"Graeme Wall" wrote in message
...

The impressive thing about Northam is that it caters for a large fleet of
trains on a very compact site. They are fortunate in having the old docks
branch lines as a capacious head shunt. Must admit I was surprised that
they didn't opt for a part of Eastleigh works though.

Wasn't there a theory at the time that it was only by building elsewhere
that Siemens could recruit a whole new workforce, ie mainly people who
didn't work for Alstom at Eastleigh?

Perhaps that might also explain why they built the LM maintenance base at
Northampton rather than Bletchley...

Paul