Light spills through the sawtooth roof, filtering through layers of steel and glass to cast long shadows across the dust-laden floor. Once an extension of the Eveleigh Paint Shop, this vast workshop was where suburban electric trains were overhauled and prepared for their next journeys. Now, the space stands empty, the rails embedded in the floor leading only to silence.
The sawtooth roof was designed to maximise natural light, with its angled glass panels allowing daylight to flood the space without the harsh glare or heat of direct sun. In its working years, this design reduced the need for artificial lighting, ensuring that rail workers could inspect and repair the suburban electric fleet with precision. Even deep within the workshop, light reached the tools and hands that kept Sydney’s trains running.
On the day this image was taken, smoke from hazard reduction burn-offs in Greater Sydney had drifted into the city, softening the sunlight and giving it an almost ethereal glow. The haze lingers in the rafters, catching in the beams of light that streak down to the floor, illuminating particles of dust that swirl in the still air.
Once purely functional, the architecture now frames a space devoid of movement. Where workers once moved between towering carriages, tools in hand, the air filled with the clang of metal and the hum of machines, only the quiet remains, stretching from column to column, across the tracks that once led Sydney’s suburban fleet back to life.