Stratford 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
Stratford,
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, England close to the
Great Eastern Main Line
The Great Eastern Main Line (GEML, sometimes referred to as the East Anglia Main Line) is a major railway line on the British railway system which connects Liverpool Street station in central London with destinations in east London and the ...
. It was located just west of
Stratford station
Stratford is a major multi-level railway station which rates as the 5th busiest station in Britain, serving the district of Stratford and the mixed-use development known as Stratford City, in the London Borough of Newham, east London. It is ...
, on a site now occupied by
Stratford International station
Stratford International is a National Rail station in Stratford and a separate Docklands Light Railway (DLR) station nearby, located in East Village in London. Despite its name, no international services stop at the station; plans for it t ...
. The depot was at one time the biggest on the
London and North Eastern Railway
The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...
with locomotives covering duties from express services to freight workings in London's docks.
Locomotive construction took place at the adjacent
Stratford Works and Stratford TMD was initially located on this site in the V between the Lea Bridge and
Great Eastern Main Line
The Great Eastern Main Line (GEML, sometimes referred to as the East Anglia Main Line) is a major railway line on the British railway system which connects Liverpool Street station in central London with destinations in east London and the ...
s. In 1871 the depot moved to the 'teardrop' of lines to the west of the present Stratford Regional station. The depot closed in 2001, as part of the construction of the
Channel Tunnel Rail Link
High Speed 1 (HS1), legally the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), is a high-speed railway linking London with the Channel Tunnel.
It is part of a line carrying international passenger traffic between the United Kingdom and mainland Europe; ...
.
History
Opening and early years
Stratford Depot was built by the
Northern and Eastern Railway
The Northern & Eastern Railway (N&ER) was an early British railway company, that planned to build a line from London to York. Its ambition was cut successively back, and it was only constructed from Stratford, east of London, to the towns of Bi ...
whose line from Stratford to
Broxbourne
Broxbourne is a town and former civil parish, now in the unparished area of Hoddesdon, in the Broxbourne district, in Hertfordshire, England, north of London, with a population of 15,303 at the 2011 Census.Broxbourne Town population 2011 I ...
opened in 1840. By 1843, the main building was a 16 road roundhouse which eventually became known as the Polygon, with outbuildings including workshops, a blacksmith and saw pits all contained within the shed complex. On 19 February 1846 additional accommodation was authorised, which resulted in completion of the Erecting Shop the following year. It was in 1847 that the Eastern Counties Railway works in Romford were shut and moved to this site. From this time, the accommodation grew by accretion so that by 1867 the carriage department - later
Stratford Works - was using a building 370 ft by 80 ft (113m by 24m) attached to the north side of the Polygon.
The development of Stratford Depot and Stratford Works are intertwined and as the site developed new sections of the works were opened away from the original shared site that lay between the
Great Eastern Main Line
The Great Eastern Main Line (GEML, sometimes referred to as the East Anglia Main Line) is a major railway line on the British railway system which connects Liverpool Street station in central London with destinations in east London and the ...
and the Lea Valley line.
Great Eastern
The
Great Eastern Railway
The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern Ra ...
was formed in 1862 by the amalgamation of several East Anglian Railways.
In the 1860s moves were made to increase the locomotive accommodation with a new shed for forty locos proposed. The cost of the most desirable land and perceived difficulties with alternative sites led to delays, so that it was not until 1871 that land to the west of the existing shed was made available and erection of the new building commenced. During construction the Engineer reported on 30 August 1871 that "during a gale on 24th instant both the gable ends blew down", and the "New Shed" opened later that year, retaining its epithet throughout its life.
In 1877 the Jubilee shed (named after
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...
's jubilee was opened. This was a straight-through shed (engines could enter and leave from either end) and with capacity for 130 engines.
In 1917 during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
the site was bombed by a
Zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...
and one driver was killed and two others injured. Three engines were also damaged by other bombs.
