It was a brilliant day and all the staff enjoyed being part of the day celebrating 111 years of the depot operating and servicing the Great Western Railways fleet of trains.
Old Oak Common Depot Open Day
On Saturday 2 September, OPDC staff and the sunshine were all out in force at the Old Oak Common train depot.
Surrounded by historic steam trains that were tooting and chugging away in the background, the OPDC stand had a constant stream of people coming to chat to us to find out more about the future of Old Oak and Park Royal.
With over 7,000 tickets sold the depot open day was a hive of activity and we spoke to people from all over the country including Newcastle, Somerset, Devon, the Welsh boarders and Lincoln all keen to celebrate the nation’s strong rail history.
Our stand was fortuitously placed where the proposed entrance for the new HS2 station will be, which helped people to visualise the future HS2 station with its location directly in mind. For the main train enthusiasts attending, they were interested to discover that it will be the largest sub-surface station to have ever been built in the UK.
We were delighted that in amongst the thousands of attendees, we spoke to many local residents and employees who were attending the family fun day. Several of those who came and spoke to us, already knew about OPDC and were keen to find out about schools and future opportunities for skills, training and employment.
The early September date, also meant it was the perfect opportunity to encourage more of the local community to have their say in the future of Old Oak and Park Royal with the revised draft
As one of the sponsors for the Old Oak Common Open Day, it was brilliant to be able to support the depot’s chosen charity, Place2Be, with a donation but to also speak residents and employees at a local event.
New Elizabeth Line Depot tour
As part of the day, a number of OPDC staff went on a unique ‘behind the scenes’ tour of the new Elizabeth Line Depot.
The depot is not due to open and begin servicing the new Crossrail trains for another year, so ahead of becoming fully operational members of the public were allowed in to view, learn and take in the spectacular views from the roof.
As part of the tour we learnt how the Elizabeth Line trains will be maintained at the depot, these were the best bits we wanted to share:
- a ‘bogey’ is a set of wheels and undercarriage of a train
- the technology used to service and keep a fleet of trains running is impressive
- cleaning a train is a lot more complicated than you’d expect due to the huge size of the trains, both in height and length (check out the second picture below)
- there is enough cabling in the depot to go around the world 6 (or 12) times - either way, a lot of of cabling!
- the safety of staff working in a depot is of paramount importance and so there are lots of design and safety features, including different colour flooring to highlight danger
- the green credentials for the depot make it the most environmentally sustainable and efficient depot ever built in the UK – as it comprises a hybrid renewable energy scheme with multiple energy sources
And here are several photos from the tour – enjoy:
