PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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LAIRA GREEN TEMPORARY STATION
Laira Green Temporary Station was located between Plympton and Mutley Stations on the Great Western Railway main line, at a point almost exactly 244 miles from London. It was adjacent to what is today known as Laira Avenue. This was outside the Borough of Plymouth at that time and in fact was on extra-parochial land reclaimed from Laira Creek. The Station was built by the South Devon Railway as the temporary terminus of its main line from Totnes. It was opened to passenger traffic on Friday May 5th 1848. Although the main line was single track, the section from Hemerdon Siding, at the top of Hemerdon Bank, through Plympton to Laira was double track. A signal protected the down line into the temporary station and the point at which the Plymouth & Dartmoor Railway crossed it. The Station comprised two sheds within which there was a refreshment room where 'spiritualistic liquor' was, of course, banned. Special horse buses ran from the Station into Plymouth at a single fare of sixpence but they were, apparently, totally inadequate. The first train was worked by two 4-coupled engines, “Pisces” and “Cancer”, the first driven by Mr Daniel Gooch himself and the second by Mr M C Rae. Laira Green Temporary Station was closed when the line was finally extended through to Millbay Station on Monday April 2nd 1849. At this point an Up signal similar to the Down one mentioned earlier was placed to protect the Plymouth & Dartmoor Railway but the Board of Trade inspector considered that it was too close to the crossing and ordered that it be moved three or four hundred yards further west. Although the Station was closed it did provide one further function. On Friday November 1st 1850 sixty prisoners were brought down (presumably from Exeter) on the mail train and deposited at the old Laira Station, where they were met by the 4th Regiment of Foot, under Ensign Hall. They put the men in 'waggons' on the Plymouth & Dartmoor Railway and they were thus transported to the refurbished prison at Princetown. [a] The site of the temporary station became part of the Laira Motive Power Depot and Freight Marshalling Yard. Sources (incomplete):
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