Y
ou’re in the wrong place, mate." No, this wasn’t a further comment
from the monotone Sat Nav voice that had moments earlier insisted
on a left turn onto Ten Pound Walk. Indeed, the destination loomed
large enough, right there, over the fence. Network Rail’s adjacent
car park, your writer was loudly informed, does not give access. The widened
and extended roadway that leads to a security barrier beyond the rows of parked
vehicles ought to have provided something of a clue.Coinciding with the 15 May advent of
Intercity Express Programme (IEP) train
services running on the East Coast main
line, Rail Engineer had been invited to
view the train maintenance facilities now
in operation at Hitachi Rail’s entirely new
Doncaster Carr depot.Plans
Ten years have gone by since Hitachi Rail
became the preferred bidder for the IEP;
a programme aiming to procure mainline
high-speed intercity trains to replace the
aging HST fleet. Contracts were signed
in 2012 for the first phase of the project,
for trains for the Great Western main line
(GWML). Agreement was also reached
at that time on a second phase, for the
replacement of HSTs and Intercity 225
trains on the East Coast main line (ECML).
As part of the ECML contract, Hitachi was
required to build a maintenance depot at
Doncaster.
The initial specifications for the depot,
submitted for planning application in
2010, called for a four-road maintenance
shed able to accommodate ten-car trains,
which would be 262 metres long. A single
road shed would be used for maintainingdiesel power cars and there would be
facilities for refuelling, wheel re-profiling,
carriage washing and toilet emptying.
The plans also included sidings for
stabling four full trainsets and twenty half
trainsets. Office space and warehousing
were also to be included within the main
building, which was to measure roughly
300 metres by 55 metres on a site of
approximately 13 hectares (32 acres).
Modifications to the plans, submitted
in further applications between 2011 and
2013, saw the removal of the separatepower car maintenance shed and some of
the cleaning facilities. Expected changes
in the train timetabling also meant that
the siding layout could be reduced to
accommodate up to 24 five-car (half) train
sets.
The 2013 plans reinstated a bio cleaning
pit, extended the enclosed train wash
and now included a second mainline
connection at the south end of the site.
To state the obvious, the depot was
designed to maintain the Hitachi AT300-
series Class 800 bi-mode trains and Class
801 electric trains - collectively known as
AZUMAs (in Japanese an archaic word
for east) - that were to be operated by
Virgin Trains East Coast, now of course
superseded by LNER. However, the depot
would also be used for the maintenance
of Class 802 ‘Nova 1’ bi-mode trains
operated by TransPennine Express (TPE)."
STUART
MARSHDoncaster Carr
NEW ERA AT
1616 FE ATURE