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RAILWAYS
GREAT WESTERN
RAILWAY
| Updated:
27 February 2013
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1835 to 1841
The Great Western Railway Company came into being on August
31st 1835, when its Act of Parliament received the Royal Assent. On June 4th
1838 it opened the route from London's Paddington Station as far as Maidenhead.
Trains ran throughout from London to Bristol on June 30th 1841.
1844
From there the Bristol and Exeter Railway took the main
line westwards to Exeter, reached on May 1st 1844, where the
South Devon Railway took over and from April 2nd 1849
carried traffic through Newton Abbot and Totnes to Plymouth's new station at
Millbay. The whole of this route, the
product of three different but linked companies, was surveyed and engineered by Isambard
Kingdom Brunel. Also, the whole of this route was laid to Brunel's "broad"
gauge of 7ft 0¼ins.
1876
Each of these three railways operated their own locomotives
and carriages but this all changed on January 1st 1876 when the Bristol and Exeter Railway
was leased to the Great Western Railway, with which it was finally amalgamated on August
1st that same year. Similarly, the Great Western started to operate the trains on
the South Devon Railway on February 1st 1876 and
eventually took over that Company as well.
Thus, the Great Western Railway only comes into the story
of Plymouth's railway system on February 1st 1876, nearly twenty-seven years after the
railway first arrived in the Town. At the same date it leased the
Cornwall Railway system, although that Company remained in
existence until it was dissolved on July 1st 1889.
1876 was a busy year in the Plymouth area for the Great
Western. In preparation for the use of their system by the
London & South Western Railway Company's
trains from Lydford to Devonport, the
first signal boxes appeared. In Plymouth these were at North Road East, North Road
West, Cornwall Junction and Devonport Junction. They were installed by Messrs Saxby
and Farmer at a cost of £2,504 14s 4d. They also built boxes at Tavistock Junction
and at Laira Junction, where it controlled the Sutton Harbour Branch.
On May 17th 1876 came the opening of the
London & South Western route into
Devonport and Stonehouse Station, where a
refreshment room was provided before
North Road Station
even existed. This required the Cornwall Loop to be constructed, bypassing
Millbay Station and joining the old
South Devon and
Cornwall
Railways' lines. Public services on this route commenced the
following day, with the first Up train being drawn by the locomotive "Gem".
August 1st saw the amalgamation of the Bristol and Exeter
Railway into the Great Western so they now had complete control of trains from Paddington
to Plymouth and beyond.
1876-1877
Because the
London
and South Western had no station in Plymouth, only the one at
Devonport, they proposed a new joint
station north of the Town centre, to be named
North Road.
Plans were drawn up for a stone-built station but the Great Western prevaricated so long
that the L&SWR became impatient and
the station was eventually constructed of wood.
North
Road Station was opened on Wednesday March 28th 1877. The main tracks had
platforms on both sides. A refreshment room was provided.
1882
Plymothians were able to take urgent Royal Mail letters to Plymouth Station and hand them to the sorters on the mail
train. But on and after November 1st 1882 the mail had to be placed in letter-boxes
on the train, thus relieving the sorting clerks from being disturbed.
1883
On August 11th 1883 the
Princtown Railway Company opened
their line between Yelverton, on the Plymouth to Tavistock line, and Princetown, high up
on Dartmoor. Because there was no station at Yelverton, the service was actually
operated from Horrabridge Station until 1885 when a junction station was opened at
Yelverton. The only other station on the line was at Dousland, where there was a
level crossing under the watchful eye of the Dousland Barn signal box, the only block
section box on the line. This line was operated by the Great Western Railway until
January 1st 1922, when they took over ownership of the Princetown Railway Company.
Sunday December 14th 1884
The report of an accident involving the Up mail
train on the evening of Sunday December 14th 1884 gives interesting
information about the working of the main line at that time. The train
left Plymouth at
8.23pm and not long after rumours started circulating around the Town that
it had been involved in an accident 'of a very alarming character',
the train had been wrecked and that 'serious casualties' had been
sustained. The truth was somewhat less spectacular. The mail
train was drawn as usual by two locomotives as far as Hemerdon Junction,
where the double track from Plymouth became single track forward as far as
Rattery. The train was brought to a stand so that the pilot engine
could be taken off and transferred to the Down line to be returned to
Plymouth. The pilot that night was "Gazelle" and the driver was Mr W
Harris. During the transfer she came off the rails in such a way as to
block both lines, thus bringing traffic to a standstill. The news was
telegraphed to Millbay
from Hemerdon Junction Signal Box and at about 9.30om a breakdown gang were
despatched. A local train from Plymouth (Millbay)
Station to Ivybridge was brought to stand at the top of Hemerdon and the
passengers for Ivybridge were transferred to the 7pm Down train from Exeter,
which as it could not get through to Plymouth had to return as an Up train
complete with all the passengers and mails off the stranded Mail train.
