Fratton Traincare Depot

Coordinates: 50°47′43″N 1°04′10″W / 50.7953°N 1.0695°W / 50.7953; -1.0695

Fratton Traincare Depot sits on the South Coast of England in Portsmouth, Hampshire. The depot occupies the site alongside Fratton railway station, with two of the sidings right next to Goldsmith Avenue. It has a carriage washer and is the fuelling point for the 158s and 159s.

The depot has a train shed with two pitted roads for maintenance of rolling stock. Class 444 and 450 units berth overnight there, and there are stabling sidings and bay platforms at Portsmouth & Southsea station all of which come under the control of the depot at night.

Trains stabled here are generally Class 444 and 450 desiros, but 158 and 159 diesel trains are occasionally also stabled here. First Great Western and Southern stop at Fratton, and can stop their 158, 313 and 377 trains in the depot if need be.

History

The London Brighton and South Coast Railway and the London and South Western Railway jointly built a motive power depot at Fratton in 1891, replacing an earlier one at Portsmouth Town station. It was of the double roundhouse type. It came under the ownership of Southern Railway (Great Britain) in 1923 and British Railways in 1948. This building was badly damaged by bombs during the Second World War but repaired in 1948. It closed 2 November 1959, but the building continued to be used for stabling locomotives for several years. They were demolished in 1969.^[1]

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