United Group Rail

United Group Rail is an Australian rail engineering company and specialises in building and re-building railway cars including electric and diesel passenger trains, electric and diesel locomotives and freight wagons, particularly hopper cars for coal and iron ore haulage.

Before 1999, the company was known as A Goninan & Co. From 1999 to 2005, it was named United Goninan. The company was renamed United Group Rail in 2005 as part of a reorganisation and merging in of Alstom's former Australian subsidiary, Alstom Transport – Australia and New Zealand, which was acquired by United Group Limited in that year. [ [http://www.unitedgroupltd.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=164&Itemid=258 United Group Limited ] ]

History

Founded in Australia in 1899 by brothers Ralph and Alfred Goninan (1865 - 1953) as an engineering and manufacturing company for the coal industry. A. Goninan & Co. Ltd had been incorporated as a public company in 1905 [http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A140330b.htm Goninan, Alfred (1865 - 1953) Biographical Entry - Australian Dictionary of Biography Online ] ] .

It entered the rail business in 1917 via Commonwealth Steel Products Company Limited of Waratah, Newcastle, a wheel and axle manufacturer because they could no longer be imported from Belgium due to WW1. Goninan & Co. moved to more convenient freehold land at Broadmeadow in 1919 and built a flourishing business in general engineering.They made pitheads, boilers, wagons and a huge, cast 41-ton block for the district's coal trade.The closing of the foundry in 1985 marked the end of an era in general engineering, but the firm still bears his name—though owned by Howard Smith Ltd—and is Australia's largest maker of rail-cars. It was later acquired by United Group in 1999.

United Group Rail is based in Newcastle, New South Wales and is a unit of United Group Limited. It has a staff of 1,200 people across Australia and Asia.

Products

* Refurbishment of Metro Cammell M-stock metro cars for MTR
* mockup - rebuild for MTR's DisneyLand line
* A. Goninan LRV
* NR74 Locomotive
* EMU for Railgroup
* passenger cars
* freight wagons
* locomotives
* Bogies
* spare parts
* GG20B Green Goat hybrid shunting locomotive with RailPower

Clients

* V/Line
* KCR
* MTR
* CityRail

References

* [http://press.arrivenet.com/travel/article.php/412202.html RailPower partners with 'Premier' Australian Railway Engineers United Goninan to market hybrid locomotives in Australia and SE Asia]
* [http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/855.html Alfred Goninan]

* [http://www.unitedgroupltd.com/unitedgroup United Group]