L P Parker
In 1920 locomotive superintendent LP Parker wrote about the depot.. Some of the key facts are reproduced below:
There were 550 locomotives allocated to Stratford of which 110 were allocated to sub-sheds (see below). The main line services were dealt with B12 4-6-0 and D15 4-4-0's. Main line freight was in the hands of the J15 class and local freight in and around East London was in the hands of 0-6-0Ts belonging to classes J67, J68 and J69. One of these engines is preserved as part of the national collection at York. Stratford was responsible for all the suburban services working out of
Liverpool Street station and these were in the hands of 2-4-2Ts (F5, F6 etc.) and.
the N7 0-6-2Ts.
There was a 70-foot turntable installed a few years before Parker's article and part of a re-modelling scheme improving access to the depot. There was also a 65-foot turntable and both were electrically powered.
The locomotive coaling plant was one of the biggest in the country and had opened in 1915. Up to that point all coaling had been done by hand with 36 men being employed on each shift. It is possible that with the demand on men in the war that women may have been employed in this role as they certainly were in some other depots. The provision of the new coaling plant that could see an engine coaled in seconds, was the solution to congestion in the area caused by the long wait for coal.
There were also oil storage tanks on the site as at this time some 30 Great Eastern locomotives were oil fired.
Parker reported some 330 repair staff (115 of which were skilled mechanics) but it is likely that some of these were technically on the works payroll.
A breakdown train was also located at Stratford and its staff lived in nearby company owned flats. A bell from the shed telegraph office was connected to the flats and according to Parker the train could be on its way to an accident site within 30 minutes.
At this time Stratford was responsible for supplying the royal train locomotives that operated between London
Kings Cross to
Sandringham. The depot usually supplied an immaculately turned out D15 Claud Hamilton 4-4-0 class and at the time of Parker's article Stratford engine fitter Day had been accompanying the royal train for twenty years.
Also on site was an enginemen's dormitory which saw a throughput of some 350 drivers a week mostly from March and Peterborough depots. This facility consisted of 50 cubicles as well as showers, a kitchen and other amenities.
Allocation 1922
At the end of 1922 (the last year of the
Great Eastern Railway
The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern Ra ...
) the shed at Stratford had an allocation of 555 locomotives and was the biggest shed on the Great Eastern system. The allocation consisted of:
All locomotives were built by the
Great Eastern Railway
The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern Ra ...
.
The extensive suburban services were handled largely by the various F class 2-4-2T locomotives but note the twelve N7 0-6-2T locomotives that were to replace them on these duties from the 1920s onwards although as can be seen below a fair number were still allocated to Stratford in February 1949.
London North Eastern years
The
London and North Eastern Railway
The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...
came into existence in 1923.
There were two turntables on the site at this time and in 1924 the one nearest the depot entrance was enlarged to 70 feet to take the largest locomotives.
By this time, the New Shed (270 feet x 100 feet) was where most repairs were undertaken due to the fact that ventilation was so poor. The shed had 6 roads at this time. The 12-car Jubilee Shed (270 feet x 160 feet) was the running shed but by some accounts this was a difficult place to work as well.
In 1929 an automatic boiler wash was supplied to increase turn round time of locomotives in what was otherwise a time-consuming task.
Whilst Great Eastern types provided the majority of the types allocated to Stratford shed, newer LNE types and engines from other LNER constituent companies were allocated there. These included:
* B1 4-6-0
* B17 4-6-0
* K1 2-6-0
* L1 2-6-4T
* J19 0-6-0
* J39 0-6-0
The water supply at Stratford had been a source of concern and this was partially alleviated by the opening of a water softening plant in 1938. The sludge was removed in old engine tenders.
In 1940 the turntable near the entrance of the depot was upgraded from being hand worked to vacuum worked and was further upgraded to be electrically worked in 1946. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
both the depot and works complex was hit a number of times during the
London Blitz
The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'.
The Germa ...
.
