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On Monday, Caltrain will break ground on a new maintenance facility located at the site of a former Southern Pacific Railroad yard, north of the agency’s Diridon Station. The facility will enable the agency to maintain and repair locomotives and passenger cars in San Jose rather than in Roseville and southern California.

Scheduled to be complete by late 2006, the $76 million facility will include a repair shop and indoor train washer. Mechanics will be able to install and maintain wheel sets at the shop rather than sending them off site, and replace traction motors using drop table machinery.

Currently, Caltrain workers perform routine maintenance at a yard in San Jose and at the San Francisco station, which can accommodate one locomotive at a time.

In September, the agency awarded an $11.6 million contract to Schimmick Construction to begin the first phase of construction, which includes relocating mainline tracks to make room for the shop and digging a pedestrian tunnel to connect the shop and new operations building. The final phase will include constructing a three-story operations building and one-story control facility.