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West Country Engine Sheds by Maurice Dart Hard Cover
West Country Engine Sheds by Maurice Dart
Hard cover
Copyright Ian Allen Publishing Ltd 2002
96 pages
Contents
Reference Sources2
Acknowledgements2
Introduction3
The Engine ShedsSouthern5Western32Industrial94
The engine shed is an integral facet of railway operations, although hidden away from the ordinary passenger. At the height of the steam era there were several hundred engine sheds around the country, housing and maintaining locomotives. For generations of enthusiasts, locomotive sheds represented a domestic El Dorado -forbidden places that could normally only be accessed through organized tours.
Maurice Dart spent many years during the BR steam era travelling widely through the West Country to record the scenes at engine sheds in the region. Drawing upon his own collection of photographs and those of other well-known photographers, he has compiled a fascinating pictorial tribute to the many engine sheds that existed in the region. Featuring both the familiar sheds, such as Exmouth Junction and Plymouth Laira, and those that are now less well-known, such at Princetown and Helston, the book is a graphic reminder of the scale of the railway industry in the steam era and the nature of shed life in the period up to the end of main line steam in the 1960s.
Illustrated throughout with colour and black and white photographs, West Country Engine Sheds will be of interest to all those who recall with nostalgia the efforts made in the period to track down elusive locomotive numbers. It will also be of interest to all those fascinated by the history of railways in the West Country, as well as to local historians and to families whose forebears worked in the sheds or on locomotives.
Introduction
My first knowledge of engine sheds was gained at a tender age, when, on my `0' gauge model railway, I had an 'engine house' which my father had made. Subsequently, during trips to Plymouth from our home at St Budeaux, locomotives were always to be seen before we reached the station, at what I later learned was Millbay shed. Each August in 1937, 1938 and 1939, we had a South Devon Runabout ticket and usually headed for Paignton, Torquay, Kingswear or Dawlish Warren during the week. It was on these journeys that I had my first sightings of Laira shed as we passed, and I was told: 'That is where the engines live'. I asked if we could go there some time, but my wish was not granted at that time; probably because I was only seven years of age. More locomotives were of course seen at Newton Abbot, including the `bulletnose' No 5005 Manorbier Castle.
During the war, I was first evacuated to Bude, where I was able to gaze from the front bedroom window across the marshes to see several locomotives, including 'N' class 2-6-0s gathered around the small locomotive shed.
Following a short spell back at St Budeaux, I was evacuated to St Austell where I met more railway enthusiasts from Plymouth and my 'railway education' commenced properly. This culminated in a trip one Sunday afternoon to Par from where we found our way to the path, actually on the trackbed of the Treffry Tramway, which we followed until we were opposite the locomotive shed at St Blazey. From this vantage point we were able to identify all the locomotives in the yard, on the coaling line and also those inside the front of the shed as their numbers were displayed in gold figures on both the front and rear buffer beams.
At the end of the war, I returned to St Budeaux and was very soon introduced by pals to Laira shed. A public footpath ran along the side of the roundhouse and past the coaling line to a bridge beneath the main and relief lines, which gave a good view of part of the shed complex. One could go beyond the bridge a short way to reach the shed yard throat where sleepers, which formed part of the side of the trackbed, made very convenient seats for us. I used to peer through the windows of the roundhouse to try to identify the locomotives inside, usually ending with a black tip to my nose. After a few visits, I was shown how to enter the shed by squeezing through some railings and going around the rear of the buildings, past the one-road 'Factory', to reach the back of the 'New' or 'Long' shed, which was open-ended.
A doorway then led into the roundhouse where we went around the outside of the locomotives, retracing our steps into the New shed from where we walked out through the extensive yard and crossed the lines at the shed throat to take up our usual perch. Such was my introduction to the delights of visiting locomotive sheds. The foremen at Laira were quite friendly, but, as I was to discover, this was not the case at all sheds.
Devon and Cornwall were well provided with locomotive sheds, although some held only one or two locomotives, but every shed had its own characteristics. Locomotive sheds were fascinating places to visit, not only to record the engines present but also to see their preparation and servicing being carried out, together with the facilities and equipment for doing so. Inside the sheds some locomotives could he found carrying notices stating 'NOT TO BE MOVED', and, inevitably, various sections of their pistons or other rodding would be on the shed floor or on a workbench nearby. Other locomotives would have hoses connected to various places and carry a chalked legend stating 'WASH OUT', while others might have their smokebox door open with some boiler tubes removed. Maintaining steam locomotives in those conditions was arduous, awkward, heavy and dirty work, usually performed under rather poor lighting; trailing leads with a bulb affixed could be seen on locomotives under repair. The floor of the shed was usually covered by a variety of hoses, rods, shovels, heavy hammers, metal wheelbarrows and trolleys.
Great care was required when going around any shed. At Laira, I once saw a young enthusiast attempt to jump across an inspection pit with raised rails, to save walking around it, resulting in him crashing partly into it and breaking a vein in his leg, which of course created problems for the shed staff. Another factor which added to the sensation experienced when visiting a shed was the ever-present smell of a combination of hot lubricating oil, grease and smoke.
Other thoughts which preceded a shed visit were the anticipation of finding a local engine which had eluded me for some time, a type of locomotive new to the particular shed, or better still, the sight of a locomotive from a faraway shed which had either worked in after being 'borrowed' by another shed or had been sent 'on loan' for a period to cover a local shortage. This could be due to the shed's own locomotives being under repair or at times when a shed's turntable was undergoing some work and the normal tender locomotives could not be turned.
I will now look at each of the various sheds in the area and recall my experiences during visits to them, followed by a list of the locomotives seen on two visits. This may well produce examples such as those mentioned above. Locomotives listed without depot allocations in brackets were at their home shed.
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