Celebrating Old Oak Common

The Old Oak Common open day on September 2 drew thousands of enthusiasts to celebrate 111 years of the depot. RICHARD CLINNICK presents a pictorial illustrating the movements behind the scenes at the open day

With Old Oak Common depot starting to close from the end of 2017, as the site is cleared in readiness for HS2, Great Western Railway threw the doors open to the public one final time.

Themed on the idea of legends of the Great Western Railway, the train operator sought to celebrate the depot’s contribution from its opening in March 1906 up until its closure next year. The site will maintain a depot presence, with a Crossrail depot built where the famous ‘Factory’ and turntable once was. But the GWR facility will go, to make way for the development of the Old Oak Common interchange for HS2.

Currently GWR uses the depot to maintain its High Speed Train fleet that serves London Paddington, the Class 180 Adelante diesel multiple units (which will go off-lease at the end of the year), and the ‘Night Riviera’ fleet of Class 57/6s and Mk 3s. A handful of Class 08s are also based at the site for shunting.

As the number of HSTs used by GWR reduces through the introduction of the Intercity Express Programme Class 800 fleet, so this work will be left to St Philips Marsh (Bristol), Laira (Plymouth) and Landore (Swansea) depots, while the ‘Night Riviera’ fleet will transfer to an expanded Long Rock depot in Penzance ( RAIL 835).

Staff have already started transferring to Reading, where servicing of the ‘Night Riviera’ will take place during the day, while others have transferred across the Great Western Main Line to Hitachi Rail Europe’s North Pole depot, where the new IEPs will be maintained. Others will follow as the site runs down ahead of full closure next year.

The open day on September 2 featured examples of locomotives and units maintained

by the site over the years. This explained the presence of seven Class 50s, as well as examples of Class 47s and the hydraulics. Other operators made locomotives such as Class 37s and ‘56s’ available, which used to visit the depot.

This selection of images from GWR’s photographer for the event, JACK BOSKETT, shows the shunting required before the event. Once the gates closed at 1600, the site needed clearing again as 17 HSTs were due on site that night. Below: Great Western Railway 57604 Pendennis

Castle was repainted into Brunswick green by LORAM UK at Derby, ahead of the open day. On September 1, depot staff apply the lining to the ex-works ‘57’.

Class 56s were used on the Western Region on heavy freight trains, and in the EWS days they visited the west London depot at Old Oak Common. Colas Railfreight supplied freshly repainted 56049, which has yet to return to traffic since returning from...

A yard full of locomotives on September 1, as exhibits are collected before being put in their positions. On the left is 50017 Royal Oak, while to the right of that 50050 Fearless stands at the head of Colas Railfreight 56049, GB Railfreight 66779...

The present meets the future as Great Western Railway 43185 Great Western leads 43002 Sir Kenneth Grange into position alongside 800003 Queen Elizabeth II/QueenVictoria.

Staff ponder the next shunting moves, as diesel locomotives (including examples of Class 42, ‘47’, ‘50’ and ‘52’) are put into position on September 1.

Great Western Railway 43027 Glorious Devon pokes out from the HST servicing shed at Old Oak Common on September 2. The shed remained in use throughout the day, with HSTs arriving and departing for maintenance and servicing.

Old Oak Common remained an active depot before, during and after the open day. On September 1, 08836 waits its next duty while 08483 Scousey busies itself in the background shunting 47828.