Comings & goings at St. Leonards Depot (part 2)

This article was opened on Sunday 22 November 2009, and
last modified on Sunday 1 May 2011.

Introduction

St. Leonards Depot is leased and operated by St. Leonards Railway Engineering Limited (SLREL), which is HDL’s sister company. This article is intended to illustrate the number and variety of tasks which are undertaken by the small band of volunteer staff at the depot. It is felt that these might be of interest to some of our readers.

These works provide a steady income for the depot site and provide a source of revenue; some of this is used to offset the costs of storing & maintaining HDL’s fleet of railway vehicles.

It should be noted that the activities described on this page are not those of Hastings Diesels Limited (HDL).

Activities

Staff at St. Leonards Depot undertake many tasks, including the following works:

• Stabling & day-to-day maintenance of Southern’s Class 171 DMUs. SLREL provides stabling facilities for four units of Southern’s Class 171 DMUs which operate on the Ashford – Hastings – Eastbourne – Brighton service. All refuelling is carried out at the depot, for which purpose a second refuelling point was installed. Every unit is cleaned and is given an ‘A’-exam every night, requiring a night-shift to be worked by some of the staff. Only for certain heavy works are the units sent to Selhurst depot.

• Servicing of Class 66 diesel and Class 73 electro-diesel locomoties for GB Railfreight. On the Class 73s this includes ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ examinations.

• Assistance with maintaining the motor-coaches of Network Rail’s Sandite/De-icing DEMUs.

• Cleaning and maintaining the depot building, yard, track and facilities.

A convoy of Class 47 locomotives

On Monday 16 November 2009, a convoy of five Class 47 locomotives was sent to St. Leonards depot for some of them to receive a top-up of coolant. The five locos were (in order of arrival): D1916 (47812), 47805 Talisman, 47727 Rebecca, 47769 Resolve, and 47739 Robin of Templecombe.

This move was also photographed by Craig Stretten.

Henry

For well over a decade, the depot was home to Henry, the depot dog. Henry provided a sense of companionship and security at the depot, and was very much part of the small team of staff working there. Sadly he died at New Year 2010 having attained 16 years of age. He is remembered for his excitable greeting of depot visitors, for helping to finish their packed lunches, and for perching on the pile of sleepers (above) to bark at cats in the adjacent council yard.

Unusual visitors

A new office space

St. Leonards diesel-shed was built as the facility in which heavy overhauls of the Hastings DEMUs would be undertaken; accordingly, as well as the main depot space it had some side rooms which mostly contained workshops and stores.

In its second life as the HQ for Hastings Diesels and the base for several different types of other work besides, administration and record-keeping has—until now—been undertaken in cramped conditions, somewhat cheek-by-jowl with oily engine-parts and piles of recovered spares from long-gone rolling stock.

During March 2010 an area which had become largely overrun with clutter was tidied, partitioned off, false internal walls added for warmth, an insulated false ceiling added; and was decorated, carpeted and furnished as a comparatively spacious office room from which HDL and St. Leonards Rail Engineering can administer their operations.

Colas Rail Class 66

St. Leonards is now visited twice-weekly by a Colas Rail class 66 locomotive which receives fuel, and fresh brake-blocks if required.

73205 repainted in InterCity livery

Electro-Diesel class 73 locomotive number 73205 has been repainted at St. Leonards Depot by Andy Armitage, for GB Railfreight; on his own suggestion, he has chosen the Early Executive variant of the InterCity livery.