15.11.07
£3M Lathe keeps one extra train in service
East Coast Main Line operator GNER has invested £3 million in a new wheel lathe to improve turnaround and maintenance times at one of its depots.
The benefit to passengers is that an extra train set is kept in service, providing an extra 1,700 seats a day on a busy route.
Installation of the underfloor lathe and building of the shed in which it is housed at the depot at Bounds Green, near London, has taken almost 10 months. It is used for the reprofiling of wheelsets on locomotives and carriages, and complements similar facilities in the GNER depot at Craigentinny, Edinburgh.
Depot manager Dick Page said: “Having our own wheel lathe provides us with much greater flexibility – so we can combine wheel profiling with scheduled maintenance work. Our vehicles spend less time split between our maintenance facilities in London and Scotland – meaning more time in use, boosting the number of seats available to passengers.”
Five staff at Bounds Green have been trained to use the U2000-400 wheel lathe supplied by German firm Hegenscheidt-MFD. Vehicles are shunted on and off the lathe by a battery-powered locomotive.
There is a deep pit for maintenance work and a set of 25-ton lifting jacks to enable wheelset changes if necessary. There is also a weighbridge, so the vehicles can weighed if required after a wheelset change or reprofiling.
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