A $139 million, 58,000-square-foot metal building will serve as a new, state-of-the-art repair and maintenance facility for Caltrain starting October 13.

According to the San Jose Mercury-News, Caltrain's over 100 passenger cars and 29 trains will be washed, inspected, repaired and maintained in the facility 24 hours a day.

Inside the concrete and steel building are pits and hydraulic lifts where workers can remove wheels and inspect and repair equipment.

For the really heavy lifting, two cranes spanning the width of the metal building can hoist up to 25 tons of equipment.

The building, the construction of which was two years in the making, is likely to increase workers' efficiency by more than 50 percent.

One big time saver: Instead of sending two dozen wheel sets each month to Wilmington, Del., for servicing that can take up to a month, the new facility has its own "wheel truing" station.

Outside on the same 22-acre site are service and inspection tracks for Caltrain locomotives - as well as a concrete-walled station, used for washing the trains before they go in for servicing.

Also at the site will be a central control facility, where operators can electronically monitor the Caltrain fleet and align switches as needed.

Amtrak employees, wary of their own long-term health and safety, had been itching to get inside the commercial metal building space.

"For our health and safety, it's going to be a big improvement," said one. "Right now, the work is done in the gravel, in the rain, the sun. It's physically abusing. With the new, covered maintenance pits, we will be able to get beneath the trains much more easily.

Locals had no idea until recently what was up with the giant steel building, which had been shrouded in secrecy for some time.

Many figured it to be a technology company opening its headquarters, as this region of the U.S. is home to so many tech startups and giants.