Hull-based Spencer Group creates maintenance facility at historic railway site

Engineering firm Spencer Group has created a new maintenance facility for East Midlands Trains at the home of Britain’s only surviving rail roundhouse.

The temporary facility, located at Chesterfield’s Barrow Hill rail heritage centre, will operate for around 12 weeks and enable essential upgrades on the wider network of depots and signal systems.

Spencer Group spent 21 weeks working on the project at the privately-owned museum, which also serves as a Network Rail depot.

The complex was built in 1870 and is the UK’s last railway roundhouse building with an operational turntable. The site faced demolition in 1991, but volunteers saved it and turned it into a rail museum and arts centre.

Transport operator East Midlands Trains tasked Spencer Group with designing and building a temporary depot for servicing its Class 222 Meridian and high-speed trains.

Spencer Group project director Joe Bennett said: “We’re a multi-disciplinary company. We take a concept from first principles and bring it to fruition safely, on time and on budget.

“Implementing the construction phase has been a great team effort, with 60 people working on the project.”

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