Staff and supporters at Bombardier Transportation’s Litchurch Lane works in Derby have been commemorating 175 years of train manufacturing in the city.
Renowned heritage locomotives designed in Derby, such as ‘Midland Compound’ and ‘Tornado’ were reunited at the Derby site. Secretary of State for Transport, Patrick McCloughlin and Mayor of Derby, Fareed Hussain attended a special event celebrating the city’s continuing rail engineering excellence.
The future of the Bombardier facility was secured earlier this year when
it won the contract to build the new Crossrail fleet at Litchurch Lane. Staff at Litchurch Lane are looking forward to working on the new Aventra trains for Crossrail. The Aventra is Derby- designed and built.
Says Francis Paonessa, Managing Director of Bombardier Transportation in the UK, ‘With the award of the Crossrail project in the 175th year of train manufacture in Derby, we are immensely proud to continue the tradition of designing and manufacturing high performance trains for the UK.’
The success of the works is in no small measure down to the efforts of the workforce. Added Mr Paonessa, ‘Winning Crossrail was a resounding endorsement of the Aventra and a credit to the efforts of our entire workforce in the UK.’
Visitors were able to see historic carriages on display alongside new London Underground cars and an exhibition of trains to come –among them the Aventra. The inspiration for celebrating the 175th anniversary originally came from Kevin Owen, who works as a welder at Litchurch Lane.
Says Kevin, ‘It was a great event and amazing to see some of the old trains back at the place where they were first built.’ Bombardier also held a special Family Day for staff.
