Willesden TMD is a railway locomotive and electric multiple unit

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 in

Harlesden Harlesden is a district in the London Borough of Brent, North West London. Located north of the Grand Union Canal and Wormwood Scrubs, the Harrow Road flows through the centre of the area which goes eastwards to Central London and west towards ...

, north London. The depot is situated next to the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

, to the south-east of

Willesden Junction Willesden Junction is a railway station in Harlesden, north-west London, UK. It is served by both London Overground and London Underground services. History The station developed on three contiguous sites: the West Coast Main Line (WCML) st ...

station and on the way into

London Euston Euston railway station ( ; also known as London Euston) is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, managed by Network Rail. It is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line, the UK's busiest inter-city rail ...

station. The depot code is WN.

History

Willesden Locomotive Depot geograph-2090458

The original locomotive servicing facility at

Willesden Willesden () is an area of northwest London, situated 5 miles (8 km) northwest of Charing Cross. It is historically a parish in the county of Middlesex that was incorporated as the Municipal Borough of Willesden in 1933, and has formed ...

was on the south side of the main line, west of the station, which closed in 1965. It was replaced by the present facility.

Shed layout

The current depot was designed in the 1960s to service electric locomotive classes AL1 to AL6 (TOPS classes 81, 82, 83, 84, 85 and 86); subsequently, in the early 1970s, Class 87s were included. It consists of six parallel shed roads, each holding four locomotives inside the shed, and several arrivals and departure sidings externally. There is also a road that runs round to the north of the shed, which provides access to the fuel siding; for many years, this was used only for the occasional fuelling of diesel shunters and also to the DC lines of Willesden Junction Low Level station, which is used to move multiple units from the shed onto the North London Line after servicing. The arrival and departure sidings contain two connections to the West Coast main line onto the up slow line. At the east end of the depot, there is a trailing crossover to permit access onto the down slow line when coming off depot.

Facilities

Willesden Junction station MMB 34 Willesden TMD 313107 172XXX 87002 313XXX 378XXX 378XXX 86101

These include offices, a workshop and reasonably large stores. The workshop contains high quality facilities for pantograph overhaul, tap-changer overhaul and brake equipment test and servicing. In more recent years, especially since the loss of AC electric locomotives, the fuel siding was promoted to other train operators as a facility at Willesden and a means to generate some revenue, this meant for instance that Gospel Oak to Barking Line DMUs did not need to travel to

Bletchley TMD Bletchley TMD is a railway traction maintenance depot situated in Bletchley, Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, to the north east of Bletchley railway station, on a siding off the Marston Vale line. The depot is operated by London Northweste ...

and back each night for 'A' examinations and fuelling which could instead be carried out at Willesden.

Allocation

* Class 09 * Class 378 * Class 710

Previously allocated classes

* Class 82 * Class 83 * Class 86 * Class 87

References