Dear moderators, we don't have a depot subforum so I put it here... please feel free to move if there is a better place
Where do trains go at night?
It sounds obvious - the depot, but I read that Longsight can take a maximum of fifteen 390s overnight. Now I know that there is a depot in Wembley and Glasgow, etc. But fifteen? It is the main depot for the Pendolinos and there are fifty six? So... where do all the other ones go?
If a depot as large as Longsight can only take fifteen Pendolinos, where are all the Eurostars kept overnight? Can Temple Mills take all seventeen 374s and the 373s at the same time? And Great Western Railway has over a hundred IETs split between North Pole, Maliphant, Stoke Gifford and I think some stay at Laira. If they can only take fifteen too, that accounts for only sixty or seventy IETs? LNER has all of the Azumas and the 225s as well over Bounds Green, Doncaster, Neville Hill and Craigentinny?
Unless of course, it means fifteen IN the actual shed, and more can sit on the sidings outside the depot? But if not... where do they all go?? Unless Longsight is just... small? Although Craigentinny can handle 176 vehicles... and that's only what, nineteen Azumas?
I'm confused. How many trains actually sit at the depot (inside and outside of it), and how many trains can stay overnight at places like North Pole and Bounds Green?
Please can someone clarify, because I'm surprised at how much less depots can take compared to what I thought. I don't mean how many can they do maintenance on, just... how many can stay there overnight? There doesn't seem to be enough room for them all if they can only take 15-20 trains...
Thanks
I think it may have been mentioned or implied, but some late night trains only arrive at a depot or stabling point just as an early morning ECS leaves to travel to the station where it will form its first booked service. Hence in normal times, this reduces the amount of storage needed slightly.
Also typically at certain stations near(-ish) to the depots, trains terminate after their last booked service. And then wait until space is available in the depot. Then one by one they get taken to the depot.
Often within a couple of hours of the first trains entering the depot, trains that have been serviced, would start coming off the depot and then travel to the station where they were due to enter passenger service. But would often arrive quite a long time before their first scheduled passenger service.
This again is due to the lack of capacity in the depot.
Back when Class 43 125 HSTs were the mainstay of the Bristol to London Paddington services, just refuelling typically took just under an hour per set. So the ‘fuel’ road would be in constant use while the depot crews were active and there was stock to service.
Oh, and not all sets are in traffic all through the day. In some depots some work takes place during the day.
A “255 Castle Class” 2+4 HST recently got itself covered in graffiti while stabled at Exeter Riverside New Yard. It was so bad it GWR ran it ECS to Bristol SPM to be cleaned.
During the summer, the stock for the special steam hauled trains to Devon (I can't remember the names!) is often stabled in one of the middle roads of Bristol Temple Meads. Later in the evening, I've noticed that there's often a couple of Class 800s in the platform roads further away from the entrance for a while, although whether they stay there overnight or are waiting to go somewhere else, I don't know.
That’s very common during a normal summer and occasionally at other times of the year on the Middle siding line (between the Up Through line and the platform 5/6 line. The locos (steam and/or diesel) detach and go to Bristol Barton Hill depot overnight or all week if the special only runs at the weekend.
As well as the Motorail/platform 2, the fish dock line (which is next to the Motorail/platform 2 line) at Bristol Temple Meads is sometimes used. Also sometimes the High Level (D.M.U.) siding (next to platform 1) is used. Not necessarily planned or regularly, but occasionally platform 1, platform 13 or one of the other platforms ends up with a train left for hours during the night (but maybe not all night).
