ALL CHANGE AT GWR’S MAINTENANCE DEPOTS
A changing rolling stock fleet at Great Western Railway has prompted a wholesale change of maintenance locations, with new depots being built for new and cascaded stock and long-familiar depot names being consigned to history.
The new fleets of Class 800 and 802 Intercity Express Trains have two principal depots: North Pole and Stoke Gifford. North Pole is the London depot on the south side of the main line at Old Oak Common, the reused Eurostar depot with its extra-long sidings dating from the days before Eurostar’s move from Waterloo International to St Pancras International in 2007, at which time Eurostar maintenance shifted to Temple Mills in east London. Stoke Gifford is a purpose-built depot for the Hitachi fleet located in between the junctions to the west of Bristol Parkway station.
The two principal depots are supplemented by a number of locations at the ends of the network where ‘splash and dash’ servicing (cleaning and tank filling) is undertaken. At Maliphant sidings in Swansea, new facilities have been constructed for the IETs, replacing the former Landore HST depot. In the West Country, Long Rock at Penzance and Laira in Plymouth help out with servicing.
