Old Oak Common TMD
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Old Oak Common TMD is situated to the west of London, in Old Oak Common. The Traction Maintenance Depot is the main facility for storage & servicing of locomotives and multiple-units which utilise Paddington Station. The depot codes are the diesel depot OC, and OO, the carriage shed. In steam days the shed code was 81A.
The area is also the location where two GWR main lines bifurcate: the 1838 route to Reading via Slough, and the 1906 New North Main Line via Greenford to Northolt Junction, the start of the Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway line. The former is in use for regular passenger service; the latter is used overwhelmingly by freight trains and ECS movements, though the timetable (p.15) shows a single workday train from Gerrards Cross via West Ruislip to Paddington.
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[edit] Railway Depot
[edit] GWR and steam
The site is also the ancestral home of the Great Western Railway's primary London depot. Following the reconstruction of Paddington Station and the introduction of larger locomotives and new routes, the GWR required a larger site in which to service its locomotives and carriages. A site was acquired in South Acton, south of the Grand Union Canal, which came into operation from 17 March 1906.[1]
Following a number of reconstructions and enlargements, the GWR built a north-light roofed four-turntable building, whose design became the template for other major GWR depots, including Tyseley.[2] The structure remained wholly in place until diesel lomotives replaced steam, and as of 2007 only the rear-most part of the servicing depot still stands.
[edit] Today
Today the northern part of Old Oak Common is divided into two:
The remaining Great Western Railway buildings adjacent to the canal are today part of EWS and are currently operated by their commercial subsidiary Axiom Rail. Since the introduction of the InterCity 125 trains in the 1970s this site has maintained freight locomotives and more recently carriages for charter trains. The site includes the Lift Shop, the Pullman Car Shed (where the Blue Pullman trains were once maintained) and the former heavy repair building known as 'The Factory'. This site together with the adjacent Coronation Carriage Siding have been schedulled for compulsory purchase for the Crossrail project in 2009. EWS are co-operating and will be vacating the site in the Autumn of 2008 and spring of 2009. All the remaining Great Western Railway buildings are to be demolished.
Adjacent to the Great Western Main Line is the second part of Old Oak Common TMD, the High Speed Train depot. Here trains which operate the First Great Western services, the Heathrow Express and Heathrow Connect are maintained.
South of the line is North Pole depot, where the Eurostar trains which operate on Channel Tunnel routes used to have their UK base. With the opening of the new international terminal at St Pancras railway station, all servicing was moved to the new Temple Mills depot located near Stratford International. The North Pole depot is approximately half a mile south-west of Willesden TMD.
[edit] Allocation
The EWS site has no regular allocation of locomotives but services visiting locomotives from other areas of the UK and is also a host to visiting preserved locomotives.
The First Great Western and Heathrow Express site is the home of the following vehicles: -
- Class 43 High Speed Train - Used for long-distance express services
- Class 57 locomotive - Used for sleepers and Motorail
- Class 180 ‘Adelante’ diesel multiple unit used for semi-fast services - (Required until the end of 2007 at latest - being returned to lease company once enough refurbished HSTs are available)
- Class 165 - Two- or three-coach Turbo DMU used on commuter services to London (ex First Great Western Link)
- Class 166 - Three-coach Turbo DMU used on longer commuter services to London (ex First Great Western Link)
- Class 360 - Four-coach EMU (being strengthend to five coaches) used on Heathrow Connect services (ex First Great Western Link, joint operation with BAA)
[edit] References
- Rail Atlas Great Britain & Ireland, S.K. Baker ISBN 0-86093-553-1
[edit] External links
An overhead view of the depot. OC is to the top of the picture, OO is to the left. North Pole TMD is at the bottom of the picture.
