LR was lucky enough today to spend some time on the ELL ahead of its upcoming reopening. Although there wasn’t the time (or permission) to stop everywhere and photograph everything, we were able to get some good pictures of New Cross Depot and some of the new stations. The depot photos are below (with some background for each one) and the station photos will follow shortly.
Firstly, the depot itself includes the new Integrated Operations Centre for the ELL – the thoroughly concrete and brushed metal structure pictured below (more on that key phrase “integrated” shortly).
After a bit of wrangling, we were able to get on the roof from whence we were able to get some overall photos of the depot layout.
The view below looks back towards New Cross Gate station. The slope-roofed building visable in the middle of the picture is the depot’s wheel lathe facility, whilst the building on the left (behind the 378s) is the washer.
The washer facility can be seen more clearly in the picture below. Also visible in the foreground is one of the NLL 378/0s. This was present as part of the commissioning of the Wash Plant which is intended to service NLL trains where possible as well. The NLL train is identifiable as it’s a three-car unit in contrast to the four-car ELL units behind it.
More 378 views in the pictures below.
Pictured below is the maintenance shed – Bombardier’s on-site domain – with capacity for four units at any one time. We were able to get a brief look inside.
Inside the maintenance shed.
There were three units in the shed at the time.
A quick look at the length of the shed confirmed that it’s only large enough to support four-car units. Perhaps not entirely surprising given the compact nature of the depot site.
The fourth maintenance bay included a jack facility, currently undergoing servicing.
Interestingly, a closer look at the first 378 in the maintenance shed on the walk out showed that it was one of the five de-icing units available to the ELL (it had the adapted shoes and gear shown below).
Meanwhile, back in the Op Centre, we were able to see what made it “integrated” – LOROL’s ops team, Network Rail’s signals team and TfL and Carillion’s support staff all share the same open plan floor. It’ll be interesting to see whether this leads to better planning and crisis comms.
The ELL uses a Westinghouse axle-counter signals system, and Network Rail’s two on-site signals work stations are at rear of the open plan floor.
A close up of one of the signals stations is below, for those unfamiliar with the kind of data they generally display.
Eagle-eyed readers may have spotted that the user of this particular signals station has an interest in literature, and seems keen to ensure that the ELL launch goes smoothly and without error.
The centre of the office is devoted to the operations team.
Whilst the rest is LOROL’s domain. From here they manage the eight stations they’re currently responsible for. Control of the ten Southern stations currently managed from East Croydon will be transferred here in the next year or so, whilst Whitechapel and Canada Water will remain under the control of LUL.
Finally, we were able to grab a sneaky shot of the signals diagram…
…and its good to see typographical integrity is preserved throughout the building.
Some pictures of Shadwell, Shoreditch, Hoxton, Haggerston and Dalston will follow shortly.
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