The passengers from the local train walked through to the Mail train and
both departed for their new destinations at 10.50pm. The Down
passengers thus arrived at Plymouth (Millbay)
Station at 11.15pm instead of 9.30pm. The line was cleared shortly
after Midnight. Sadly, the name of the train engine was not recorded.
[0]
1889
Passenger carriages were lit by oil lamps at this time.
Then on Thursday March 1st 1889 the Great Western suddenly started to change over
to gas lights. The "Zulu" express, more properly called the 3pm from
Paddington to Plymouth, was the first train to Plymouth to be lit by gas. This came
as a surprise to the officials at Exeter St David's Station, who continued to provide
lamp men to place oil lamps in the carriages only to find they were not needed.
On July 1st 1889 the
Cornwall Railway was amalgamated into the Great Western Railway although the
latter had been leasing the Cornish main line since February 1st 1876.
1890
The
London and
South Western Railway continued to have its access to Plymouth via the Great Western's
Launceston Branch until June 1st 1890, the day after on which their independent line, the
Plymouth, Devonport and South West Junction Railway, was
opened. Their trains now arrived from the west and terminated at
North Road Station.
1892
Up until now the Great Western Railway in and around
Plymouth was of the broad 7 feet 0¼ inch gauge. But the growth of the standard 4
feet 8½ inch gauge meant that the Great Western was becoming more and more isolated and a
barrier to lucrative through traffic. It was therefore decided to convert the broad
gauge to standard (or narrow) gauge and this work was carried out between Friday May 20th
and Monday May 23rd 1892, the bulk of it on the Saturday and Sunday. The last Down
train was the 5pm Paddington to Plymouth. The final Up train was the 9.45pm from
Penzance, upon which the Chief Inspector of the Plymouth Division travelled to check that
all broad-gauge locos and stock were out of the area before he gave the engineers
permission to start the conversion.
The first narrow-gauge train to leave Plymouth on the
Monday morning was the Down Night Mail, which had travelled from Paddington via the
London & South Western Railway but
proceeded into Cornwall on the new track at 4.40am.
1893
Rail travel had grown in popularity since the days of the South Devon Railway and one of the problems the Great
Western had to deal with was to improve the track so as to take more trains. The
solution was to introduce a second track; to double the line throughout. Working
slowly westwards, they completed the work on the Rattery to Hemerdon section in
1893. The line from there as far as Devonport
Station was double track already. Hemerdon Junction signal box, where the
old single track joined the double line, was closed on May 14th that year and replaced
with a new one named Hemerdon Sidings.
1896
Some major stations on the Great Western Railway, and
Plymouth Millbay was one, had the unusual
layout of having a ticket platform placed outside the station where the trains stopped to
have the tickets checked and collected. The train then pulled forward into the main
platform to disgorge its passengers. Exactly when this practice started is
unrecorded but it ceased in 1896.
In that same year a small signal box was brought into use
at Mutley Station but it served no useful
purpose as the Station was so close to the end of the platforms at
North Road Station that the signalling was largely
irrelevant. Certainly it is likely that Mutley Signal Box could not accept a Down
train until it had been accepted by North Road East as the latter's facing points were
within the Mutley clearing point area.
1897
The GWR was good on using the initiative of its local
staff. This is demonstrated by the commencement, on May 1st 1897, of an excursion
train every Wednesday and Saturday from Plymouth Millbay Station to Ivybridge Station.
Wednesday was early closing day so by timing the departure from Millbay at 2pm shop
workers could avail themselves of the opportunity of a few hours with friends at Plympton
or in the country at Cornwood (for Awns and Dendles, a pleasant watering hole) and
Ivybridge.
1899
In 1899 work started on doubling the old
Cornwall Railway main line from
Devonport Station towards Saltash.
On March 15th 1899, during
blasting operations in the cutting at Keyham Barton, a lady by the name of
Mary Elizabeth Greening, of 22 Park Street, Plymouth, was killed and her
daughter, Florence Mary Thomas, was badly injured by flying rocks.
By June that year a small siding had been added to the main
line on the Keyham side of the viaduct across
Weston Mill creek. This was for contractor's traffic during the conversion of the
viaduct from timber to brick and steel. The new one was constructed by Messrs J
Charles Lang, of Liskeard, Cornwall, and the track here was raised by 15 feet to lessen the dip in the
main line as it approached the viaduct.
On October 22nd 1899 the double track from
Devonport to Keyham Viaduct was brought into use
and a small signal box was opened at the Devonport end of the viaduct to control the
junction and provide protection during the reconstruction of the viaduct.
1900
Keyham Junction and Keyham Viaduct signal boxes were closed
on June 25th 1900 and a new one opened named Keyham
Station Signal Box when the double track was extended as far as the Weston Mill
Viaduct.
The new
Keyham
Station, the first stopping place to be built between
Devonport and Saltash, was opened on Sunday July
1st but not many passengers used it, possibly because the official opening date was not
until the following day, when about 400 people used the station. A small goods yard
was provided.
