Heaton TMD
Heaton TMD is a railway traction maintenance depot situated in the Heaton area of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, it is located next to the East Coast Main Line, around east of Newcastle Central station. Heaton was a sub-shed of Gateshead between 1963 and 1967.
History
Originally built by the North Eastern Railway to provide steam locomotives serving principally the extensive Heaton marshalling yards and freight traffic, but also a considerable proportion of main line and local passenger traffic from.The location meant that it provided motive power to the and steep Riverside Branch. Unliked by crews due to the need to pass through three tunnels and the resultant toxic smoke in their cabs, in 1905 it was electrified using 750 VDC technology, with power supplied via both overhead catenary and, within the tunnels, third-rail. Both of the BTH/Brush 640 hp locomotives were based at Heaton, designed as a Bo-Bo with central cab. They worked from the shed until 1967.
Coded 52B in the NE Region under British Railways, in 1954 it had an allocation of 95 locomotives, comprising:16x 4-6-2; 17x 2-6-2; 1x 4-4-0; 14x 2-6-0 ; 14x 0-6-0; 12x 2-6-2T; 1x 0-6-2T; 18x 0-6-0T; and 2x ES1's.
On 22 March 2022 a TransPennine Express Class 802 derailed at Heaton depot and collided with concrete barriers. There were no injuries reported.
Present
After demolition and redevelopment to diesel traction in the 1960s by British Railways, today the depot is operated by Northern Trains, and mostly houses Northern and LNER rolling stock. The depot code is HT.The basic allocation consists of Class 156 and British Rail Class 158 diesel multiple units operated by Northern. TransPennine Express, London North Eastern Railway and Lumo use the depot for storage or servicing of units.
Northern Trains Class 150 units also regularly visit Heaton for maintenance.
Network Rail's New Measurement Train is allocated to Heaton. Maintenance on its recording equipment is carried out at the Railway Technical Centre in Derby.