During the Second World War a number of US Army Class S160 (
USATC S160 Class
The United States Army Transportation Corps S160 Class is a class of 2-8-0, 2-8-0 Consolidation steam locomotive, designed for heavy freight work in Europe during World War II. A total of 2,120 were built and they worked on railroads across much ...
) 2-8-0s were allocated to the shed during 1943 and 1944 in the run up to the invasion of Europe.
BR Years
In 1948 Stratford depot became the responsibility of
British Railways
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British ...
following nationalisation.
In the early years of
British Rail
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four (British ra ...
Stratford shed was host to visiting
Southern Railway Battle of Britain class 4-6-2 locomotives before the introduction of the
Britannia class. In the early 1950s. the opening of the
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
factory in
Dagenham
Dagenham () is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Dagenham is centred east of Charing Cross.
It was historically a rural parish in the Becontree Hundred of Essex, stretching from Hainault Fore ...
saw the depot finding it difficult to attract labour - a problem that continued throughout the fifties and, despite dieselisation, into the 1960s.
In February 1948 the locomotive allocation totalling 414 locomotives was as follows:
KEY: GER - Great Eastern Railway, GNR - Great Northern, LNER - London North Eastern Railway NER - North Eastern Railway
As a result of war damage and general wear and tear, the mechanical coaler was starting to become uneconomic. A replacement was mooted in 1955 but never built and the monstrous edifice of the old coaler lasted until the end of steam and was demolished in 1963.
1959 allocation
Although modernisation started in 1955, by December 1959 there were still a considerable amount of steam locomotives allocated to Stratford:
KEY: GER - Great Eastern Railway, GNR - Great Northern, LNER - London North Eastern Railway NER - North Eastern Railway LMS - London Midland Scottish BR - British Railways
In December 1959 the diesel allocation at Stratford consisted of 96 locomotives of 11 different classes:
By January 1963 Stratford's allocation of steam locomotives was down to a single member of Class B1 no 61144
The class 01 and 04 locomotives were all shunting engines and were replaced by the Class 03 locomotives during the 1960s. the Class 10 and 11 shunters were replaced by further Class 08 locomotives. The Class 15 and 16 engines were generally employed on local freight workings but as traffic to London Docks disappeared, these locomotives were deemed surplus and withdrawn. The Class 21 locomotives were notoriously unreliable and were dispatched back to Scotland (they had been built by the
North British Railway Company
The North British Railway was a British railway company, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1844, with the intention of linking with English railways at Berwick. The line opened in 1846, and from the outset the company follow ...
in Glasgow) after an ignominious start to their career. The Class 24 and Class 31s were employed on mixed traffic (i.e. both freight and passenger workings) and the former were re-allocated to the London Midland region. Further Class 31s were allocated to Stratford during the 1960s.
After the withdrawal of the Class 15 locomotives, three
British Rail Class 20
The British Rail Class 20, otherwise known as an English Electric Type 1, is a class of diesel-electric locomotive. In total, 228 locomotives in the class were built by English Electric between 1957 and 1968, the large number being in part be ...
were allocated to Stratford for station pilot duties at
Liverpool Street station. These were later replaced by Class 08 locomotives but the tradition of a clean smart engine was maintained until the end of station pilot duties in the 1980s.
The Class 40 locomotives were delivered brand new to Stratford and allocated to main line express duties. These were replaced in the 1960s by Class 37s which in turn were replaced by Class 47s with the Class 37s being used in more of a freight role. In 1977 two Stratford Class 47s were turned out with silver roofs and Union Jack decorations to celebrate the silver jubilee of Queen Elizabeth the second. This move was in the face of strict British Rail guidelines but proved so popular that soon other locomotives were adorned with silver roofs.
In the 1980s Stratford locomotives were also recognisable by a Cockney Sparrow symbol.
The Class 47s were displaced by the electrification of the main lines to Cambridge and Norwich in the mid 1980s, when Class 86 locomotives allocated to Norwich Crown Point took over operation of express services on the Great Eastern Main Line. The Cambridge line was served by
Electric Multiple Units.
