Hall Road TMD was a railway

traction maintenance depot The motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is the place where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained when not being used. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine shed ...

situated adjacent to

Hall Road railway station Hall Road railway station serves Blundellsands in Merseyside, England. The station is located on the Southport branch of the Merseyrail network's Northern Line. Hall Road TMD was adjacent to the station, but this closed in 1997 and has since been ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The depot was a facility for storage and servicing of

Merseyrail Merseyrail is a commuter rail network serving the Liverpool City Region and adjacent areas of Cheshire and Lancashire. Merseyrail operates 66 railway stations across two lines – the Northern Line and Wirral Line, which are dedicated electri ...

multiple unit A multiple-unit train or simply multiple unit (MU) is a self-propelled train composed of one or more carriages joined together, which when coupled to another multiple unit can be controlled by a single driver, with multiple-unit train contr ...

s and

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can b ...

. It had two shed roads and four additional siding tracks; each road had capacity for three Class 507 or Class 508

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 numbe ...

(EMU) sets (9 carriages). The depot code was HR.

History

The depot was built in 1939 by the

London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally u ...

to provide additional capacity for the new fleet of Class 502 EMUs then being delivered. From 1978 it began to house the new Merseyrail Class 507 and, later, Class 508 units. The Class 507 EMUs were far more regularly seen at the depot until its final years of use when the Class 508s began to be used interchangeably with the

Wirral Line The Wirral line is one of two commuter rail routes operated by Merseyrail and centred on Merseyside, England, the other being the Northern line. The Wirral line connects Liverpool to the Wirral Peninsula via the Mersey Railway Tunnel, with b ...

. A Class 936

departmental train A work train or departmental train (engineering train in the UK) is one or more rail cars intended for internal non-revenue use by the railroad's operator. Work trains serve functions such as track maintenance, maintenance of way, revenue colle ...

, used for

Sandite Sandite is a substance used on railways in the UK, Ireland, US, the Netherlands and Belgium to combat leaves on the line, which can cause train wheels to slip and become damaged with flat spots. Sandite consists of a mixture of sand, antif ...

and de-icing duties, was often stabled in the shed. The depot was taken out of use in 1997; from then on all stock on the

Northern Line The Northern line is a London Underground line that runs from North London to South London. It is printed in black on the Tube map. The Northern line is unique on the Underground network in having two different routes through central London, two ...

was serviced at Kirkdale or Birkenhead North depots. Some of the tracks to the depot and the local signal were removed during summer 2006.

Demolition

A plan had been drawn up by the 502 Group to use Hall Road TMD as a base for their train and for its restoration. However, the building had become unsafe and was demolished in April 2009. Nothing remains of the depot as of 2013.

References

Sources

* * * Railway depots in England Rail transport in Merseyside 1939 establishments in England 1997 disestablishments in England Buildings and structures demolished in 2009 Demolished buildings and structures in England {{England-rail-transport-stub