Great Western Coffee Shop

To help me understand the metrics of the possible at future timetable changes, and to help me understand issue currently around, can someone please check / confirm this list.   Service bases bolded (for 14x 15x and 16x units) with stabling and crew start / end points grouped below each service base.    Not looking at HST or IEP depots, though I suppose short HSTs (do we have an official class number for them?) will be based somewhere?

Bristol St Phillip's Marsh
Gloucester
Westbury
Weymouth
Fratton

Reading Traincare Depot
Oxford
Paddington?

Exeter St Davids
Plymouth
Par
Penzance

Reading Traincare Depot.
I think Redhill (Southern drivers) and maybe even Worcester.  Two locations where units are regularly repainted

Don't forget Maidenhead and West Ealing and potentially Didcot

I am not sure about the other sectors but this is the current set up on the West sector.

West units are maintained at St Philips Marsh with an outbase at Exeter St Davids, although the construction of the new depot at Exeter will allow them to undertake work that currently requires units to be sent to Bristol. As well as maintenance, routine servicing and fuelling are undertaken at these locations

Plymouth Laira and Penzance Long Rock depots provide fuelling and minor fuel point repairs to West units.

Cardiff Canton (Arriva Trains Wales) and Fratton (South Western Railway) are used to fuel a number of west units each evening for the first few services.

Other locations that stable units will be cleaning and toilet tank replenishment only, such as Bristol Temple Meads, Gloucester, Weymouth and Westbury.

Other locations can be used for the overnight stabling of units, for example during engineering works. Taunton, Salisbury, Southampton and Eastleigh have all been used in recent times, with crews being booked taxis to and from signing on points.

West crew signing on points are found at Penzance, Par, Exeter, Bristol, Gloucester, Fratton and Westbury, with a conductors only depot at Weymouth (technically a sub depot of Westbury). The HSS depots at Penzance, Plymouth and Exeter work West services (both drivers and train managers). At Bristol, currently only the train managers work West Services. Cardiff (train managers only, no drivers based there) also work West Services.

ATW drivers are still used to work some services between Cardiff and Bristol.

That is fantastically useful, thank you;  noticing no stabling or booking on point at Worcester, and sadly nothing at all at the former railway town of Swindon.   I was wondering about a 165 parking up in the bay there overnight, giving a late train from Bristol and a thickener of the early service back.


They're for electric train drivers and units, though?   Will electric drivers be a breed apart from diesel drivers?


Interesting thoughts;  Worcester seems to contradict RA's input -  I know HSTs are outstabled (Hereford too?) but crews book on and taxi from Bristol?

Worcester depot use to be train managers and catering staff only but now has HSS drivers as well. Turbos still go through to Worcester but I can’t remember if they are still stabled there on a regular basis.

There is a depot at Worcester as a-driver says, but as it has nothing to do with the operation of West services I didn't include it on my list. Apologies if this caused any confusion.

The last signing on point to be located in Swindon closed in the late 1990's. It was located under the Signal Point tower block and was laterly operated by English, Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS, now DB Cargo) as it became a freight depot following sectorisation. With a reduction in local freight traffic and with Didcot and Westbury freight driver depots nearby, it was surplus to requirements. One of the Swindon jobs used to be the infamous 'Avon Binliner'.

Turbos are stabled at Worcester on Friday and Saturday nights, usually one on Friday and two on Saturday.

A couple of posts on Railforums

[/quote]I was told recently there will be 10 TM vacancies at Worcester next year, though I would expect most of them to be covered by transfers from other depots and promotions from Customer Host.

It's quite interesting, as a rather remote depot for GWR it's historically been a 'dead man's shoes' sort of depot.

I would say though it's a great place to work.[/quote]

and


So no likely shortages there!


But turbos will continue to be serviced at Reading (those on the branches/Gatwick services) so maybe with an ECS move SWI/RDG at end/beginning of day you might find a possibility there?


yup, I reckon - I doubt very much whether (m~)any will sign both.

387s are driven by LTV drivers, so drivers that also drive the turbos. I don't know how many drivers are yet to learn them though.