Carlisle Upperby TMD is a railway

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 ...

situated in

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The depot was formerly owned by

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 ...

, and was reopened by

Locomotive Services Limited Locomotive Services Limited is a train operating company in Great Britain. The company operates rail tours using heritage steam, diesel and electric locomotives with support from associated companies and trusts. History In August 2017, Loco ...

in 2023. The depot was originally of service to steam locomotives (

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 ...

12A). The depot code is now CL. The old steam shed used to be known colloquially as "the Lanky", a reference to its origins as the main depot of the Lancaster and Carlisle railway.

History

Constructed by the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway, the depot passed into

London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with London and North Eastern Railway, LNER, Great Western Railway, GWR and Southern Railway (UK), SR. The London, Midland an ...

(LMS) ownership as part of the

1923 Grouping The Railways Act 1921 ( 11 & 12 Geo. 5. c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an act of Parliament enacted by the British government, and was intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grou ...

. The LMS rebuilt Upperby in 1948, replacing the original shed with a large concrete roundhouse. The LMS also constructed an enginemen's hostel on the hill adjacent to the depot (now the Hilltop Hotel). In the 1960s, Upperby was allocated diesel locomotives including Sulzer Type 2 (later Class 25) and the unsuccessful Metro-Vic Co-Bo Type 2. However, once the new purpose-built diesel depot, Kingmoor TMD was completed, work was transferred there and Upperby closed as a locomotive depot on 1 January 1968. The roundhouse was demolished in 1979, but the remaining buildings continued in use as a carriage maintenance and servicing facility until closure in the early 1990s. When

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 ...

was privatised in 1994–7, the disused depot became the property of EWS (now

) as part of a nationwide portfolio of sites which also included the nearby Currock wagon repair depot.

Present day

Upperby was closed in 1994 during the

privatisation of British Rail The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the Rail transport in Great Britain, railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, the process was largely compl ...

. The carriage sheds were demolished in 2016 while the depot was under the ownership of

. In September 2023, the depot was reopened by Locomotive Services Limited. It will be used as a third maintenance site for their fleet of locomotives. Part of the land formerly making up the site is now used by

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...

for office space and storage of equipment. The former carriage shed was demolished in December 2016.

References

*''Rail Atlas Great Britain & Ireland'', S.K. Baker

External links

A
overhead view
of the depot. Railway depots in England Buildings and structures in Carlisle, Cumbria Rail transport in Cumbria {{England-rail-transport-stub

History

Present day

See also

References

External links