In the late 1980s a number of withdrawn British Rail Class 33 locomotives were stored at the depot.
The following diesel classes were allocated to Stratford engine shed.
*
British Rail Class 01
The British Rail Class 01 diesel locomotive is a short wheelbase 0-4-0 diesel-mechanical design intended for use in areas with tight curves and limited clearance.
History
Four examples were built by Andrew Barclay Sons & Co. of Kilmarnock (Sc ...
*
British Rail Class 03
The British Rail Class 03 locomotive was, together with the similar Class 04, one of British Railways' most successful 0-6-0 diesel-mechanical shunters. 230 were built at Doncaster and Swindon works between 1957 and 1962, and were numbered D2 ...
*
British Rail Class 04
The British Rail Class 04 is a 0-6-0 diesel-mechanical shunting locomotive class, built between 1952 and 1962 and was the basis for the later Class 03 built in the British Railways workshops.
History
The prototype locomotive was built in 194 ...
*
British Rail Class 05
*
British Rail Class 08
The British Rail Class 08 is a class of diesel-electric shunting locomotive built by British Railways (BR). As the standard BR general-purpose diesel shunter, the class became a familiar sight at major stations and freight yards. Since their i ...
*
British Rail Class 10
*
British Rail Class 11
The British Rail Class 11 was applied to a batch of diesel shunting locomotives built from April 1945 to December 1952, based on a similar earlier batch built by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) between 1934 and 1936.
Overview ...
*
British Rail Class 15
The British Rail Class 15 diesel locomotives, also known as the BTH Type 1, were designed by British Thomson-Houston, and built by the Yorkshire Engine Company and the Clayton Equipment Company, between 1957 and 1961. They were numbered D8200-D ...
*
British Rail Class 16
The British Rail Class 16 also known as the North British Type 1 was a type of diesel locomotive designed and manufactured by the North British Locomotive Company. A total of ten were produced, these being numbered D8400-D8409.
The type was or ...
*
British Rail Class 20
The British Rail Class 20, otherwise known as an English Electric Type 1, is a class of diesel-electric locomotive. In total, 228 locomotives in the class were built by English Electric between 1957 and 1968, the large number being in part be ...
*
British Rail Class 21
*
British Rail Class 24
*
British Rail Class 31
The British Rail Class 31 diesel locomotives, also known as the Brush Type 2 and previously as Class 30, were built by Brush Traction from 1957-62. They were numbered in two series, D5500-D5699 and D5800-D5862. Construction of the first locomot ...
*
British Rail Class 37
The British Rail Class 37 is a diesel-electric locomotive. Also known as the English Electric Type 3, the class was ordered as part of the British Rail modernisation plan. They were numbered in two series, D6600–D6608 and D6700–D6999.
Th ...
*
British Rail Class 40
The British Rail Class 40 is a type of British railway diesel electric locomotive. A total of 200 were built by English Electric between 1958 and 1962. They were numbered D200-D399. They were, for a time, the pride of British Rail's early dies ...
*
British Rail Class 47
The British Rail Class 47 or Brush Type 4 is a class of diesel-electric locomotive that was developed in the 1960s by Brush Traction. A total of 512 Class 47s were built at Brush's Falcon Works in Loughborough and at British Railways' Crewe Wo ...
Rail Privatisation
The privatisation of the railways in April 1994 saw Stratford depot taken over by
English Welsh & Scottish.
Closure
The depot was closed in 2001 with the site being used for the construction of the new international station on
High Speed One. A new diesel depot was opened at nearby
Temple Mills
Temple Mills is a district located on the boundary of the London boroughs of Newham and Waltham Forest, with a small part also in Hackney in east London.
