EddieK

Depot operation - night shift:

On a typical night, we would receive eight  trains of Inter City stock. In theory, every inbound train would be allocated to a particular morning departure, thereby keeping the sets in their cycle of daily diagrams. 

(If I am losing you with jargon, please shout...)

But - occasionally we would have to swap which set did what on the morning departures. Reasons for this could be to put a particular set on the "out and back diagram" to return it to Wenbley the next night so that we could stop it for maintenance at that time, or perhaps a last minute change like the night that we had a major fault on the Super Pullman set and could not let it run; we stepped up a normal Pullman to cover the service, sent a non Pullman set to cover the normal Pullman and ended up with no train to cover the last ECS off depot into Euston. We did cover the last ECS because we had (from memory) WB10 set in the yard that had just come back from Wolverton Works. OK, so it was in three pieces, but the yard staff put it together, put it in No 4 road in the old shed and the entire night shift maintenance staff swarmed all over it to sign it off for service. Fortunately it was relatively clean, and so we were good to go...

When we were putting the fixed sets together, it was sometimes the case that we put the right vehicle into WB12, which gave us a vehicle for WB15, but WB15 was not coming to us until the next night. So, the vehicle could go in WB13 that we did have, and put WB13 on the out and back so that it met WB15. Hope you see what I mean.....

When we had all of these vehicle swaps, we planned what shunts to do before each train arrived, but then matters settled down.

Sometimes we would plan shunts to put a repaired vehicle back into a set, and often we would take a set out of traffic for maintenance and thereby put a freshly maintained set back in its place.

Also, on the night shift we would typically bring two sets in for brake pad exam/renewal. This was best done in the new shed (5 or 6 road) or equally we might have to renew an air conditioning module, which was preferred in 5 road (as one side of 6 road didn't have the space to pull the module out...). 

At the start of each night shift, I would confer with the Control office at Crewe and agree what arriving set would go out again on what departure in the morning. This would be passed on to Loopy Ken, who worked for ICOBS and used to lay out the place settings for the Pullman trains at the depot, ready for when they got to Euston the next morning.

As part of this, I would also work out which sets were due in the maintenance shed that night, also any shunts necessary. I would share the plan with the supervisors in charge of maintenance, cleaning and yard operations. 

Normally, the ECS from Euston would travel via the down slow line to Harlesden station area, then divert to the Down Carriage Line. This would take them to Carriage Shed South Box, just before the North Circular Road. Note that the Down Carriage Line was to the *right* of the Up Carriage Line in direction of travel. There was a signal alongside the cleaning shed that was controlled by the North Signal Box. The line in rear of this signal was worked permissively, so the first train to arrive would sit at this signal, the second one would pull up just behind it, and so on. Trains in the queue would have a visit from the "Heavy Rubbish" cleaners who would walk through with bin bags and collect sandwich wrappers, coffee cups, newspapers and so on. The cleaning supervisor would be aware of where each train was destined, and he would arrange for the depot protection to be released on that road in the cleaning shed or for the maintenance supervisor to do likewise in the maintenance shed. He would tell the North Box where the train was going, and thus the train would pull forward, through the wash once the signal was cleared, almost as far as Wembley Central station. From here, the shunter would supervise the setting back move into the shed (or occasionally the yard). Once the train was in position, the loco would be uncoupled and then go back to the North Box, and then from there be parked in the yard or go away to Willesden TMD. Depot protection would be applied and cleaning and/or maintenance would take place. Once complete, the depot protection would be released and either: -

1. The stock would be hauled out of the south end by the 08 shunting loco to the South Box, on the Up Carriage Line. From there , it would be propelled into the yard sidings.

2. The stock would wait the electric loco to arrive so as to haul it to Euston.

Exceptions to this might be if a late arrival was due to leave early or if a lengthy repair was necessary (or if we had to do a load of shunting) then the arriving train could escape the queue and run "wrong road" from the Down Carriage Line into the shed or the yard.