Another building operation that was carried out in 1900 was
the reconstruction of Millbay Station.
1901
On Sunday October 6th 1901, at the instigation of
the Plymouth Mercantile Association, The Great Western Railway ran the first
Sunday excursion train from Plymouth to Princetown. The 'largely
patronised' train started at 2pm from Plymouth and returned from
Princetown at 5pm. [0a]
1902
Over the night of Wednesday January 1st/2nd 1902 the
Great Western Railway ran the first Great Western Travelling Post Office
made up entirely of vehicles for the use of Royal Mail and not including any
passenger carriages. [0a]
1903
1903 must have been an interesting year for Plymothians
living in the Weston Mill area. Not only was the embankment road across the creek
being finished and the Devonport & District Tramway
extended across it to Saint Budeaux but the new brick and steel
viaduct across the Creek was also finished (on July 3rd) and the double track railway line
to Saint Budeaux Station brought into use
(on July 5th).
The timing was not a coincidence, however. On
Tuesday July 14th 1903 their Royal Highnesses, the Prince and Princess of
Wales made an historic train journey from London to Grampound Road Station
in Cornwall, the whole trip taking 5 hours and 50 minutes for the 292¾
miles. Actually the historic part of the journey was the non-stop run
from Paddington Station to North
Road Station, 246½ miles in 4 hours 30 minutes, an average speed of 54.7
miles per hour. The train left London at 10.40am and was due to arrive
in Plymouth at 3.10pm, where six minutes were allowed to effect a change of
locomotive and an examination of the train before it proceeded into
Cornwall. [1]
On Saturday July 18th 1903 the GWR
introduced a week-days only train to Plymouth which only stopped for eight
minutes at Exeter Saint David's Station, completing the journey to Plymouth
in 4 hours 50 minutes. This was to beat the LSWR's fastest service by
two minutes. It departed from Padington Station at 10.40am, five
minutes before the "Cornishman", and was due to arrive at North Road Station
at 3.30pm, fifteen minutes before the "Cornishman". The first train
consisted of nine 8-wheel carriages, which were heavily laden, and it
arrived at Plymouth seven minutes late. It left again at 3.46pm, six
minutes late. The eleven carriages of the actual "Cornishman" were
also heavily loaded. [2]
The Up service was expected to start on Monday July 20th 1903.
[1][2]
1904
After a couple of years of relative calm, the next
development for the Great Western Railway in the Plymouth area came on June 1st 1904 when
the new suburban service between Plympton and
Saltash started. Halts were opened at
Laira,
Lipson Vale and
Wingfield Villas and Platforms were put
in at Ford and
St Budeaux.
Exactly a month later, on July 1st, came the inauguration
of the London to Plymouth non-stop run, with the new 10.10am express from Paddington to
Penzance.
1901-1905
There is some confusion as to when the Laira Motive Power Depot was erected. It is
thought they were built in 1906 (although some authorities say 1901) on reclaimed land,
with the walls and radiating roads being supported on brick arches.
The tracks between Laira
Motive Power Depot (MPD) and North Road Station
were getting so crowded that an extra break-section signal box was required. This
was opened in 1905 at Mannamead, between Lipson Junction and Mutley. It was only a
small box but it was one of the busiest on the line and became famous because there was
only one occasion per day when the Down distant signal was ever pulled "off" --
the arrival of the above-mentioned non-stop express from London.
Two extra stopping places were opened during 1905, Defiance
Platform, for HMS Defiance, just
outside Saltash Station, and Dockyard Halt
between Devonport and
Keyham.
1906
A major event outside of the Plymouth area had a great
benefit to the local people when on July 1st 1906 the route via Westbury was opened.
It cut 20 miles off the journey from London to Plymouth. Later that month, on the
21st, the Cornish Riviera Limited began using this shortened route and tickets for the
Cornish portion were coloured red, presumably to enable staff to spot people in the wrong
part of the train.
1907
Hemerdon Sidings were converted into loop lines and a new
signal box was opened on April 2nd 1907.
1908
1908 was the year of developments around the
North Road Station area. The Station itself was
enlarged and a new brick built signal box was installed at the east end, which also took
over working the signals at Mutley Station so
that the Mutley signal box could be demolished.
1912
Sunday August 4th 1912
saw the introduction of a new pay scheme under which most workers at
locomotive depots would work a ten hour day, exclusive of meal times, and
the majority of signalmen would work between eight and ten hours a day.
