The British Empire and its effect on Plymouth

Laira Depot

The Great Western Railway, which had amalgamated with the South Devon Railway on 1 February 1876, a new engine shed opened at Laira in 1901 on a site inside a triangle of lines formed by the main line, Sutton Harbour branch, and a curve that was mainly used by London and South Western Railway trains to reach their terminus at Plymouth Friary. It was adjacent to the Embankment Road with the estuary of the River Plym just the other side of the road. The shed was a 434 by 181 feet (132 by 55 metre) brick roundhouse with a 65 feet (20 m) turntable in the middle. 28 lines radiated from the turntable for stabling locomotives and it was fitted with a 20 ton hoist for lifting locomotives (a 35 ton one was added later).
A small railway station known as Laira Halt was opened on the adjacent main line on 1 June 1904 but closed again on 7 July 1930. The shed at Millbay closed in 1925 and in 1931 a new 210 by 67 feet (64 by 20 metre) four track shed was brought into use just to the south of the roundhouse, funded by a government loan under the Development (Loan Guarantees and Grants) Act 1929. This became known as the "Long Shed" or "New Shed". At the same time the coaling stage was raised and a new 50 ton hoist supplemented the smaller ones in the roundhouse. The coaling stage was unusual in that locomotives could be coaled on both sides (i.e. north side or south side). In fact 99% of locomotives were coaled and serviced on the north side where there was plenty of room to dump the smokebox ash. On a summer Saturday in the 1950s there were so many steam locos arriving in Plymouth that there would be queue of locos waiting to be serviced and coaled. This would extend several hundred yards to the east of the coaling stage.

Percy Luscombe Article | Empire in Your Backyard: Plymouth Article