In 1885, Robert Tulloch founded Phoenix Iron Works in
Pyrmont. In 1913 the business was incorporated as Tulloch's Phoenix Iron Works and relocated to
Rhodes. It primarily built freight wagons for the
New South Wales Government Railways but also built
single deck electric carriages for the
Sydney suburban network from 1926 until the 1957. During
World War II, a number of boats were built for the
Royal Australian Navy including some
120ft Motor Lighters. In April 1948 the first of four seven-carriage
HUB sets was delivered. In the 1950s, it commenced building locomotives with 27
Victorian Railways W class diesel hydraulic shunters and 13
Commonwealth Railways NT class diesel locomotives delivered. In 1964, Tulloch delivered the first
double-decker trailer cars for use in
Sydney. After the success of the trailers, Tulloch built four experimental double-decker power cars in 1968, each with electrical equipment from four different manufacturers:
English Electric,
Toshiba,
Hitachi and
Mitsubishi, the latter being selected as the supplier for the
S class double decker power cars. These four motor cars were each paired with modified matching trailers from the original fleet of 120, and ran as an 8-car set with the target plate S10, giving NSW the first fully double deck Electric Multiple Unit passenger train in the world. In the 1970s, the company built 10
New South Wales 1200 class railcars and 2
Victorian Railways DRC class railcars. In October 1974, Tullochs ceased trading. The Rhodes Corporate Park has been built on the former site. In 1988,
Skitube acquired a diesel-mechanical locomotive built by Tulloch in 1958 for use as a depot shunter. This small locomotive was believed to have been the first to be built at the Tulloch plant at Rhodes. ==Products==