Yesterday Patrick and I had an opportunity to have a look around the progress at the EMU depot at Wiri. This was my first look around here but the second for Patrick who first got a look a few months ago and since that time a lot has changed, for starter the building now has a roof and most of its walls in place. Here is the depot and some of the stabling yard that will eventually have space for 28 EMUs. One thing that I learnt is that the automatic gates that control entry and exit to the depot will be linked into the system that controls the points within the depot and the gates won’t open until everything is lined up and a train is ready to depart.

Depot and Stabling

Depot building

Inside the depot building many of the various work spaces are starting to become fairly defined. In the next photo the platform on the upper left will give maintenance workers access to the roof of the trains while the fence on the upper right is designed to prevent people from falling off the other side of the roof. Just to the right of the shot is a fairly large pit that will house the wheel lathe.

Maintenance bay

This area is what will be known as the heavy lift road and will include lifting jacks capable of lifting an entire EMU and an overhead crane.

Heavy Lift Road

This circle will eventually become a bogie turntable. Bogies will be taken off the train and spun around to be taken to a little room just to the left of the picture. There they will be able to be given a deep clean up before being reattached to the EMU.

Bogie Turntable

And looking south back down the depot at where we were earlier.

Inside depot looking south

And here is the Northern side of the depot (the side that can be seen from SH20).

Depot Northen Side

Lastly a view out the window at the vast Wiri quary which is where a lot of the excavated material from Waterview is likely to end up.

Wiri Quarry

All up I found it really interesting and it was great to see so much progress.

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14 comments

    1. I would not expect so – there is an old platform there (the depot sits right next to the old Wiri Train Station), but the area is currently extremely industrial, and low-occupation industrial at that. Which is why they closed the old train station – it had extremely bad patronage. But the platform is still there.

      1. I believe the old Wiri platform will come back into use again once the depot opens primarily for use by staff. Effectively it is replacing Westfield which currently performs this role (and has crap patronage).

        1. If they close Westfield station could that possibly mean they could finally open the gravel road beside the track to the public making the cycleway extend from the end of Hugo Johnston Drive to Westfield station? It would cut out a big ride along Great South road between Penrose and Otahuhu and wouldn’t be expensive since the road is formed already.

  1. the bogie turntable looks interesting, but can it work on both bogies without taking the unit out and turning it around?

  2. I don’t really get the multi colour cladding. They did that in Wellington’s new depot and it looks a little like they used whatever stuff was lying around the yard at the time.

  3. Hmmmm, I’ll reserve criticism for when I see the final product. Having worked in/on the Wellington EMU depot, this looks like a clone with a few more bells and whistles, and constraints.
    Will there be overhead dwires inside?
    The great thing about the new buildings is the amount of light they let in compared with the old ones – if ever you get a chance to go through the Wellington EMU Depot, you’ll notice the vast difference going from the 1930s end to the 2010 end.

    1. I believe that some of the bays will have overhead wires while others will not. Also doubt there are many constraints as this is a brand new site and designed in conjunction with CAF to ensure it is what they need to keep the trains well maintained.

      1. Sorry, I meant fewer constraints (due to the existing yard and operations there), and its a great thing. It’s also good that it was designed in conjunction with CAF – the Wellington one felt like it had been designed in a silo, independent of the manufacturers of the trains.
        It sounds great that wires will be absent on some roads, removing the biggest hazard in the workshop and a big win for health and safety

        1. All roads will be electrified with the exception of the wheel lathe road, depot road 3, and of course the EMU delivery/cripple siding.

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