Caltrain Centralized Equipment Maintenance and Operations Facility


The Caltrain Centralized Equipment Maintenance and Operations Facility is a train maintenance yard and facility located to the north of San Jose Diridon station in San Jose. The $140 million maintenance station began construction in 2004 and opened on September 29, 2007. The facility consolidates much of Caltrain's maintenance and operations into one location.

History

Planning for CEMOF started in the late 1980s under Caltrans; up to that point, light maintenance was being performed at yards in San Francisco and San Jose, and heavier maintenance required transporting equipment to Roseville, a trip that took two days each way. Consolidating operations into a single facility was estimated to reduce annual costs by $425,000 to $530,000 for transportation.
Work on the USD $140 million project began in October 2004, with USD $105.8 million coming from federal funding and USD $8.2 million from state funding. The construction phase of the facility lasted approximately three years from 2004 to September 29, 2007, when Caltrain held a grand opening ceremony. The first shift of maintenance and operations crew did not move into the new shop until October 21, followed by the second and third shifts in November. The last component of this yard, the fueling storage and station, was completed in Spring 2008.

Description

Caltrain's CEMOF replaced an old Southern Pacific Railroad maintenance yard formerly located on the same site. The entire facility includes a central control building, a three floor, maintenance shop, a machine to wash trains, one water treatment plant, a fueling station and railroad tracks for train storage. About 150 people work at the maintenance site and three shifts of workers keep the facility staffed at all times. The yard contains a tunnel for personnel to cross safely under the active train tracks.
The maintenance hall contains a crane with a lifting capacity of and two service pits. This new building is said to improve servicing conditions, safety, and efficiency; it allows mechanics to work indoors rather than outdoors. In addition, Caltrain can perform maintenance tasks once conducted by out-of-state contractors, such as wheel-truing.
An automated train washing machine washes half of Caltrain's fleet each day or at least twice a week, up from twice a year before the facility. The machine can clean a five-car train in about 25 minutes using water from two cisterns. 80% of the water used in the cleaning process is reused to wash another train. The washer is located to the northwest of the maintenance shop.
Daily repair tasks are carried out in the Service & Inspection Area, an -high outdoor facility. There are two tracks that traverse the facility. In Spring 2008, a gallon fuel tank was installed there to facilitate on-site fueling. The Service & Inspection Area is located to the northeast of the three story repair shop.