Dry Creek takes over from Adelaide city as maintenance and operations centre for suburban train system
The Dry Creek depot refuelled, maintained and stabled up to 70 of Adelaide's suburban train system railcars.
Image courtesy Railways Australia
The Dry Creek railcar depot became the maintenance (from 2011) and operations (from 2018) centre for Adelaide’s suburban trains system.
Railcar maintenance and engineering were moved, opening in 2011, from the former depot along Adelaide city’s North Terrace to make way for the new Royal Adelaide Hospital project from 2011.
The operations control centre, managing the wider Adelaide Metro operations, was moved to Dry Creek after its site, also near North Terrace, Adelaide city, was to be taken over by the SAHMRI2 medical research building.
All railcar service, maintenance, cleaning and refuelling, along with stabling of up 70 of its railcar fleet, were at Dry Creek. The depot included a state-of-the-art railcar maintenance building with five individual tracks (including individual tracks with pit and overhead access, plus a train lift capable of lifting a full three-railcar set), cleaning areas, including an automatic train wash, underfloor and roof cleaning facility and purpose built platform or regular internal cleaning.
The depot was near the Dry Creek railway station and southeast of the Adelaide-to-Gawler rail line. Churchill Road North and Railway Terrace were to the southeast while Stock Road formed the northern boundary. The entire 10 hectare precinct was bounded by 3.5 kilometres of fencing.
Features of the precinct included turnouts anticipating any future changes in gauge and can be converted from broad to standard. Refuelling and eco-friendly waste disposal has also been installed on the site. City of Salisbury’s recycled water and aquifer storage provided much of the site’s water, including for the washing trains and watering landscaped areas.
Another high-tech feature was a safe-working system to keep employees protected from moving trains, maintenance equipment and high voltages. The system prevented the movement of trains and other hazards where a risk may be present.
