Shrewsbury 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 ...

(TMD) situated in

Coleham Coleham is a district of the town of Shrewsbury in Shropshire, England. It is located just south, over the River Severn, from Shrewsbury town centre. History Coleham grew up as a village outside medieval Shrewsbury, with the nearest crossing o ...

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is sited on the River Severn, northwest of Wolverhampton, west of Telford, southeast of Wrexham and north of Hereford. At the 2021 United ...

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 TMD forms part of Coleham Depot, a

permanent way Railway track ( and International Union of Railways, UIC terminology) or railroad track (), also known as permanent way () or "P way" ( and English in the Commonwealth of Nations#Indian subcontinent, Indian English), is the structure on a Ra ...

depot operated 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. ...

. The code for the TMD is 'SB'.

Location

The depot is situated at Sutton Bridge Junction, where the

Cambrian Line The Cambrian Line (), sometimes split into the Cambrian Main Line () and Cambrian Coast Line () for its branches, is a railway line that runs from Shrewsbury in England, westwards to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli in Wales. Passenger train services ...

connects with the Welsh Marches Line, approximately to the south of

Shrewsbury railway station Shrewsbury railway station serves the town of Shrewsbury, in Shropshire, England. Built in 1848, it was designated a grade II listed building in 1969. Many services starting at or passing through the station are bound for Wales, and it is a key ...

. The TMD was constructed in 2008 on the site of rarely used permanent way sidings - which had themselves been built on the site of the former extensive joint GWR/LNWR goods yard - as part of the

ERTMS The European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) is the system of standards for management and interoperation of signalling for railways by the European Union (EU). It is conducted by the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) and is the o ...

project on the Cambrian Line. The depot became the base for Network Rail 97/3s (former Class 37 locomotives) for ERTMS testing on the Cambrian Line. The locomotives arrived in 2009 (see the allocation section below). The new maintenance depot consists of a single-road inspection shed with an additional siding to one side to run round locomotives/store additional locomotives. There is also a small gantry. The site is fenced off from the main running line adjacent to it and is connected with the adjoining permanent way depot.

Allocation

Although not always stabled at Coleham (sometimes one or more of the 97s are stabled at other locations, including

Machynlleth Machynlleth () is a market town, community and electoral ward in Powys, Wales and within the historic boundaries of Montgomeryshire. It is in the Dyfi Valley at the intersection of the A487 and the A489 roads. At the 2001 Census it had a po ...

) the four class 97/3s which are now regularly present here are: *

97301 (ex- 37100) * Network Rail 97302 (ex-37170) * Network Rail 97303 (ex-37178) * Network Rail 97304 (ex-37217) "John Tiley"

Abbey Foregate

The Coleham Depot is the second location in Shrewsbury to have a depot code (since

privatisation Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

), the other being the long established Abbey Foregate Yard with 'SX'. This yard, located adjacent to

Severn Bridge Junction Severn Bridge Junction is the area of railway lines just south east of Shrewsbury railway station, in Shropshire, England. It is controlled by a mechanical interlocked signal box of the same name, which is the largest operational mechanical s ...

at the southeast end of the station, is currently used for the

stabling A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or ...

DMUs A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...

Transport for Wales Transport for Wales (TfW; ; ) is a not-for-profit company owned by the Welsh Government and managed at arms length by its appointed board. TfW oversees the Transport for Wales Group (TfW Group) consisting of itself and its subsidiaries: Trans ...

and

West Midlands Trains West Midlands Trains (WMT) is a British train operating company. It operates passenger trains on the West Midlands franchise between London and the English Midlands under two trading names: within the West Midlands region as West Midlands Rai ...

.Anothe
depot list
There are no locomotives or shunters allocated at Abbey Foregate.

History

The original locomotive servicing depot was built on the opposite side of the tracks to the current TMD, by the

Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway The Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway was an English railway company that built a standard gauge line between those places. It opened its main line in . Its natural ally seemed to be the Great Western Railway. With other lines it formed a route be ...

(S&HR) in 1856, consisting of a single-road straight shed. As part of their joint-purchase of the S&HR, 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, ...

and the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the LNWR was the largest joint stock company in the world. Dubbed the "Premier Line", the LNWR's main line connec ...

agreed to build a new six-road shed on the same site, designed using LNWR architecture principles, utilising the original S&HR shed as a wagon repair depot. In 1877 the LNWR built a new ten road shed of their own to the south of the site, closer to the running tracks. After the GWR absorbed the constituent railway companies in the area, in 1883 they built a new roundhouse to the rear/east of the existing former joint facilities, and added their own coaling stage. In 1932, the GWR demolished the old S&HR shed, and built a new steel-framed three road straight shed on the site. In 1937, the GWR renewed all roofing. The depot closed to all steam locomotives in March 1967.

References

{{Great Western Railway Railway depots in England Rail transport in Shropshire

Location

Allocation

Abbey Foregate

History

See also

References