dunedin." The opening ceremony was picketed by several dozen protesters representing
Gaza,
transgender rights, pay equity and
climate change. ==Locomotives classes built at Hillside==