Temple Mills was home to a marshalling yard and wagon works belonging to the Great Eastern ...
but this only lasted a few years as changes to the freight market saw the depot closed. It was demolished and replaced by Orient Way Carriage Sidings (themselves the replacement for Thornton Fields Carriage sidings which has been developed as part of the 2012 Olympic site). In 1997 the final allocation was:
In 2004 preserved locomotive 31271 was named Stratford Depot 1840 - 2001 and is based at the Midland Railway Trust, Butterley.
Operations
Stratford had a number of sub-sheds including in 1959, Walthamstow Wood Street, Enfield Town, Chelmsford, Epping, Ilford and Brentwood.
Routes worked
The following routes were worked by Stratford men. These may have varied from year to year and are not specific to any one era.
Main Lines
*London to Norwich on the
Great Eastern Main Line
The Great Eastern Main Line (GEML, sometimes referred to as the East Anglia Main Line) is a major railway line on the British railway system which connects Liverpool Street station in central London with destinations in east London and the ...
*London to Harwich
*London to Cambridge
*
Sunshine Coast Line
The Sunshine Coast Line is the current marketing name of what originally was the Tendring Hundred Railway Line, a branch off the Great Eastern Main Line in the East of England. It links to the seaside resorts of and, via a branch, . The line ...
Branch Lines and secondary routes
*
Chingford Branch Line
The Chingford branch line is a railway line between Clapton Junction (just northeast of Clapton station) and Chingford station. Services operate between Liverpool Street station and Chingford.See West Anglia Main Line for more information abou ...
*
Lea Valley Lines
The Lea Valley lines are two commuter lines and two branches in north-east London, so named because they run along the Lower Lea Valley of the River Lea. They were part of the Great Eastern Railway, now part of the ''Anglia Route'' of Network ...
including the branches to Enfield Town, Hertford East, Palace Gates and the
Southbury Loop.
*Inner suburban trains to Ilford, Romford and Shenfield
*
Southend Victoria
Southend Victoria railway station is the eastern terminus of the Shenfield to Southend Line in the East of England, a branch off the Great Eastern Main Line, and is one of the primary stations serving the resort city of Southend-on-Sea, Essex (th ...
*
Braintree Branch Line
The Braintree branch line is a railway branch line in the East of England that diverges from the Great Eastern Main Line at and runs north-west to . The route is in length and there are five stations, including the two termini. The line is p ...
*
Witham-Maldon branch line
Shunt turns
A shunt turn is where a shunting locomotive is allocated to shunting a yard or set of sidings. Some shunt turns required 'trip' working between yards or sidings. As well as covering the numerous goods yards throughout East London other shunting turns included Liverpool Street station pilots, Thornton Fields Carriage Sidings, Temple Mills yard, Stratford Locomotive Works, Temple Mills Wagon works and London docks.
Stratford Works
Stratford men worked running in turns for locomotives returned to traffic (or indeed new) at the adjacent locomotive works. In the 1920s tender engines worked to Broxbourne and tank engines to Enfield Town. In the 1950s coaching stock trains were worked to Spelbrook on the main line to Cambridge.
The site today
The site today is occupied by
Stratford International
Stratford International is a National Rail station in Stratford and a separate Docklands Light Railway (DLR) station nearby, located in East Village in London. Despite its name, no international services stop at the station; plans for it to ...
station and a shopping centre called
Westfield Stratford City
Westfield Stratford City is a shopping centre in Stratford, east London, which opened on 13 September 2011. With a total retail floor area of , it is the largest urban shopping centre in the UK by land area and the 4th-largest shopping cen ...
. A commemorative plaque was unveiled on the site on 10 July 2012 featuring a 30A shedplate and Stratford cockney sparrow in its design and acknowledging the history of the site. On the day of the unveiling, 200 former Stratford drivers were present at the event and today the position the plaque occupies is the same spot were drivers would sign on for the day.
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
Further reading
*
*{{cite book , title = British Rail Traction Depot Directory , publisher = The Railway Enthusiasts Society Limited , year = 1980 , isbn = 0-907183-02-6
History of rail transport in London
Transport in the London Borough of Newham
Railway depots in London
Stratford, London