Willowbrook Rail Maintenance Facility

The Willowbrook Rail Maintenance Facility is a GO Transit rolling stock maintenance facility located in the Willowbrook Yard[1] in Toronto, Canada. The facility is west of Mimico station and is across the main tracks from the VIA Rail Toronto Maintenance Facility.

Willowbrook Rail Maintenance Facility
GO Transit facility at the top and Via Rail facility below
General information
Location125 Judson Street, Toronto, Ontario
Canada
Coordinates43°36′38″N 79°30′34″W
Owned byMetrolinx
Construction
Structure typeRail yard and locomotive and coach maintenance facility
History
Previous namesCanadian National Railway

Bombardier Transportation performs train maintenance at the facility on behalf of Metrolinx, the owner of GO Transit. Bombardier currently has a 5-year contract with two options of five years each to maintain GO Transit trains.[2]

History

The Grand Trunk Railway created the Mimico Yard in 1910 west of its Mimico station on the west side of Royal York Road. The yard had a locomotive roundhouse and facilities to maintain and repair freight cars. Freight trains were assembled and dispatched from the yard. In 1923, the Canadian National Railway (CN) took over the yard along with the Grand Trunk Railway. In 1965, CN moved most of the yard's functions to the then-new MacMillan Yard in Maple, Ontario. In the mid-1960s, GO Transit was looking for a site to store and maintain its commuter trains. Thus, GO Transit subsequently acquired the portion of the Mimico Yard on the north side of the mainline passing through it. (Via Rail acquired the portion south of the mainline for its Toronto Maintenance Facility.) Since the GO Transit yard was near Willowbrook Road, the yard was named the Willowbrook Yard. The Mimico station building was taken over as a dispatching office and crew facilities, and a new Mimico GO Station was constructed on the east side of Royal York Road.[3]

In September 1978, work started to construct the $17-million Willowbrook Rail Maintenance Facility. The depot officially opened on November 7, 1980.[4]

By April 2021, GO Transit had installed 2.6 kilometres (1.6 mi) of guard rails and warning lines along the roof edges of the seven buildings at the depot. These were to protect workers who maintain heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) units and other electrical and mechanical equipment mounted on the roofs. HVAC units run 24/7 and keep the air in buildings clean and safe for workers such as for those working near locomotive engines.[5]

Sign at the yard entrance

Facilities

The Willowbrook Rail Maintenance Facility is located on a 18,600 m2 (200,000 sq ft)[6] site and features:[4]

  • 12,000 m2 (130,000 sq ft) service and maintenance building
  • Diesel shop for maintaining four to six locomotives
  • Coach shop with a drop pit to lower vehicles for ease of maintenance
  • Semi-automatic wash bay designed to handle tall passenger coaches
  • Bay for regulatory inspections and preventative maintenance, performed on an eight-day cycle.
  • Control centre
  • General administration office
  • Fuelling station for up to four locomotives filling at a rate of 200 gallons a minute
  • Storage yard for 21 trains[6]

As of 2021, the depot works around the clock to service, clean and fuel 28 trains each day.[5]

See also

References
  1. "Willowbrook Rail Maintenance Facility". Projects. MMM Group. Archived from the original on March 7, 2015. Retrieved May 2, 2015. Willowbrook shop and yard is the only maintenance facility for GO Transit rolling stock
  2. "Bombardier Awarded Fleet Operations and Maintenance Extension with GO Transit in Toronto". Media Centre. Bombardier. December 21, 2012. Archived from the original on October 23, 2017. Retrieved March 10, 2017. GO Transit has exercised options for 10 years of fleet operations and maintenance services for its commuter rail system
  3. Mackenzie, Robert (May 6, 2018). "GO Transit's Willowbrook Maintenance Centre". Transit Toronto. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
  4. "Where heroically toiling GO trains retreat to – Old document tells origins story of Toronto's Willowbrook Maintenance Facility". Metrolinx. February 24, 2020. Archived from the original on March 28, 2021. Retrieved April 27, 2021.
  5. "Going above and beyond safety at the Willowbrook Rail Maintenance Facility to keep transit moving". Metrolinx. April 27, 2021. Archived from the original on April 28, 2021. Retrieved April 28, 2021.
  6. "GO Transit: Rail Fact Sheet" (PDF). GO Transit. January 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 25, 2018. Retrieved March 10, 2017.

Media related to GO Transit Willowbrook Yard at Wikimedia Commons

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