Cardiff Canton TMD is a diesel locomotive

traction maintenance depot A motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine sheds" or just "sheds". Facilit ...

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

, Wales. Its depot code is CF. It is operated by Transport for Wales. The depot is used by Transport for Wales fleet, GWR Class 158s and some Cross Country Class 170s. In steam days the depot was called Cardiff Canton and its

shed code British Railways shed codes were used to identify the motive power depot, engine sheds that its locomotives and multiple units were allocated to for maintenance purposes. The former London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) alpha-numeric system w ...

was 86C. It was built in 1882 as the main maintenance base for the

South Wales Railway The South Wales Railway () was a main line railway which opened in stages from 1850, connecting the Great Western Railway from Gloucester to South Wales. It was constructed on the broad gauge. An original aspiration was to reach Fishguard to eng ...

and the major Welsh engineering base for the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

(GWR). After nationalisation in 1948 it was a heavy overhaul base for

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commis ...

. After privatisation in the mid-1990s the depot became a joint

Arriva Trains Wales Arriva Trains Wales (ATW; ) was a British train operating company owned by Arriva UK Trains that operated the Wales & Borders franchise. It ran urban and inter-urban passenger services to all railway stations in Wales, including , , , , and , ...

and English Welsh & Scottish facility. The EWS depot closed as a maintenance centre from 10 December 2005, but EWS' successor

DB Cargo UK DB Cargo UK (formerly DB Schenker Rail UK and English, Welsh & Scottish Railway) is a British rail freight company owned by Deutsche Bahn and headquartered in Doncaster, England. The company was established by Wisconsin Central Ltd., Wisconsin ...

still uses the depot for long-term storage and occasional stabling.

History

Steam

Cardiff canton geograph-2476977-by-Ben-Brooksbank

Cardiff Canton was opened in June 1882 as a six road, -long shed, built to replace Long Dyke, east of Cardiff General station. The GWR enlarged the depot in 1897 with a -diameter turntable installed in a square locomotive shed with 28 roads radiating of off the turntable. In 1925 the GWR added a locomotive repair and lifting shed and a new coaling stage. In 1931 the original -turntable was removed and replaced by a larger -diameter one at the west end of the yard. At this time, around the peak of GWR operation, the depot had allocated 50 main line passenger locomotives, 40 heavy goods/ mineral locomotives and 30 smaller local passenger/goods and shunting locomotives. Steam traction at the depot ceased on 8 September 1962.

Diesel

In the winter of 1962–63, Kyle Stewart contracted to build for

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

ways a new £1,324,000 complex on a site. Lord Brecon, Minister of State for Welsh Affairs, opened the new depot on 18 September 1964. The original allocation was 360 locomotives for major maintenance, 197 for normal maintenance and 62 shunting locomotives. Employed were 40 managerial and supervisory staff, 31 clerical staff, 382 maintenance staff and 55 unskilled staff. In 1987, the depot's allocation of rolling stock included Classes 08, 37, 47, 56 and DMUs, although Classes 33 and 50 could also usually be seen at the depot.

Allocation

* Class 08 * Class 67 **

British Rail Mark 4 The British Rail Mark 4 is a class of Passenger car (rail), passenger carriages built for use in InterCity 225 sets on the East Coast Main Line between London King's Cross railway station, King's Cross, Leeds railway station, Leeds and Edinburg ...

* Class 150 * Class 153 *

Class 158 The British Rail Class 158 '' Express Sprinter'' is a diesel multiple unit (DMU) passenger train. It is a member of the Sprinter series of regional trains, produced as a replacement for British Rail's first generation of DMUs; of the other m ...

* Class 170 * Class 197 * Class 231

References

Sources