Knottingley TMD was a

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 ...

located in

Knottingley Knottingley is a market town in the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England on the River Aire and the old A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road before it was bypassed as the A1(M). Historic counties of England, Historically part of the West Ridi ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, England. The depot was situated on the Pontefract Line and was near Knottingley station. It opened in 1967 to maintain the locomotives and hopper wagons for a planned 75

Merry-go-round train A merry-go-round train, often abbreviated to MGR, is a block train of hopper wagons which both loads and unloads its cargo while moving. In the United Kingdom, they are most commonly coal trains delivering to power stations. These trains were ...

s a day, expected to use the Wakefield and Goole line.

History

In 1976, Class 03, 04, 08 shunters and Class 47 locomotives could be seen at the depot. During the late 1970s, 1980s and 1990s the depot was home to Class 56 and from the mid eighties, Class 58 locomotives. When the depot opened in July 1967, it was given the depot code of 56A, which had previously been a code used in Wakefield for a shed that had closed in June 1967. Later that year, it was renumbered to 55G, however since 1973 when the TOPS system was introduced, the depot code has been ''KY''. At the time that the TOPS system was being rolled out, Knottingley was using a separate computer system called ''Airepower'' which allocated the 13 locomotives and 45 traincrew needed to run all the coal trains every week.

Allocation

In 1980, the depot received Class 56s, which were to become a staple locomotive on coal traffic in the area until the Class 66 locomotives appeared in 1998. In 2016, the depot's allocation consisted of DB Cargo UK Class 60 and 66 locomotives.

Later years

Of the three power stations the depot was built to serve,

Ferrybridge Ferrybridge is a village in West Yorkshire, England. Ferrybridge lies at a historically important crossing of the River Aire which borders the North Yorkshire village of Brotherton. It is linked to other communities by the A1, which follows t ...

was closed on 31 March 2016, while

Eggborough Eggborough is a village and civil parish, in the Selby District of North Yorkshire, England, close to the county borders with South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and the East Riding effectively making it the meeting point for all sides of Yorkshire ...

was officially decommissioned in February 2018. However, the depot remained busy with gypsum and biomass traffic, particularly for the remaining Power Station at Drax, with workings from the Humber ports at

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...

and

Immingham Immingham is a town, civil parish and ward in the North East Lincolnshire unitary authority of England. It is situated on the south-west bank of the Humber Estuary, and is north-west from Grimsby. The region was relatively unpopulated and un ...

. The depot was closed on 14 March 2020 after the decline in railway hauled power station traffic. In early 2021, the office complex at the depot, which was built in the 1990s, was demolished. The sidings were being used at the same time by

Riviera Trains Riviera Trains Limited is a railway spot-hire company based at Burton-on-Trent and Eastleigh in England. History Riviera Trains was founded in 1995, initially based at Cranmore on the East Somerset Railway. It later relocated to Crewe and E ...

to refit

Mark 1 Mark 1 is the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. Text The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 45 verses. Textual witnesses Some early manuscripts containi ...

and

Mark 2 Mark 2 is the second chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. In this chapter, the first arguments between Jesus and other Jewish religious teachers appear. Jesus heals a paralyzed man and forgives his sins, m ...

railway coaches.

References

{{Reflist Railway depots in Yorkshire Rail transport in West Yorkshire Knottingley