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Fleet is divided into two groups—Production, which ensures that trains are returned into service each day in a clean and reliable condition, and Engineering Services, which sets the standards that ensure trains are maintained properly and provides technical support for the Production units. According to Mac, “engineering services is the heartbeat, production is the blood flow”. From train presentation employees to fitters, they work in shifts to man the depots 24 hours a day, taking in trains every evening and turning them around overnight. As Steve Price, Fleet Manager for Wimbledon, explains: “Maintenance goes hand-in-hand with reliability. If maintenance is done correctly, more trains are available for service and therefore fleet reliability is preserved.”
Trains are taken in for maintenance exams on a predetermined mileage basis. They are thoroughly checked from top to bottom. The atmosphere is charged with good-natured tension as the crews get to work fitting axles, testing braking systems, changing components, emptying emissions tanks and servicing air-conditioning units, to name but a few of the checks carried out. Orders are issued, cranes swing into action and the first trains begin to rumble in. “There’s great excitement for two periods of the day, the morning peak and evening peak,” explains Mac. “It’s a volatile environment and one that breeds a real emphasis on teams—almost a family-type environment—because you need all your people to come together in that brief period.”
The importance of being part of a team crops up time and time again in conversation with Fleet employees across the different depots. When asked what they like most about their jobs, almost all mention their colleagues. “Everyone’s happy here, we have a laugh and no one walks about with long faces,” comments Rich Cooper from the Bournemouth depot, while Dave King at Wimbledon depot cites the “excellent team of guys” as one of the reasons he enjoys his job.
Given the nature of their work—extremely physical, potentially dangerous and always noisy and dirty—it’s little wonder that the feeling of camaraderie among the engineers is so strong, particularly when few people outside of the depots are aware of the significance of what they do. “Engineers tend to be very practical, down-to-earth people,” explains Steve Price, “because much of their work goes on behind the scenes and largely at night, they often don’t get the recognition they deserve.” Winning Maintenance Team of the Year at the National Rail Awards, therefore, has proved a big boost to morale. “We see our daily efforts rewarded,” comments Brian Tucker, Fleet Manager, Bournemouth. “Those working nights can feel tucked away and forgotten—this proves they’re not.”
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