Closure
Two changes brought about the decline of the Cardiff Maintenance Centre, the name it adopted in March 1987. The first was the decision to maintain all wagons at a One Spot facility, a centre where freight rolling stock could receive all its necessary maintenance at one location. From April 1993 the wagon work was transferred to Port Waratah One Spot facility.
Locomotive work continued, but the second change soon followed. This was to hire a new fleet of locomotives under a Power by the Hour or ReadyPower agreement. Clyde Engineering was awarded the contract and constructed a depot on Kooragang Island to service the 82 and 90 class locomotives. Many older locomotives were retired with the last locomotives departing Cardiff Workshops in December 1993 with the gates closed on 7 January 1994.
As members of the 44, 442 and 45 classes were replaced by the new arrivals they were brought to Cardiff for store before being auctioned with 81 present in October 1994.
From 1994 to 1998 Cardiff was used as a worksite for the fitting of radios to all locomotives.
Read more about this topic: Cardiff Locomotive Workshops