Examples of the new rates applicable to staff in Plymouth were: Lad
Porters, 10s to 15s per week; Ticket Collectors, 22s to 26s per week; Porter
Guards, 23s to 25s per week; Passenger Guards, 26s to 33s per week; and
Goods Guards, 26s to 34s per week. Signalmen were on a minimum of 23s
per week increasing to 28s for those on lightly worked lines, 31s for those
on secondary lines and 38s for those on main lines outside London. At
the depots, Carriage Cleaners outside of London were to get 3s 4d per day;
Greasers, between 2s and 2s 8d per day; Coalmen, 4s per day; and Engine
Examiners, 4s 2d to 4s 8d per day. [a]
1914
1914, at the start of the Great
War, a link was provided between the Great Western's
Sutton Harbour Branch at the
London & South Western's Cattewater Branch,
independent of the LSWR's main line. This was removed again in March 1923.
Also, in April of that year authority was given for the
quadrupling of the main line from Lipson Junction into Plymouth, including Mutley
Tunnel. This was estimated to cost £27,500 plus an extra £4,400 for the provision
of new signal boxes at Lipson and Mannamead. Work was started at the Lipson end and
a retaining wall was built but the work ceased when the War started. It was never
completed.
On August 4th the Great War
started and the railways were taken over by the Government under the authority of the
Regulation of Forces Act 1871.
1916
During the War there was a munitions factory at Prince Rock
and sidings to serve the factory were installed in 1916 on the Down side of the main line
at Number One Curve, Laira, at the foot of the retaining wall there. In the same
year, on January 17th, the new Up and Down marshalling yards and goods loops at Tavistock
Junction were brought into use, together with a new signal box, resulting in the closure
of the old junction box. On June 2nd the branch linking the main line to the
Government Ordnance Depot at Bull Point
was opened, along with its controlling signal box, St Budeaux East.
From Monday May 1st until Wednesday May 3rd 1916 one
of the Great Western Railway's new ambulance trains was on exhibition at
Millbay Docks. The Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Plymouth, Aldermen T
Baker and E Blackall, paid an official visit at Midday on the Tuesday.
Built at the Railway's Swindon Works, the train consisted of 16 coaches
amounting to 960 feet in length and 442 tons in weight. Accommodation
was provided for 592 patients, 102, lying down, 472 sitting and 18
infectious cases. The medical staff amounted to 45 people.
Throughout the train the gangways were wide enough to enable stretchers to
be carried from the ward cars to the treatment rooms. All of the beds
were capable of being used as stretchers. In addition to opening
windows, fixed and portable fans provided ventilation while candle brackets
were installed for use in the event of a failure of the electricity
lighting. Hot water was provided and supplied hot shower baths.
It could also be used for heating when the train was in a siding and not
connected to the locomotive. Mr W Rowed, the divisional superintendent
of the GWR stated that a complete train could be built in six weeks.
[3]
1919
There was a plan in 1919, after the end of the War, to link
the Great Western and LSWR at St Budeaux
but because of the work on the Bull Point siding the Great Western were apparently
reluctant to pay for more so the plan was dropped. It was to re-emerge again in
1939.
1921
Wingfield
Villas Halt was the first to succumb to competition from the local tramway network and
closed in June 1921.
On August 15th 1921 the railways were returned to their
private ownership.
Four days later, on 19th, the Royal Assent was given to the
Railways Act 1921 which provided for the grouping of the railway companies into the
"big four.
Until December 31st 1921 the Railway had run the train
service over Dartmoor for the Princetown Railway Company. From midnight the line
became the Great Western Railway
Princetown Branch.
1925
Increasing freight traffic, especially china clay and sand,
brought the laying of sidings between Skew Bridge at Plympton and the Woodford Bridge, at
the bottom of Cot Hill. Some 20 to 30 acres of land on both sides of the main
railway line were acquired from about a half a dozen different owners. The work was
authorised by the Great Western Railway Act of 1925.
The locomotive shed at Millbay, just before entering the Station, was closed on July 23rd 1924 although
it had to be reopened on May 18th 1925 as a stabling point for ten engines because of
problems getting locos from Laira along the heavily used track.
An interesting exchange of locomotives took place in
1925. Sir Felix Pole, General Manager of the Great Western Railway, instigated a
friendly interchange of data and ideas with the London and North Eastern Railway.
The GWR provided their loco 4074 "Caldicot Castle" while the LNER sent the then
unnamed 4474, a Gresley Pacific, to the Westcountry. She first did the London to
Plymouth run, a distance of 225.7 miles, on April 27th 1925 at an average speed of 54.8mph
and consumed 50lbs of coal per mile. This compared very unfavourably with the
"Caldicot Castle" run a few days later, on May 2nd, when the same journey was
done at an average speed of 58.4mph with a coal consumption of only 46.8 lb. per mile --
and the train arrived in Plymouth fifteen minutes ahead of schedule.
1926
Soon after 5pm on Friday April 30th 1926 the GWR received
orders from the Government to run two special trains from Devonport to Bury, in
Lancashire. The General Strike was about to begin and the Government needed to move
600 naval ratings, plus horses and vehicles, as quickly as possible. Shortly
afterwards a further order required another special train to carry 248 men, thought, this
time, to be troops, from Plymouth to London, terminating at either Paddington or Waterloo.
