Inter city express depot north pole

[Engineer]

Rumour has that the North Pole opposite Old Oak Common, will be used by Hitachi as a maintenance depot. Can anyone confirm the progress and comment on hybrid under floor emergency diesel and full 125 mph diesel proposals. Sounds too good to be true. Downside maybe the weight of unused power units when on electric traction.

 

[Elecman]

Correct re North Pole Depot

 

[ainsworth74]

We already have a thread running discussing the Class 800 family of trains which can be found here. I would therefore ask that any discussion around the trains themselves is conducted on that thread and this one, which is in the 'Infrastructure & Stations' sub-forum, focuses instead on the North Pole depot.

 

[swt_passenger]

Hitachi took over the west end of North Pole quite some time ago, hence having their name up in big letters on the building; it isn't exactly a rumour...

A report from Laing lists what has already been done:

Key works that have been completed are:

Demolition of two redundant buildings
Refurbishment of the existing shed (400m long x 6 tracks) and associated stores, offices and buildings
Replacement of all mechanical and electrical equipment including a new depot control system, bi-directional train wash, tandem wheel lathe, new train servicing equipment, including automatic laser diagnostic equipment to detect wheel, brake and pantograph wear
Remodelling of the track configurations throughout the site
Conversion of an existing rail tunnel to road and removal
Two new rail connections to the GWML into Paddington.

http://www.laing.com/media/newsletter/iep-completion-of-north-pole-depot.html

I'd expect there'll also be a new user of the east end of the North Pole site in due course, once the changes for Crossrail on the Old Oak Common site become clearer.

 

[RichmondCommu]

It's nice to think that area around Old Oak Common has a bright future given the closure of The Factory in recent years and of course the loss of the turntable.

Are Crossrail also planning to build a maintenance depot at Old Oak Common? It would also be a good location for a HS2 maintenance facility.

 

[NotATrainspott]

It's nice to think that area around Old Oak Common has a bright future given the closure of The Factory in recent years and of course the loss of the turntable.

Are Crossrail also planning to build a maintenance depot at Old Oak Common? It would also be a good location for a HS2 maintenance facility.

Crossrail's rolling stock depot is here to the north of the GWML and the current proposals for HS2's station there are designed around it such that both can co-exist. However, the land there is already being feted as the Canary Wharf or Stratford of the west end (the site is included with them as out-of-Zone-1 hubs in the recent 2050 strategy document) thus in all likelihood both depots will be replaced with high-value housing, public realm or office space.

HS2 is about three or four storeys below ground here in a Stratford-esque station box and bored tunnels, so even if the land values weren't going to be high it would not be likely that any form of depot would be provided there. The Phase 1 infrastructure maintenance depot is located at the cross of HS2 and the east-west line between Bicester and Bedford while the main rolling stock depot is at Washwood Heath on the Birmingham spur.

 

[Cletus]

I think the depot is open to the public next year as part of the Open House scheme. It may be sold out by now.

 

[fairysdad]

Something that has often confused me about North Pole depot is why Eurostar used it. Seems to be an odd location, given the distance between Waterloo and the fact that is is the wrong side of London to where the Eurostar line came into the city. I'm guessing that it was down to where there was available space, but then why not somewhere between where the tunnel surfaces and London, which then wouldn't have needed replacing when the line was redirected to St Pancras.

 

[59CosG95]

Something that has often confused me about North Pole depot is why Eurostar used it. Seems to be an odd location, given the distance between Waterloo and the fact that is is the wrong side of London to where the Eurostar line came into the city. I'm guessing that it was down to where there was available space, but then why not somewhere between where the tunnel surfaces and London, which then wouldn't have needed replacing when the line was redirected to St Pancras.

I'd imagine that all the Kent NIMBYs were up in arms about building a depot on greenfield land in Kent, so North Pole was chosen as it was on existing brownfield railway land. Temple Mills was also brownfield land, but, like North Pole, repurposed for Eurostar.

 

[edwin_m]

Crossrail's rolling stock depot is here to the north of the GWML and the current proposals for HS2's station there are designed around it such that both can co-exist. However, the land there is already being feted as the Canary Wharf or Stratford of the west end (the site is included with them as out-of-Zone-1 hubs in the recent 2050 strategy document) thus in all likelihood both depots will be replaced with high-value housing, public realm or office space.

As far as I recall Crossrail had very little choice about where to put its depot, as this was about the only suitably sized piece of land available alongside the route in the inner area (outer area depots would make it more difficult to start and finish the service at remote termini). There's nothing in principle to stop the depot being decked over if the land is that valuable, as happened with a depot in Hong Kong and more recently with Westfield at White City.

 

[Cletus]

I think the depot is open to the public next year as part of the Open House scheme. It may be sold out by now.

Further to my post above, visits next March are fully booked.

http://www.opendoorsweekend.co.uk/site/152#sthash.vgt6p9Bw.z3QsgYqF.dpbs