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Wimbledon Depot Visit - 13th June 2009

  
Our host John Denyer explaining some of the finer details
  Our host John Denyer explaining some of the finer details. Irene Rabbitts
Saturday morning on 13 June 2009 saw twelve of us meet opposite the main entrance to Wimbledon depot ready for the visit. Our host John Denyer gave us a brief health and safety talk – especially regarding third rail power - and an introduction to the depot outlining the work carried out there and the units that they are responsible for maintaining. He also gave a brief description of his own long history working on the railway since well before privatisation including his previous time at Wimbledon. After a period elsewhere on the railways, South West Trains (SWT) invited him back and he is now working there as manager. The total number of staff at the depot including cleaners is around 180 and the overall budget is somewhat over £14,000,000 per annum with Wimbledon being one of three SWT depots. It was then time to give out the orange high vis jackets before going on a guided tour of this EMU depot.

After showing the warning indicators on the different lines and the power hook ups for the units which we had been advised about during the safety briefing, John proceeded to provide a wealth of information about the work that they do and progress that has been made over time particularly with regards to the 458s. These units were originally maintained at Wimbledon by Alstom but when the franchise was renewed maintainence moved in house. Since then local innovations and hard work have improved reliability considerably currently achieving 26,000 miles per casualty. These units are now due for bodyside overhaul and repaint. However, as raised by one of the group, there are still problems with the on board toilets! This is partly because of the difficulties in sourcing parts, vandalism and the heavy use that they get, as well as the difficulties with getting them back to empty them – not often enough because of the demand to keep them in traffic, timetabling and suitable facilities where this can be carried out. There are plans to make changes but at the moment they have to do the best they can with what is available while still fitting in with the requirements for availability which is presently 24 out of 30 units Monday to Friday. This includes the units away for bogie overhaul and those awaiting spares which is the main reason why availability is less than for the 455s. It was interesting to see that there is some cooperation between depots and other TOCs over sourcing parts which would have been unheard of immediately after privatisation but appears to work well now.

Time to have a look underneath - after donning hard hats of course
  
Time to have a look underneath - after donning hard hats of course. Andy Davies  
  
Replacing the shoe gear on a Class 455
  Replacing the shoe gear on a Class 455 . Irene Rabbitts

Also serviced and maintained here are the 455s. These were refurbished in 2004 and do approximately 660,000 miles every four weeks. The requirement is to have 86 out of the 91 units in service although there have been some issues with reliability. Having said that, this has improved over time due to subsequent modifications. These units are used exclusively for suburban services and there are, sadly, issues with rubbish and vandalism from the travelling public to be dealt with as well as normal day to day maintenance and regular servicing which has changed from every 4,000 miles to every 10,000 due to the improvements made. The bodyside paint is also better and it is now more resilient which, together with added security, has helped against vandalism and graffiti.

Lifting tackle in the lifting shop with 455 847 in the background
  
Lifting tackle in the lifting shop with 455 847 in the background . Andy Davies  
We were shown some of the more interesting engineering aspects including walking down into the pit after donning hard hats, and the experimental ten-car 455 combination comprised of 5708 (3 cars), 5715 (3 cars), 5737 (4 cars). This will bring its own problems as the depot is not really designed to cope with 10 car units. However, judging by the way they have found solutions to other difficulties, I am sure that they will work out how to accommodate them if the experiment is successful. Another interesting aspect about Wimbledon is that it is one of the few maintenance depots with the possibility of running cars directly from rail onto road vehicles (and vice versa) for transport elsewhere for particular repairs or rebuilding - for example where more extensive work is required after an accident.

Although there are up to 180 staff at any one time and the depot was busy, it was very peaceful with everyone getting on with their particular tasks and overall an air of quiet efficiency in evidence. John is an excellent host and we had a very interesting and informative visit and all too soon it was time to go.

05/10/09