Whether these trains ran and how it was achieved has not yet been recorded.
A similar request was made on Monday May 3rd 1926, when a
special train carrying six officers and 253 naval ratings left either the
Royal Naval Barracks or
Keyham Station at Midday for
Paddington Station. The General Strike started at Midnight.
There was apparently another naval special, seen crawling slowly over Keyham
Viaduct in the charge of men in ordinary brown coats rather than driver's
overalls.
1927
On summer Saturdays in 1927, the "Cornish Riviera
Express" ran non-stop from Paddington to Devonport Junction, a distance of 226.9
miles, where engines were changed. This was to avoid occupancy of valuable platform
space in North Road. The time allowed for this
run was actually 3-minutes shorter than the normal week-day run to
North Road only.
1929
A Pullman train made its first ever visit to Plymouth on
Friday May 10th 1929. The Great Western Railway borrowed six Pullman carriages from
the Southern Railway's London to Brighton service and ran
them as a test train to Plymouth's Millbay Docks.
The train left Paddington Station at 9.15am, headed by a King class locomotive, and
arrived at the Docks at 1.15pm, having not been checked by signals anywhere on its
journey. Less than two hours, the train left again for London, this time headed by
"Caerphilly Castle". The only passengers were officials of the Great
Western Railway Company.
1930
The first closure of a local GWR branch line came on July
7th 1930, when the line to Yealmpton
ceased
to operate passenger trains, resulting in the closure of not only stations on the branch
but also of Laira Halt.
Lipson Vale Halt was used by
Southern Railway trains only from that date. On October 27th
1930 came the closure of Defiance Platform.
1931
Laira Locomotive Depot was extended in 1931 by means of a
straight shed and the one at Millbay was finally closed. A new exit road and
crossover was provided on Number One Curve as from September 18th 1931.
1934
During 1934 the Great
Western Railway renewed the girder bridge taking the main line over the
Southern Railway line at
St Budeaux. An
80 feet long girder that had been removed from the old bridge had been
lifted and placed on a low truck, which had then been transported to a small
siding nearby for the night. On the morning of Sunday April 22nd 1934
the girder was fixed to grappling hooks fixed to two 36 ton cranes at each
end of the girder ready to transfer it to a special cradle. The cranes
lifted the girder and moved around to deposit it in the cradle but when they
stopped the momentum took the swinging, 40 to 50 ton girder out over the
edge of the embankment and started to pull one of the cranes with it.
The driver of the second crane hastily lowered his end of the girder in an
effort to prevent the inevitable but the girder and one crane went crashing
down the embankment, tearing about six feet of earth away on its journey.
The crane driver managed to jump free and shouted a warning to the other
workmen. His crane ended up on its side half-way down the embankment.
Repair work was started immediately and within four hours the crane and
girder were back in their proper positions. No men were injured and
the whole mishap was viewed as 'an unfortunate incident'. [4]
Another unusual visitor to the Great Western main line was
the Southern Railway's Number 859, "Lord Hood",
which in 1934 used the GWR between Exeter and Devonport Junction to get access to Devonport Station, where she was
exhibited between August 7th and 9th 1934 as a part of Navy Week.
During the night of Wednesday October 10th 1934 the
show train belonging to "His Master's Voice" rolled into
North Road Plymouth
Station. It was open to the public on the Thursday and then
quietly steamed off to Torquay. Captain Sidney Moon, of
Messrs Moon and Sons, the Plymouth
radio and record dealer, helped Mr G M Fenwick of HMV to conduct the Deputy
Mayor of Plymouth, Mr W L Bastard, and his wife through the exhibition.
[4a]
1935
Passengers waiting for
their trains at North Road Station
on Thursday March 28th 1935 were witnesses to another unusual visitor.
Promptly at 12.25pm the Great Western Railway's streamlined locomotive "King
Henry VII" pulled in on the 5.30am train from Paddington. At Newton
Abbot the London crew had been changed and driver Mr James Prowse and
fireman Mr John Easton had brought the new-style locomotive on to Plymouth.
Mr F Sheldon, a chief inspector at Swindon Works, had accompanied the train
throughout. "King Henry VII" left
North Road again at 3.55pm
bound for Bristol Temple Meads. [5]
1936
On Sunday June 28th 1936
a party of holiday-makers from Taunton used one of the new diesel railcars
to journey through Plymouth to Newquay in Cornwall. This was the first
recorded visit of a diesel to either county. The passengers were well
satisfied with the comfort and the driver with its perfomance. When a
GWR official was asked if the new type would be used on the Plymouth to Saltash
suburban service he replied that it was unlikely until the new
extensions to Seaton and Downderry were completed. The railcar worked
so well on its return journey that it arrived back at Taunton at 9.21pm,
twenty minutes early. [6]
1937
During 1937 the viaduct across St Levan Road was
reconstructed and over the weekend of January 22nd/23rd 1938 North Road West signal box
was physically moved to make way for a new line. This latter event was the start of
the rebuilding of North Road Station. It was to
have seven through platforms, most of which were designed for bi-directional
working. However, the War intervened and it
was not completed until the 1960s.
