Pit

The inspection pit at Eveleigh Paint Shop is a sunken trench between the rails of one of the workshop tracks. The pit is roughly the depth of a person, with a concrete floor and tiled walls. Stairs at one end give access. Lights are set into the wall at intervals, and a row of compressed-air outlets and electrical points runs along the side at workbench height. Above the pit, one of the historic carriages sits centred on the rails, its bogies and underframe directly above the workspace. From the pit floor, looking up, the carriage is the ceiling.

Inspection pits are essential equipment in any railway workshop. They allow fitters to work on the underside of a carriage without raising the carriage off the rails. The pit at Eveleigh has been in use since the workshop opened in 1888, with periodic upgrades to its lighting, ventilation, and air-supply fittings. The current pit is mostly the original geometry, with twentieth-century services added. Carriages above the pit get worked on for brake repairs, bogie checks, and underbody cleaning. The arrangement in this photograph is the same arrangement that has been in use here for nearly 140 years. The carriages standing over the pit have changed many times. The pit itself has not.