When we were running push-pull the driver would change ends at (almost) Wembley Central; there was a platform provided in the headshunt, so the driver could walk from the loco to the end carriage, and then walk through inside the train to get to the DVT cab. From here he could drive into the shed. Sometimes the loco stayed attached, sometimes the loco would be removed and taken to the North end of 5 or 6 road (new shed) for Wembley staff to carry out an A exam. Or it would uncouple and go to Willesden TMD.

Saturday nights could be interesting as there were than many trains in the yard there was not a vacant road anywhere. If the loco on the north end of a push pull train didn't want to play, there was no way to run it round to the front of the train....

At the end of the night shift, we would plan what would be coming into the maintenance shed - perhaps WBxx set stopped for maintenance, plus a rake of miscellaneous defective vehicles for repair. Also we would plan any odd swaps on the sleeper trains coming in that morning.

Depot operation - day shift

What I didn't mention above was the Works Train which left Wembley in the morning. By the time I started, this was a Wembley to Doncaster working that could call at Wolverton, Oxley (or go via Trent Valley), Crewe and Derby. 

In the days of odd vehicles being overhauled, this would take them to Wolverton or Derby Works, also bring them home again on the return working. This also applied when sending a complete train set to works. There was a Works Train Control office and we would speak often. They might want WBxx set to go to Wolverton, and we might want to turn sleeping car 106xx to fave the correct way. 

Another train that we ran as required was the DVT test train. With the new push-pull TDM system coming on stream, we needed to modify or test the loco TDM systems, also commission the TDM on the DVTs. We kept a rake of surplus Mark 3 sleepers in a siding at the south end of the shed. If the technical people wanted to test a loco or DVT, they would arrange it and the train would head off to Crewe and back. Off the record, it was also a way to nip off to Crewe to visit the pub...

Above, I have already described the sleeper train services and trains. When the trains came in from Euston in the morning, again they would arrive via the Down Carriage Line. When they approached the depot, they would wait there for the CET tanks to be emptied. They couldn't do all the vehicles at once, so it was a case of do some, then pull the train down and do some more. As on the night shift, once the train was ready to come into the shed, it would have the signal cleared by the North Box, proceed through the wash towards Wembley Central then set back into the shed. Loco would uncouple and be parked somewhere. Part of the sleeping car servicing activity involved someone walking through the train to see how many berths were slept in, also determine if and compartments needed conversion from first to second. 

An exception to this method might be to "wrong road" a train into the yard, if we needed to extract a vehicle for maintenance or take one out to be sent for turning round. It was also possible to wrong road a train into shed road number 1; this was the nearest road to the Down Carriage Line and the CET hoses could be used to empty the tanks here. The most popular reason to wrong road a sleeper train into the shed was if the luggage van had been loaded with a pallet of Highland Spring Water bottles in Inverness. Getting it into the shed sooner allowed it to be unloaded sooner and put in the stores.

Once the sleeper trains had been serviced they would either depart as ECS from the cleaning shed or be pulled out and placed in the yard (to make room for another sleeper train in the shed). 

Another part of the Wembley empire was Euston Downside Shed, which looked after the Clansman sets, and a load of parcels and TPO stock. Every day there was an ECS trip scheduled between there and Wembley and vice versa. One use for this might be if there was a special requirement for a Sleeping Car to run additionally on the Holyhead train. 

Obviously at the end of the day, we would start planning for the next night shift.

Hopefully this hs not melted your brain too much, and I hope this is all of use.

If you have any questions, let me know...

Hi Eddie,

All fully understood.

I have located the old or should I say original carriage washer on google . It has stirred some memories as I recall some fellow enthusiasts back in the late 80's when heading to Euston always said, look to the left as you pass through Wembley as you may see the 83's on carriage washing duties. 

I have attached an aerial view and highlighted in yellow what I presume the extent of the stabling siding were. Does this look about right ?

What sort of apparatus was on the concrete walkways between the sidings. I am assuming electric and water supply for cleaners ?

I remember the MK3 Pullman coaches as they used to have a name mid body below the windows.

A big thank you for your replies.

Cheers

80's90's