1939
Mutley Station,
just a fraction to the east of North Road Station, was
closed from March 2nd 1939, prior to the new North Road East signal box being brought into
operation on June 25th.
Anticipating the declaration of War that was about to come, the railways were once
again brought under Government control by The Railway Control Order (Statutory Rules and
Orders 1939 No. 1197).
Following the start of the Second World War on September 3rd 1939, the Great
Western Railway dusted off plans for the connection of the line with the
Southern Railway at St Budeaux. If it were brought into
existence, it would enable the direct transfer of traffic between the Royal Dockyard and the new Royal Naval Armament Depot at Ernesettle.
1940
Early in September 1940 the Docks Manager at
Millbay, Mr E W Gould, retired. [7]
1941
In the meantime, on February 12th 1941 a new depot for the War Department had been opened at Coypool,
adjacent to Marsh Mills Station on the line to Launceston.
The connection between the Great Western and
Southern Railways at Saint Budeaux Station was brought into use during March 1941.
The blitz on Plymouth
and Devonport in March and April 1941 certainly claimed three railway victims.
Millbay Station was closed to passengers from
April 23rd after bombing. Saint Budeaux West signal ox was put out of use on April 28th
by a direct hit, and on April 30th the Great Western's locomotive 4911 "Bowden
Hall" was damaged by bomb blast after being brought to a stand at Keyham signal box during an air raid.
Millbay was destined never to reopen, Saint
Budeaux West signal box was replaced with a new one on November 5th 1941 and "Bowden
Hall" was scrapped.
Trains to
Yealmpton
started running again on July 21st 1941 when unadvertised workmen's trains were put
on. The branch was officially reopened on November 3rd but the service ran from
Friary Station instead of
North Road.
On November 6th
1941
Ford
Halt on the line between Dockyard Halt and
Keyham Station was closed, following bombing of
the surrounding area.
1942
It was observed in February 1942 that the number of
trains to and from Plymouth worked by King-class locomotives was at a record
low level. They normally operated the 12.50am News, the 10.30am,
1.30pm and 4.15pm passenger trains from Paddington and the 11.15am, 12.30pm,
3.50pm passenger and 7.30pm Perishables trains in the Up direction, as well
as the 11.30pm overnight service. However, it was also noted that
frequently a Castle-class engine would be used instead of the King except on
the Cornish Riviera Expresses. [TRO156]
Another casualty of the War was
Lipson Vale Halt, between
Mutley and
Laira,
which was closed from May 4th 1942 and dismantled because its wooden platforms were
considered a fire risk.
Some locomotive exchange workings between Plymouth
and Exeter were noted in 1942. GWR 7321 worked the 2.25pm from
Plymouth Friary to Exeter and returned on the 7.05pm from Exeter Central
while number 6385 had also been noted on the 4.40pm from Friary. The
latter ran light back to Exeter Saint David's Station rather than working a
train back. Southern Railway number 1408 worked the 11.25am from
Exeter Saint David's Station on Friday June 19th 1942. [TRO161]
1943
The "Cornish Riviera Express" left Plymouth North
Road Station at 12.30pm on September 1st 1943 hauled by numbers 2947 and
2950. Normally drawn by either a "King" or a "Castle", it was some 16
years since a "Saint" had been seen in charge of this important train.
[TRO177]
During the period between
December 23rd 1943 and January 1st 1944 the 10.25am from Bristol reverted
from running over the Southern Railway
main line from Exeter to Plymouth to the GWR one. It was said that
this was because the load was too heavy for the Southern locomotives
available at the time. [TRO180]
1944
On March 23rd 1944 United
States' 2-8-0 number 2847 was noted at Laira Shed, resplendent with the
allocation letters 'LA' on the bufferbeam. It was apparently being run
in prior to being sent to South Wales for storage and inadvertently got
taken on the permanent stock at Laira. [TRO188]
The Liverpool to Plymouth train was apparently a
pretty poor time-keeper, usually running anything up to two hours late.
However, on September 7th 1944 it arrived in Plymouth only 16 minutes late
despite a journey of 10 hours 46 minutes during which 2 hours and 14 minutes
were spent at stations. [TRO188]
It was claimed that during 1944, for the first time
on record, all the "King" class locomotives visited Plymouth.
[TRO194]
1945
January 9th 1945
On January 9th 1945 the London-bound "Cornish
Riviera Limited" was hauled out of Plymouth North Road by 6009 piloted by
3446 and on January 10th 1945 numbers 6014 and 5077 fulfilled the same duty.
