Father-and-son workers Richard and Mark Scholten have been part of many generations of Dandenong-produced trams and trains.
They took centre stage as employer Alstom celebrated 70 years of its rolling stock factory on Frankston-Dandenong Road on Friday 22 November.
In that time, the site’s built more than 600 trams and 800 trains for Victoria – many still in service, some for export.
The iconic fleets include the Comeng trains, Z, A, B and E Class trams, ‘Blue’ Harris train carriages and the V-Line VLocity trains.
The Scholtens have spanned much of the 70-year history on the factory floor.
“I’m very happy to work here where my father worked,” Mark says.
“We worked on many different projects over many, many years, and I’m very proud I can follow in my dad’s footsteps to say I’ve built Victoria’s transport system.”
Richard started at the site in the 1980s, with Mark joining as a teenager doing odd jobs.
After becoming an apprentice fitter, Mark joined his father at Dandenong working as a boilermaker on the Endeavour and Explorer project for NSW in 1994.
Mark was back at the factory in 2002 as one of two people hired to prepare the site for the VLocity rail project.
Since then, he’s been part of fitting and repairing Victorian rail infrastructure.
With more than 500 staff, the factory still plays an active role in all three of Victoria’s major rolling-stock projects.
These are building 100 Next Generation G Class trams, 25 X’Trapolis 2.0 metro trains and 124 VLocity trains.
The latter project has been ongoing since 2003, with some original team members still on the project.
Richard says the manufacturing still happening at Alstom was all the more important due to the loss of heavy industry in Victoria and Dandenong.
“It’s very important we get the tradespeople and businesses back where they should be,” he says.
His son says the community should be proud of the Dandenong-built fleets.
“To build VLocity trains here locally where the customer is very happy with the safety, the performance and the maintenance of the vehicle is next to none when it comes to local manufacturing.”
Alstom’s national managing director Pascal Dupond said “Victoria is the home of rail manufacturing in Australia, and Alstom’s Dandenong site is central to this legacy”.
“Our contribution to Victoria’s public transport network is made possible by the skills, expertise, and dedication of our team in Australia.
“We are proud to continue this deep partnership with the State to deliver world-class trams and trains.”
