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Depot that can hold the most trains

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TT-ONR-NRN

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Hello.

It’s not really much more than the title really - which UK depot can stable the most trains at once? And how many trains or carriages is that? I’d be fascinated to know.

Many thanks in advance for any answers
 
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DanNCL

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I think Selhurst is the largest remaining depot. Old Oak Common would have been larger in its heyday.

Longsight was for a long time two separate depots - Longsight Diesel and Longsight Electric. If the two are considered to be one depot then that might be larger than Selhurst, I’m not sure.
 

bramling

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Hello.

It’s not really much more than the title really - which UK depot can stable the most trains at once? And how many trains or carriages is that? I’d be fascinated to know.

Many thanks in advance for any answers

Gosforth could be on with a shout in terms of trains - up until recently all 90 metrocars stabled there overnight.

Neasden LU must also be pretty high. I’ll see if I can find out the exact figure when I get time.
 

DanNCL

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Gosforth could be on with a shout in terms of trains - up until recently all 90 metrocars stabled there overnight.
In the early days it took all 90 metrocars, the 5 diesel works locos (which were later replaced by the 3 battery locos), and a few locos/dmus at a time from BR for the wheel lathe. Could easily be 100+ trains per night.
 

hwl

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How many units does that take at once? :)
Space for 439 vehicles in practice, the reality is that it takes a mix of 2/3/4/5 car units so units isn't necessarily the right metric.
58 tracks (excluding head shunts, washer roads etc. which can't be used for stabling /maintenance) @ between 2 to 16 cars each.
 

Big Jumby 74

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Space for 439 vehicles in practice, the reality is that it takes a mix of 2/3/4/5 car units so units isn't necessarily the right metric.
58 tracks (excluding head shunts, washer roads etc. which can't be used for stabling /maintenance) @ between 2 to 16 cars each.
That is the crux of the stabling capacity of any location that requires train formations to be shunted, reformed, maintained, washed, CET'd etc. There is no ONE specific answer to the original posters question, as stabling plans largely revolve around the train service applicable at any specific time, and the unit types involved (20 m or 23 m cars, or a mix of both), verses physical siding lengths.
And in the case of maintenance locations, as above, a percentage of usable siding space has to be kept free for shunting, reforming etc.
To give one example of a stabling/maintenance location, which was also the 'home' base of three/four stock types, so therefore also had to accommodate the 5% (or so) of each type that was not in traffic on any one day, had a total capacity of about 400 cars (20 m stock), taking every siding into account. But from a planning/daily service point of view, the maximum numbers of cars permitted to be stabled after close of service each night was about 200.
This was one specific place, with which I was very familiar, and many other locations with the same sort of remit, will vary depending on local circumstances.
 
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Taunton

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Back to steam days, Stratford was far and away the largest loco shed in the country, in 1950 having some 400 steam locos allocated, and this was after the Shenfield electrification had just come on line. It was almost double the next largest, which was Edinburgh St Margarets, with just over 200. The LNER went in for large sheds. The pollution from Stratford on Sunday evening when 200 or more locos were being lit up for the week ahead was apparently appalling, spreading over the surrounding suburbs. The inner London loco sheds were a significant part of the London Smogs of the era, and a good part of what led to the early East London electrification projects authorised in the late 1950s when the smogs had become intolerable.
 

Snow1964

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Big Jumby 74

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Clapham Junction yard can still stable lots of passenger trains
I could give chapter and verse on Clapham going back to early 70's when only nine roads were electrified. But for simplicity l will only say there were at one time 52 (numbered) roads in total, although the actual number of roads remaining is now less. Of those, 48/49 ran westwards towards Wandsworth Town. 48 could hold 40 bogies (eg: 40 mark 1 coaches or similar), 49 taking 36 bogies. 50-52 were short roads down at the Wandsworth Town end, 50 used by the S&T (Signal & Telegraph) Dept, 51/52 not used for many years. In more recent times 49 has become the highest numbered road, and essentially is the road adjacent to the Down Windsor Slow Line (Platform 6). It and 48 are effectively no longer used west of Plough Road. As per my earlier post, Clapham is similar, with the place now given over to EMU traction (with a good mix of car lengths) much shunting and reforming has of recent years been required here, both overnight and between the peaks, so the workable/planned total (of cars) permitted is quite a bit less than the actual capacity.

BOLD: edited by self: with the pandemic and changes to travelling patterns, this situation may have changed (formations being kept together on a greater basis) possibly? I really don't know.
 
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