[TRO192]
In the early months of
1945 LMS locomotive number 8435, which was allocated to the GWR's Penzance
Depot, was almost exclusively occupied in running freight traffic between
there and Tavistock Junction Marshalling Yard, Plymouth. [TRO194]
January 25th 1945
What was claimed at the time to be the last visit to
Plymouth of a War Department 2-8-0 took place on January 25th 1945, when
number 7217 was noted. [TRO194]
January 26th 1945
On January 26th 1945 the previous evening's 7.05pm
from Liverpool Lime Street to Penzance, due at Plymouth at 11.05am that
morning, arrived at Plymouth at 7.30pm and still had a further three hours
journey ahead of it to Penzance. [TRO194]
Saturday August 4th 1945
Southern Railway
locomotive number 1871 was noted working the 11.25am from Exeter Saint David's
to Plymouth exchange working on Saturday August 4th 1945, piloted from
Newton Abbot to Plymouth by GWR 3446. [TRO200]
Wednesday August 8th 1945
1871 was noted on the 4.35pm Plymouth North road to
Exeter Saint David's on Wednesday August 8th 1945. [TRO199]
August Bank Holiday Monday
A London, Midland & Scottish Railway locomotive,
number 8433, was an unusual visitor to Plymouth on the August Bank Holiday
Monday, when it brought the first part of the down North Mail into Plymouth
North Road Station. [TRO200]
Saturday September 8th 1945
The 6.10pm Marsh Mills to Saint Austell unadvertised
workmen's train on Saturday September 8th 1945 was hauled by number 6513.
This was the return working of the 5.20am from Saint Austell and was for the
benefit of the china clay workers. [TRO200]
Friday September 14th 1945
2-8-2 tank locomotive
number 7224 was noted at Plymouth on Friday September 14th 1945. [TRO200]
Wednesday October 31st 1945
On Wednesday October 31st 1945 No. 1000, the first
of the new "County" class, paid its first visit to Plymouth, arriving with
the 5.30am from London Paddington. The following day it left Plymouth
at the head of the 1pm to the North of England. Normally that train
was double-headed but on this occasion the 11-coach train left with no pilot
engine. [TRO202]
1946
April 1946
In April 1946, at the height of the Cornish broccoli
season, 19 trains were despatched from Penzance and Marazion Stations in one
day. Among those locomotives recorded as hauling these special trains
wer numbers 4927; 4971; 4978; 5957; 6840; 6857; 6862; 6874; and 6878.
[TRO208]
April 8th 1946
The 15-coach Up "Cornish Riviera" was hauled on
April, 8th 1946 by an unidentified Bulldog-class piloting King-class 6010,
when the King failed at Tavistock Junction. It was
replaced with number 5095. The train was over an hour late arriving at
Paddington. [TRO208]
June 1946
It was noted in June 1946 that 2-6-0 numbers 9301,
9312, and 9313 had all been seen working through Plymouth into Cornwall.
[TRO208]
On June 10th 1946 number 6911 blew off her left
cylinder head at
North Road Station when passing through on an Up parcel train.
Number 6942 came from Laira to take forward the parcel train and number 4703
was used to remove the failed engine to Laira Shed. [TRO209]
With the Cornish broccoli season at an end, no fewer
than 17 Cornish potato specials passed through Plymouth on Wednesday June
12th 1946. [TRO209]
A 'New Fast Restaurant-Car Train to London'
was advertised by the Great Western Railway in June 1946. It left
North Road Plymouth Station at 7.20am and was due to arrive at London
Paddington at 12.15pm. The service was run on weekdays until October
6th 1946. [8]
July 1946
It was reported that 0-6-0T number 5403 had for a
few days worked as the
North Road Station
pilot. It was believed that it was also used on the
Saltash motors.
Another of that class, number 5412, had been to Swindon and Taunton but was
now back at Laira Shed. A
Saint Blazey loco, 2-6-2T number 4407, had been on loan to Laira to work the GWR Princetown Branch
while both 4402 and 4410 were being repaired. [TRO209]
Summer 1946
The GWR/SR
interchange workings were reported in September 1946 as being:
- GWR Exeter Central 11.46am, return from Plymouth
Friary Station at 4.40pm;
- GWR (except on Mondays) Plymouth
Friary depart 2.35pm, return from Exeter Central at 7.05pm.
- SR
Exeter Saint David's 11.35am, return from
Plymouth
Friary Station at 4.30pm;
- SR
(except on Mondays)
North
Road Station 2.30pm, return from Exeter Saint David's on the
Down parcels train.
On Mondays only the trains from Plymouth to Exeter were worked
by their parent companies.
