Glasgow Shields Road TMD
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Glasgow Shields Road ETD is a
railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
electric traction depot in
Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
,
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
. The depot is located on the south side of the Glasgow Central to Paisley lines, adjacent to Shields Junction and close to the site of the former station. The depot's code is 'GW'.


History

The depot was opened in May 1967 by the Minister of Transport, the Rt. Hon. Barbara Castle MP. Initially, its purpose was to maintain the Class 303 and Class 311 rolling stock, which operated on the electrified services from Glasgow Central High Level to Gourock,
Wemyss Bay Wemyss Bay (; ) is a town on the coast of the Firth of Clyde in Inverclyde in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It is in the traditional county of Renfrewshire. It is adjacent to Skelmorlie, North Ayrshire. The town and villages have always ...
,
Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...
via Rutherglen and also the
Cathcart Circle The Cathcart Circle Lines form a mostly suburban railway route linking Glasgow (Central) to Cathcart via a circular line, with branches to Newton and Neilston, on the south bank of the River Clyde. They are part of the Strathclyde Partnership ...
and
Kirkhill Kirkhill or Kirkhills may refer to a number of places. In Canada: * Kirkhill, Nova Scotia * Kirkhill, Ontario, an area of North Glengarry In Northern Ireland: * Kirkhills, a townland in County Antrim In Scotland: *Kirkhill industrial estate, near ...
branches. Electrification up until this point had been confined to Cathcart Circle and Newton/Neilston branches (May 1962) and the North Suburban lines (1960), with sets being maintained at
Hyndland Hyndland is a residential area in the West End of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. Description Bordering Broomhill, Dowanhill, Kelvinside and Partickhill, it is an upper-middle-class neighbourhood populated mainly by professionals (many emplo ...
depot which opened in 1959. In 1974, with the extension of the West Coast Main Line electrification to Glasgow Central, AC
electric locomotives An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or gas t ...
would now be running the entire route from London Euston to Glasgow Central. The decision was made to maintain the locos at Shields, while the coaching stock was maintained at nearby
Polmadie depot Polmadie Traction and Rolling Stock Maintenance Depot (T&RSMD), also known as Polmadie Depot, Polmadie Traction Depot and Polmadie Carriage Maintenance Depot (Glasgow) is a railway maintenance depot on the West Coast Main Line in the Polmadie ...
. The original allocated locomotives were the Class 81 fleet. Visiting classes ranged from Classes 85, 86 and 87 locos, ultimately seeing the Class 90 introduced in the late 1980s. In its original guise, the depot was capable of handling 8 × 3-car sets in four roads undercover. It had seven stabling roads. Within the depot itself, Matterson lifting jacks were used to allow the changing of wheelsets and traction motors; a wallcrane aided the removal of pantographs and other associated roof equipment from the fleet. The depot also had an underfloor wheel profiling machine, located in a separate shed in No. 7 road. The depot was also the original home of the electrification maintenance train and the maintenance staff prior to moving to the purpose built
Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...
facility at Cowlairs. In 1978, the depot saw its first expansion as
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 rai ...
decided to base the Class 370 Advanced Passenger Train at the depot. Part of the expansion saw the extension of the maintenance shed by fully three coach lengths to allow for the additional passenger rakes into which the APT was formed. Additional equipment was installed including a 15 tonne overhead crane, a purpose built wheel drop pit for removing the axles on the articulated bogies of the APT. In 1985, the decision was made to scrap the APT and BR announced a consolidation of its EMU maintenance in Scotland; this led to the closure of Hyndland depot in 1987 as a maintenance facility. Furthermore, a purpose built facility was opened at Yoker, allowing the closure of Bridgeton as a stabling point. This meant that the depot at Shields was now responsible for all EMU maintenance in the Glasgow area. All fleets were maintained by the expanded staff who had transferred. The Class 314 and Class 303 EMUs were transferred from the north of the city to the depot by means of a connecting line just west of Rutherglen station. Around 1990, a further development saw the transfer of the electric locomotive fleet to Polmadie. This left Shields with a 'captive' fleet to maintain. By now, this fleet had been enhanced by the introduction of the Class 318 EMUs for the newly electrified Ayrshire lines and by the Class 320 fleet for the North Clyde services. Both of which were commissioned out of the depot. As the life expectancy of the Class 303 fleet diminished, a fleet of Class 334 Juniper EMUs were commissioned again by Shields and fully introduced in 2002. The depot also maintained the
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Class 325 dual voltage EMUs, in partnership with
Selhurst depot Selhurst is an area in the London Borough of Croydon south-south-east of Charing Cross. Historically it lay in Surrey. The area is bounded to the west and south by Thornton Heath and Croydon and to the east and south by South Norwood and Woodsi ...
in London, prior to their being mothballed in 1999. Following an announcement by Transport Scotland of the order of a new fleet of Class 380 EMUs, a £24m expansion of the depot got underway. This included a dedicated 3-road maintenance shed to the east of the existing building; this was for the exclusive use of the new sets. Also housed within the building were new office accommodation and stores. As part of the expansion, a new state of the art wheel lathe was also installed enabling faster re-profiling of rolling stock wheelsets.


Allocation

The allocation comprises the following ScotRail stock: * Class 318 EMUs (21 sets, since 1986) * Class 320 EMUs (22 sets, since 1990) * Class 334 EMUs (40 sets, since 2000) * Class 380 EMUs (38 sets, since 2010) *
Class 385 The British Rail Class 385 ''AT200'' is a type of electric multiple unit built by Hitachi Rail for Abellio ScotRail. A total of 70 units have been built, divided into 46 three-car and 24 four-car sets. Based on the design of the Hitachi A-train, ...
EMUs (70 sets, since 2020) The depot was formerly home to: * Class 81 electric locomotives (1975-1990) * Class 303 EMUs (1975-2002) * Class 305 EMUs (1991-2001) * Class 311 EMUs (1975-1993) * Class 314 EMUs (1987-2019) * Class 322 EMUs (2001-2011) * Class 325 EMUs (1996-1999) * Class 370 Advanced Passenger Train-Prototype (1981-1985)


References

* Baker, S.K. ''Rail Atlas Great Britain & Ireland''. {{ISBN, 0-86093-553-1. Transport in Glasgow Rail transport in Scotland Railway depots in Scotland