Kirkdale TMD
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Kirkdale TMD is a
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 ...
located beside
Kirkdale railway station Kirkdale railway station is a railway station in Kirkdale, Liverpool, England, located to the north of the city centre on the Northern Line of the Merseyrail network. It acts as the interchange between the branches to Kirkby and Ormskirk; th ...
in north
Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
,
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 is the largest on the
Merseyrail Merseyrail is a commuter rail network which serves Merseyside and adjacent areas of Cheshire and Lancashire in the North West England, North West of England. Merseyrail serves 69 Railway station, stations, 67 of which it manages, across two lin ...
network; it is located on the
Northern Line The Northern line is a London Underground line that runs between North London and South London. It is printed in black on the Tube map. It carries more passengers per year than any other Underground linearound 340million in 2019making it the bu ...
and is used primarily for stabling units, heavy maintenance and cleaning units both internally and externally. It is owned 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. ...
and operated by Stadler. Operation of Kirkdale depot was transferred from Merseyrail to
Stadler Rail Stadler Rail AG is a Swiss manufacturer of railway rolling stock, with an original emphasis on regional train multiple units and trams, but moving also into Rapid transit, mass rapid transit, High-speed rail, high speed, Inter-city rail, interci ...
Service UK in October 2017. The depot is Stadler Rail's United Kingdom headquarters and the majority of the company's UK workforce will be based at this site. At Kirkdale, Stadler Rail is responsible for their maintenance setup and staff at the Norwich Crown Point maintenance depot, Glasgow Subway and the future
Tyne and Wear Metro The Tyne and Wear Metro is an overground and underground light rail rapid transit system serving Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, and the City of Sunderland (together forming Tyne and Wear). The owners Nexus have ...
maintenance and staff. The site was extended and uprated. Work finished on an extensive re-build in November 2019, allowing the depot to become the main maintenance hub for the new
Class 777 The British Rail Class 777 ''METRO'' is a class of electric multiple unit passenger trains currently being delivered by the Swiss rolling stock manufacturer Stadler Rail, being used on the Merseyrail network in the Liverpool City Region and adj ...
fleet. Although Kirkdale is the largest Merseyrail depot, most heavy maintenance is currently carried out at
Birkenhead North TMD Birkenhead North TMD is a traction maintenance depot, which is owned by Network Rail and operated by Stadler Rail, Stadler. Located opposite Birkenhead North railway station, it is currently responsible for servicing and stabling Merseyrail's ...
. This will be reversed once the new Class 777 fleet is fully introduced.


History


Bank Hall depot

The site was originally used for the Bank Hall motive power depot, which closed in 1966. The original depot was adjoined by a large area of sidings with more than thirty roads but, following the cessation of express trains operating to and from station in May 1970, the sidings were rarely used.


Rebuild as Kirkdale depot

In 1976, when the new Loop and Link tunnels were being constructed to replace the surface station at Liverpool Exchange, the sidings were lifted and transformed into a modern maintenance depot, which was named after the nearby station. A new shed with four roads was constructed, with inspection pits under the tracks. Each road is long enough to house two three-car sets coupled together. A new carriage wash plant was also built so that units could be driven through and cleaned in a very short amount of time. This is the only active washing plant on Merseyrail, with the other washing plant at Birkenhead North being destroyed by consistent vandalism. In 2006, a brand new wheel lathe was installed at Kirkdale in an area of the depot which was formerly used for the storage of departmental equipment. The commissioning of the new wheel lathe subsequently ended the long running necessity to tow any units requiring wheel turning to the lathe at Allerton depot (located near ) behind a Class 08 diesel shunter, with units transferring from and back to the Merseyrail network via the crossover at .


Second rebuild

Merseyrail's fleet of and
508 __NOTOC__ Year 508 ( DVIII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Venantius and Celer (or, less frequently, year 1261 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomi ...
units is scheduled to be replaced by a fleet of units built by
Stadler Rail Stadler Rail AG is a Swiss manufacturer of railway rolling stock, with an original emphasis on regional train multiple units and trams, but moving also into Rapid transit, mass rapid transit, High-speed rail, high speed, Inter-city rail, interci ...
at
Bussnang Bussnang is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Weinfelden (district), Weinfelden in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Thurgau in Switzerland. History Bussnang may be first mentioned in 822 as ''Pussinwanc''. Du ...
,
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
. As part of the overall fleet replacement project, which will cost £460 million, both Kirkdale and Birkenhead North depots will be upgraded to a standard which will be capable of maintaining the new trains. In March 2017,
Camberley Camberley is a town in north-west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. It is in the Surrey Heath, Borough of Surrey Heath and is close to the county boundaries with Hampshire and Berkshire. Known originally as "Cambridge Tow ...
-based construction company
BAM Nuttall BAM Nuttall Limited (formerly known as Edmund Nuttall Limited) is a construction and civil engineering company headquartered in Camberley, United Kingdom. It has undertaken road, rail, nuclear, and other major projects worldwide. It is a subsidia ...
announced that they had been successful in winning a £20 million contract to refurbish Birkenhead North and rebuild the depot at Kirkdale. The depot is operated by
Stadler Rail Stadler Rail AG is a Swiss manufacturer of railway rolling stock, with an original emphasis on regional train multiple units and trams, but moving also into Rapid transit, mass rapid transit, High-speed rail, high speed, Inter-city rail, interci ...
Service UK, a subsidiary of the new fleet's manufacturer, and has a driver training simulator, maintenance shed and washing and stabling facilities for up to 30 trains. Construction of the new facilities commenced in October 2017, with work completed by November 2019, in time for the delivery and testing of the new fleet.


Allocation

Currently, , and
electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number o ...
s are based at Kirkdale depot, and regularly stabled in the back sidings near station. In 2006, a new small diesel shunter was allocated to the depot to take sets into the new wheel lathe. Previously, battery locomotives and Class 73 locos have been stored at the depot in the past for
sandite Sandite is a Chemical substance, substance used on railways in the UK, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, US, the Netherlands and Belgium to combat Slippery rail, leaves on the line, which can cause train wheels to slip and become damaged with flat ...
duties in the winter. Network Rail stables its MPV diesel unit(s) here occasionally during the leaf fall season.


References


Sources

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External links

{{commons category, Kirkdale TMD
Overhead view of Kirkdale TMD
Railway depots in England Rail transport in Liverpool