Old Oak Common TMD

Old Oak Common TMD is a traction maintenance depot at the western part of London, in Old Oak Common. The depot is the main facility for the storage and servicing of locomotives and multiple-units from Paddington Station. The depot codes are OC for the diesel depot and OO for the carriage shed. In steam days, the shed's code is 81A.

The area is also where two GWR main lines divide, the 1838 route to Reading via Slough, and the 1906 "New North Main Line" (present-day Acton–Northolt 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 services, the latter is used overwhelmingly by freight trains and empty coaching stock movements.

The HST section of Old Oak Common TMD, more commonly known to the 'Old Oak Common HST Depot' is closing to traffic in 2018 with the removal of Intercity 125 trains from the Great Western Main Line. This closure is to make way for the brand new facility where Crossrail trains will be serviced and maintained. Maintenance of the new Intercity Express Programme trains will be carried out at the North Pole Depot, where it is the former Eurostar depot before 2007.

History
Throughout its GWR and early BR operational life, the depot remained fairly intact and similar to its original layout. The only major difference by the early 1960s was the addition of a pre-war diesel refuelling stage just north of the repair shop, for use by GWR railcars.

With a reduction in steam traction and the implementation of the Beeching axe, in March 1964 the decision was taken to move the remaining steam locomotive allocation to the 1950s designed Southall MPD, and reconstruct Old Oak Common as a diesel depot. Within a year the majority of the GWR 1906 depot was demolished, with only "The Factory" repair shop, furthest western turntable and parts of the stores remaining. The main service building had 3 tracks, each holding two locos, with inspection pits, fuel supply points and a washing plant on the approach road. Some of the inspection pits in The Factory were also lengthened and deepened and jacks provided to allow for bogie and spring changing. It was the last of six big diesel depots built for the Western Region, the others being Margam TMD 1960, Bristol Bath Road depot 1960, Laira Traction Maintenance Depot, Plymouth, 1962, Landore TMD, Swansea, 1963 and Cardiff Canton TMD 1964.

Just south of the residual GWR buildings, in the 1960s BR built what was initially the storage depot for the Blue Pullman trains, what later became known as the Coronation Carriage Sidings. In the late 1970s, south of this and almost adjacent to the Great Western Main Line, they built an InterCity 125 depot. Today trains which operate the Great Western Railway services are maintained here.

In 1997 a new bespoke depot was constructed at the southern end of the site, between the Great Western depot and the main line, funded by the British Airports Authority (BAA) to service and maintain the Heathrow Express (HEX) and Heathrow Connect service trains. This was the first new privately funded train depot in the UK since the British railways nationalisation in 1948. The inauguration of the HEX services saw the electrification of the GW main line from Paddington to Hayes and onto Heathrow airport using 25kV overhead catenary.

The residual GWR buildings that are used from the 1970s to house and maintain singular diesel locomotives, special trains, and maintain carriages and freight stock in the area. On the privatisation of BR, the buildings were allocated to EWS Rail, and latterly owned by Axiom Rail. In 2009, the site together with Coronation Carriage Sidings were fenced off due to the compulsory purchase for the Crossrail project. All the remaining GWR buildings and Coronation Carriage Sidings were demolished by mid-2011, with the former western shed turntable donated to the Swanage Railway.

Present
Developments in the recent years have been on the southern section of the former GWR site, either side of the 1970s BR High Speed Train depot. This has been added to in width and services are now operated by Great Western Railway, Heathrow Express and Heathrow Connect. The allocation is presently:


 * Class 43 High Speed Train - used for Great Western Railway long-distance express services
 * Class 180 - five Adelante diesel multiple units used for semi-fast services - and also to assist Hull Trains with the maintenance of the four 180s.
 * Class 57 - locomotive used for the Great Western Railway Night Riviera sleeper services
 * Class 165 - two or three-coach Turbo DMU used on commuter services to London
 * Class 166 – three-coach Turbo DMU used on longer commuter services to London (ex First Great Western Link)
 * Class 360 – five-coach EMU used on Heathrow Connect services (joint operation with BAA)
 * Class 332 – four- and five-coach EMU used on Heathrow Express services.
 * Class 387 Four car EMU’s built by Bombardier Transportation in Derby.(light Maintenance only)
 * Class 345 Aventra EMU’s formed of 9 coaches. Operating the Elizabeth Line services. All maintenance work will be carried out for all the Aventra units here by Bombardier Transportation

Detailed design work is now underway in preparation for the construction of another new depot, this time on the northern part of the site. This will effectively replace the former locomotive depot and the Coronation Sidings area. It will provide full servicing, maintenance and storage for the proposed new fleet of Crossrail trains which will operate between Reading on the Great Western main line and Shenfield on the Great Eastern main line, using a newly constructed tunnel running West-to-East under London. The new development is large and will fill up the remaining area at Old Oak Common.

Old Oak Common is also being considered as the location for a major interchange station between the GW main line, Crossrail, Heathrow Express and the proposed High Speed 2 line from London (Euston) to Birmingham/Manchester/Leeds.