PROFILPELAJAR.COM

South Gosforth Traction Maintenance Depot
	Location in Tyne and Wear, England
Location
Location	Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne; England
Coordinates	55°00′22″N 1°36′30″W / 55.006°N 1.6084°W
OS grid	NZ251680
Characteristics
Owner	Tyne and Wear PTE
Operator	Tyne and Wear Metro
Type	Light rail
Rolling stock	Class 555 Metro; Class 599 Metrocar;
History
Opened	October 1923; 101 years ago
Original	London and North Eastern Railway
Post-grouping	London and North Eastern Railway; British Rail (North Eastern);

South Gosforth Traction Maintenance Depot is a vehicle cleaning, maintenance and stabling facility used by the Tyne and Wear Metro, located in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne in Tyne and Wear, England.

The depot is located in a triangle of land between Longbenton, Regent Centre and South Gosforth, and can be accessed by trains from both east and west. There is also a depot avoiding line running from east to west, which is not regularly used in public service.

History

Pre-Tyne and Wear Metro

In 1904, the North Eastern Railway (NER) started to electrify some of its lines in what is now Tyne and Wear, using the third rail system. Initially electric trains operated only from Newcastle New Bridge Street to Benton station, but in stages electrification was extended to create the system known as the Tyneside Electrics. The trains for this system were, at first, stabled at carriage sheds in Heaton.^[1]

The year after the first electric trains ran, the 8+1⁄4-mile (13 km) single-track branch line of the Gosforth and Ponteland Railway was opened, connecting to the NER line by a triangular junction just north of South Gosforth station. The line closed to passengers in 1929, only to reopen as part of the Metro, but freight services continuing to serve the line until the late 1980s, latterly sharing the track with Metro trains.^[1]^[2]

In 1918, a fire broke out at the Heaton carriage sheds, which destroyed the building, as well as 34 units.^[3]^[4] A replacement depot was required, and the NER acquired a site on the northern side of the South Gosforth triangular junction in 1921. The replacement depot opened in October 1923.^[5] At the time, there were ten lines in the depot building, with a further two serving the repair shop.

The depot was originally used to house rolling stock for the Tyneside Electrics network, which served Gateshead, Newcastle upon Tyne, North and South Tyneside. Owing to falling passenger numbers during the 1960s, as well as rising costs, and the need to renew life expired infrastructure and rolling stock, the network was de-electrified and converted to diesel multiple unit operation in 1967.^[6] Following this, Class 101, 104 and 105 diesel multiple units were a common sight at the depot.

Tyne and Wear Metro

In 1978, passenger service on the North Tyneside Loop ceased, in order to facilitate its conversion to become part of the Tyne and Wear Metro. The South Gosforth depot was transferred to the Metro in 1980, and has been used by them since then for stabling, cleaning, maintenance and repair of the current fleet of class 599 Metrocar, as well as an increasing number of class 555 Metro, which are yet to enter service.^[7]

In October 2020, prior to the arrival of the new class 555 rolling stock and the depot refurbishment needed to accommodate them, the Howdon satellite depot was constructed near Howdon in North Tyneside. The site is currently being used as a temporary stabling and maintenance facility for up to 10 units.^[8]^[9]^[10]

As part of a £70 million depot refurbishment project, the first phase of demolition of the depot was completed in May 2021, with final closure in January 2023.^[11]^[12] Construction of the new 12-acre (49,000 m²) depot was completed in January 2024.^[13]^[14]^[15] The new facility provides facilities for preventative and corrective maintenance, overhauls, train presentation, storage space for parts and materials supplies and office space for training and support functions. In addition, there are inspection roads and pits, a separate wheel lathe building, a wash-plant to clean train exteriors, a component drop, monorail cranes on light maintenance roads, an overhead crane on heavy maintenance roads for lifting roof components and a new control room to manage train movements.^[15]