Leeds Midland Road depot

Leeds Midland Road depot is a locomotive and rolling stock maintenance facility located in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The site is located a few miles to the south-west of Leeds station on the line between Leeds and Castleford. Owned and operated by Freightliner, it is the heavy maintenance facility for its diesel and electric locomotives and wagon fleet.

Leeds Midland Road
Location
LocationLeeds, West Yorkshire
Coordinates53°46′30.8″N 1°31′40.1″W
OS gridSE312310
Characteristics
Owner(s)Freightliner
Operator(s)Freightliner
Depot code(s)FD[1]
TypeFreight locomotive
Roads9
Rolling stockClass 66
Class 70
Class 90
History
OpenedJuly 2003 (2003-07)

History

Leeds Midland Road depot was opened in 2003 by London & North Western Railway (LNWR) as a maintenance facility to maintain the Freightliner Class 66 fleet under a ten-year contract.[2][3][4][5] and was located on the former Balm Road sidings that had been used to offload quarry products.[6] LNWR were contracted to maintain up to 30 class 66 locomotives that worked in the Yorkshire area at the site, with heavier maintenance being carried out by Electro-Motive.[4] In 2006, Freightliner Maintenance Limited (FML) was formed and assumed control of operations at Leeds.[7] FML is a subsidiary of the Freightliner Group and was instituted when the number of locomotives and wagons the company leased or owned increased with an upsurge in traffic.[8] Besides being a central point for maintaining the class 66 and Class 70 fleets, both classes are based from here and the facility undertakes wagon maintenance.[1]

The site has a total of nine roads;[note 1][9][10] the shed has two covered roads that have pits beneath them to allow access to the underside of wagons and locomotives, whilst the fuelling point also has two roads, but only one of these is covered. Outside of these, there are a further five roads for storage and maintenance.[11] A 25-tonne (28-ton) crane spans roads 3 and 4 to allow for wheelset changes on locomotives and wagons.[11]

As the site is 10 chains (660 ft; 200 m) north of Stourton Freightliner Terminal,[10] locomotives in need of repair (or electric locomotives)[12] are often hauled dead-in-train (DiT) to Stourton and transferred to Midland Road for servicing or repair.[note 2][13][14] Locomotives on routine maintenance find their way to Midland Road by hauling scheduled services. Besides the container trains passing through Stourton to the south, many Heavy Haul trains run past the depot too, which makes switching locomotives easy and cost-effective.[15]

The view from Midland Road south east across Leeds Midland Road Depot showing the 25-tonne (28-ton) crane. The coal wagon nearest the camera has some internal damage awaiting repair.

With the downturn in tonnages of coal moved by railfreight in the United Kingdom,[16] several examples of Class 70 locomotives have been stored on the non-maintenance sidings that border the running lines to the south.[17][18]

In November 2017, Freightliner opened up a new maintenance facility at Crewe Basford Hall that has taken on some of the work previously undertaken at Leeds Midland Road, particularly the electric locomotives as there is no overhead wire access into Midland Road.[10] The heavier maintenance work will still be carried at Leeds though.[19]

The site is under threat from the High Speed 2 (HS2) project into central Leeds. The draft environmental statement for the West Midlands to Leeds arm of the HS2 line states that

The construction of the Proposed Scheme would also require the demolition of buildings and the acquisition of employment land at the Freightliner Maintenance site on Midland Road. This resource is deemed to be sensitive to this particular location as rail connectivity is imperative to the viability of the business and it cannot be easily relocated. This resource draws upon a specific local labour market and therefore provides economic opportunities to those seeking skilled manual employment in the south of Leeds. As such, the resource is considered to be highly sensitive to this displacement. The effect on this resource, and its employees, is assessed to be major adverse and therefore significant.[20]

Notes
  1. Initially, under the 2003 LNWR contract, the site had fewer roads, but more have been added over the years
  2. It is not uncommon for locomotives from Crewe being hauled DiT from Crewe to Southampton (intermodal terminal) and then being hauled DiT from Southampton to Leeds Stourton intermodal terminal to avoid needing a separate path direct between Crewe and Leeds

References
  1. Richardson, Dave (April 2018). "On Shed". Rail Express. No. 263. Horncastle: Mortons Media. p. 25. ISSN 1362-234X.
  2. Freightliner to establish traction depot in Leeds The Railway Magazine issue 1219 November 2002 page 11
  3. LNWR opens Freightliner locoshed at Leeds The Railway Magazine issue 1229 September 2003 page 67
  4. Shannon 2013, p. 105.
  5. Shannon, Paul (2006). Rail freight since 1968 : coal. Great Addington, Kettering: Silver Link. p. 19. ISBN 1-85794-263-9.
  6. Shannon, Paul (2008). Rail freight since 1968 : bulk freight. Great Addington, Kettering: Silver Link. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-85794-299-6.
  7. "Freightliner launches new subsidiary - Logistics Manager". logisticsmanager.com. 5 April 2006. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  8. Shannon 2013, p. 104.
  9. Jacobs, Gerald (2006). Eastern (3 ed.). Bradford on Avon: TRACKmaps. p. 37. ISBN 0-9549866-2-8.
  10. Brailsford, Martyn (2016). Railway Track Diagrams Book 2; Eastern (4 ed.). Frome: TRACKmaps. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-9549866-8-1.
  11. Shannon 2013, p. 106.
  12. Bendall, Simon (December 2017). "News round-up". Rail Express. No. 259. Horncastle: Mortons Media. p. 95. ISSN 1362-234X.
  13. Harris, Nigel, ed. (2 July 2016). "Freightliner to overhaul fleet of class 90s' using component exchange". Rail. No. 804. Peterborough: Bauer Media. p. 34. ISSN 0953-4563.
  14. Bendall, Simon (September 2017). "Reprieve for stored Freightliner class 66s". Rail Express. No. 256. Horncastle: Mortons Media. p. 85. ISSN 1362-234X.
  15. Shannon 2013, p. 108.
  16. Clinnick, Richard (21 June 2017). "Coal's steep decline makes it a tough year for rail freight". Rail. No. 829. Peterborough: Bauer Media. p. 16. ISSN 0953-4563.
  17. Jackson, John (2017). Class 70 Locomotives (1 ed.). Stroud: Amberley Publishing. p. 3. ISBN 978-1-4456-7272-4.
  18. Jones, Ben (March 2018). "Freight Industry Concern at Government Diesel Ban". The Railway Magazine. Vol. 164 no. 1404. Horncastle: Mortons Media. p. 78. ISSN 0033-8923.
  19. Bendall, Simon (January 2017). "New Basford Hall TMD unveiling with remembrance naming". Rail Express. No. 248. Horncastle: Mortons Media. p. 15. ISSN 1362-234X.
  20. "High Speed Rail (Crewe to Manchester and West Midlands to Leeds) Working Draft Environmental Statement Volume 2: Community Area report LA17: Stourton to Hunslet" (PDF). assets.publishing.service.gov.uk. October 2018. p. 162. Retrieved 22 February 2020.

Sources
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