PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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PLYMOUTH STATION formerly PLYMOUTH NORTH ROAD STATION Plymouth Station is located between on the old Great Western Railway main line, between Totnes and Devonport Stations. It was formerly between Mutley and Devonport Albert Road Stations. It is adjacent to Glen Park Avenue and Pennycromequick Hill. Plymouth North Road Station The Station was built by the Great Western Railway and opened on Wednesday March 28th 1877. It was a joint station, run by both the GWR and the London & South Western Railway and each Company had its own staff. Although it was planned to be constructed of stone, the Great Western's delay in starting work (after all it had two other stations at Mutley and Millbay) forced the LSWR to lose its patience. After putting legal pressure on the GWR, work was finally started on a wooden structure. It survived as such, even in spite of the bombing in the Second World War, until the rebuilding in the 1950s.
The railway station at North
Road, Plymouth, A full description of the Station appeared in the Western Daily Mercury for March 1st 1877. A refreshment room was opened in 1888. North Road Station was enlarged and new access roads laid in on both sides in 1908, when four through platforms were provided along with additional sidings. It was unusual in that platforms 1 and 2 along with 5 and 6 were served by single sets of rails, making loading and unloading from both sides of the train possible. This must have hindered getting trains away on time as both sides had to be checked to ensure the carriage doors were all closed. Track circuiting was installed in 1925 and in 1928, after the Royal Mail moved their sorting office into the new building in Cemetery Road, a parcel's office was established in the old building near the main Saltash Road. Motor delivery vehicles were introduced at the same time.
An Up train passes the old
parcel's office In 1935, when the Great Western Railway was taking part in the Government's New Works Scheme to aid unemployment, it was announced that the station would be enlarged to seven platforms. All the rail traffic would then be concentrated on North Road, enabling Millbay and Mutley Stations to be closed. Work started on the rebuilding in 1938 but was interrupted by the Second World War. Mutley Station was closed anyway, in 1939, and Herr Hitler took care of Millbay, which closed as a result of air raids in April 1941.
Plymouth's North Road West Signal
Box pictured Some work did take place before the Second World War. Platforms 7 and 8 were built, the West Signal Box was moved bodily and the East Signal Box was completely rebuilt. Read statistics relating to ticket sales at Plymouth North Road Station..........
A general view of North Road
Station from the The plan for the reconstruction and modernisation of North Road Station was approved in principle by the British Transport Commission at the start of February 1956. It was closely linked to the reconstruction of Plymouth's City Centre and the City Architect, Mr H J W Stirling, was consulted. In charge locally was Mr N S Cox, the District Engineer, and the plan was expected to cost around £1,500,000. The centre-piece was an eight-storey office block for the District Manager and his staff, on the ground floor of which would be a new booking office, inquiry offices, a modern parcels depot, and a left luggage hall. Although a restaurant was included in the original plan, it was removed on the grounds that as Plymouth was a terminal station passengers would either have eaten before they started out, been able to have a meal on the journey, or would get one once they had arrived at their destination in the City. By 1957 a combined refreshment and waiting room had been added on platforms 3 and 4. The existing refreshment room on platforms 7 and 8 was to be refurbished. Much of the reconstruction of the external rail lines had already been completed before the War but an additional arrival platform was to be provided so that there would be one arrival bay, three arrival platforms, a central through road and four departure platforms. By 1957 a combined refreshment and waiting room had been added on platforms 3 and 4. The existing refreshment room on platforms 7 and 8 was to be refurbished. In June 1957 the old parcel's office was closed and the District Engineer's Depot, which was right outside the main entrance to the Station, was transferred to the former Devonport Station Goods Yard at Valletort Road. The new signal box was to be built on the site of the parcel's office. Plymouth Station In the meantime, the Station became known simply as "Plymouth" from Monday September 15th 1958 following the closure of the City's other main station at Friary. Early on the morning of Friday July 1st 1960 the new marble-fronted booking office at Plymouth Station was opened for business. The booking staff obtained the tickets from automatic ticket machines, which was also a new innovation for the City. [1] At 4pm on Saturday November 26th 1960 work started on switching over from semaphore signalling to colour-light signalling at Plymouth Station. Trains were signalled by hand lamps while the old apparatus was being dismantled. When the work was completed on Monday November 28th 1960 and the new Plymouth Panel Box came in to operation, the signal boxes at Lipson Junction, North Road East, North Road West, Devonport Junction, Devonport Albert Road and Cornwall Junction were all closed. Thus Laira Junction Signal Box in the east and Keyham Signal Box in the west became the fringe boxes. Now eight signalmen could do the work previously done by twenty. Also, new colour light signals were brought into use at Mount Gould Junction. [2] The rebuilt station and the new tower block housing the District Manager's staff were officially opened by Doctor Richard Beeching, chairman of the British Railways Board, on Monday March 26th 1962. At the western end of Plymouth North Road Station was a turntable and engine sidings. The turntable could be accessed from the Down Main line and originally those locomotives that had been turned could be despatched on to the Up Main line. The connection to the Up Main was removed from Sunday October 13th 1963. Soon afterwards, on Sunday May 31st 1964, the connections from the line to Millbay Station were removed. The turntable itself was finally taken out of use in 1966 although the access siding remained until Sunday September 26th 1971, following the closure of the line to Millbay on Wednesday June 30th that year. The lines through platforms 2 and 3 were truncated halfway along and converted into two sets of terminal bays for parcel traffic. One of these is currently used by the trains to Gunnislake. The remaining five lines were all made two-directional. This work was done during March and April 1974 and brought into use on Monday April 29th 1974. Principal Source:
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