- On Sundays only - GWR Exeter Riverside
(freight only) over the Southern Railway main line to Tavistock
Junction, arriving at around 3pm; return from Tavistock Junction
at around 4pm. [TRO211]
For the past six months the Laira engine had been
2-6-0 number 5361 but on August 8th 1946 "Bulldog" class number 3401
"Vancouver" was used instead. Permission had been granted for GWR
locos of the "Star", "Hall" and "Grange" classes to run over the Southern
main line between Cowley Bridge Junction and Devonport Junction in an
emergency subject to a speed limit of 25mph. [TRO211]
Autumn 1946
"County" class number 1019 "County of Merioneth" was
in 1946 shedded at Penzance and it was recorded in October 1946 that it was
regularly employed on the 7.40am Penzance to Plymouth, where it waited until
1pm to pick up the 10.10am Penzance to Liverpool and take it as far as
Newton Abbot. It returned to Penzance heading the 10.40am from
Wolverhampton. 'The engine is kept in spotless condition with all
the brass work highly polished', reported the RCTS correspondent.
[TRO212]
It was also reported in October 1946 that during the
summer an Exeter-based "Castle" or sometimes "Star" class number 4054, was
booked to arrive at Plymouth around 8am on a parcels train. After a
short visit to Laira shed it would return in time to take the 11.20am
Plymouth to Penzance stopping train onwards into Cornwall. It would
then work back to Plymouth on the 10.10am from Penzance and at North Road
transfer to the 1.30pm departure (10.40am off Penzance) which it headed back
as far as its home shed at Exeter. Every Saturday the locomotive did
the Down run as usual but did not return until the Monday. On the
Sunday in between it did a trip from Penzance to Plymouth and back.
[TRO212]
November 16th 1946
"Saint" class number 2929 was recorded as working
the 11am Plymouth to Penzance train on November 16th 1946 instead of the
usual Exeter-based "Castle" or "Star". In the same month the "Cornish
Riviera" between Plymouth and Penzance was worked by Laira-based "County"
class locos including 1004 and 1009. [TRO214]
1947
February 1st - 3rd 1947
The winter of 1946-47 was one of the worst on record
and not surprisingly this badly affected the
Princetown Branch.
Princetown was cut off by drifts as high as 14 feet. A snow plough was
despatched from Plymouth with food supplies for Princetown on the morning of
Saturday February 1st 1947 but it did not reach the village until 8.45 that
evening. On the way it stopped to deliver food to isolated farms and
cottages. After unloading at Princetown the plough was turned and the
short train started off back to Plymouth. The blizzard was still
raging, however, and about two miles from Princetown, at around about
11.40pm, the train found the way impassable. On the Sunday morning the
team managed to extricate their plough and took it back to Princetown while
a relief plough made its way from Plymouth and eventually reached
Princetowen late on the Sunday afternoon. Both ploughs then made their
way back home to Laira Depot
after some 34 hours of snow clearing. [9]
October 7th 1947
The
Yealmpton
branch was once again closed to passenger traffic on October 7th 1947.
December 31st 1947
The Great Western remained an independent railway company
beyond the amalgamations of 1923 that created "the big four" and was the only
company to retain its original title. It only ceased to exist from Midnight on
December 31st 1947, following which its system became the
Western
Region of British Railways, under the terms set out in the Transport Act of August 6th
1947.
Locomotive number 5037 "Monmouth Castle" hauled the
last Great Western Railway train out of London Paddington Station, the
11.50pm to Penzance. [TRO228]
Sources (incomplete):
[0] "Railway Accident Near
Cornwood", Western Daily Mercury, Plymouth, December 15th
1884.
[0a] "Plymouth Mercantile
Association: Railway Matters", Western Morning News,
Plymouth, January 2nd 1902.
[1] "Railway Run to the West: A
New GWR Record to be Established: 246 Miles without Stopping, in 270
Minutes", Western Morning News, Plymouth, July 13th 1903.
[2] "Great Western Railway Fast
Express Trains", Western Morning News, Plymouth, July 20th
1903.
[3] "New Ambulance Train at
Plymouth: Mayor's Visit and Appreciation", Western Morning News,
Plymouth, May 2nd 1916.
[4] "Plucky Crane Drivers:
Girder Crashes at St Budeaux: Plunge Down an Embankment", Western
Morning News, Plymouth, April 23rd 1934.
[4a] "Show Train's Visit:
Deputy-Mayor's Inspection at Plymouth", Western Morning News,
Plymouth, October 12th 1934.
[5] ?
[6] ?
[7] ?
[8] "New Fast Restaurant-Car
Train to London", advert, Western Morning News, Plymouth,
June 4th 1946.
[9] "Marooned in Drift: 8 GWR
Men See It Through", Western Morning News, Plymouth, February
3rd 1947.
and the following issues of "The
Railway Observer", published by The Railway Correspondence and
Travel Society:
[TRO156] February 1942; [TRO177] November 1943; [TRO180]
February 1944; TRO188] October 1944; [TRO192] February 1945; [TRO194]
April 1945; [TRO199] September 1945; [TRO200] October 1945; [TRO202]
December 1945; [TRO208] June 1946; [TRO209] July 1946; [TRO211]
September 1946; [TRO212] October 1946; [TRO214] December 1946; and [TRO228] February 1948.
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