A £17m project to construct a wheel lathe for Greater Anglia at Clacton-on-Sea in Essex is progressing well and should be ready to open as planned this summer.

The 5,000 square metre facility will improve the operational performance and resilience across the Greater Anglia fleet as it will provide in-house capability for turning and reprofiling wheels. Once the lathe becomes operational, it will be used for the wheels of Class 745, Class 720 and Class 755 trains.

The lathe was manufactured by specialist railway and automotive tools manufacturer Hegenscheidt-MFD at Erkelenz, Germany, and the new facility is being constructed by Spencer Rail Engineering, with the support of the Department for Transport.

A skeleton steel frame has been constructed, and roof cladding has been installed, and side cladding is now being installed to ensure the building is fully watertight. Inside the building, servicing pit sections have been completed and are ready for fit-out.

The facility includes a new section of track close to existing lines, which, during installation, required careful planning and coordination to minimise disruption to operational services. Having its own wheel lathe will provide Greater Anglia with greater flexibility in maintaining its fleet of trains.

The wheel lathe is required to eliminate flat spots on wheels produced during daily service. In use, each wheel is measured precisely to determine the amount of material to be removed by the lathe to re-profile the wheel to restore its roundness.

Before trains are declared operational, the wheels are re-measured to check that they are within the defined standards.

The Tyne & Wear Metro also has its own wheel lathe facility, which was installed during the construction of a depot for servicing its new fleet of trains.

“The installation of the new wheel lathe at the Clacton Depot is the first time that Greater Anglia has had its own permanent wheel lathe facility. Not only will this £17m investment into Clacton improve the performance and reliability of services in the region, but it will also provide many new, highly skilled jobs. Once complete, trains will be able to be serviced much quicker than before, allowing them to return to passenger service faster.”

Andrew Goodrum, Infrastructure & Major Projects Director