Laira TMD

Laira TMD

Laira TMD is a railway Traction Maintenance Depot situated in Plymouth, Devon, England. The depot is operated by First Great Western and is mainly concerned with the overhaul and daily servicing of their fleet of High Speed Trains and also the DMUs used on local services. The depot code "LA" is used to identify rolling stock based there.

After sixty years as a steam depot, servicing locomotives used on the London to Penzance Line that runs past the shed as well as local lines, a diesel depot opened in 1962 and was expanded in 1981 to accommodate the High Speed Trains.

History

Steam shed

Laira was the location of the temporary terminus of the South Devon Railway from 5 May 1848 when a small engine shed would have been provided. With the completion of the line to Plymouth Millbay railway station on 2 April 1849 a new shed was provided there and the facilities at Laira dismantled, although it remained a junction for the branch line to Sutton Harbour which was mixed gauge for the use of the Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway.

The Great Western Railway, which had amalgamated with the South Devon Railway on 1 February 1876, a new engine shed opened at Laira in 1901cite book | last = Smith | first = Martin | title = An Illustrated History of Plymouth's Railways | publisher = Irwell Press | date = 1995 | location = Caernarfon | id = ISBN 1871608414 ] 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. [cite book | last = Baker | first = S.K. | title = Rail Atlas Great Britain & Ireland | publisher = Oxford Publishing Company | id = ISBN 0-86093-553-1] 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 convert|65|ft|m turntable in the middle. 28 lines radiated from the turntable for stabling locomotivesand 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. [cite book| last = Oakley| first = Mike| title = Devon Railway Stations| publisher = The Dovecote Press| date = 2007| location = Wimbourne| id = ISBN 1-904349-55-6] 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"."Laira '91", InterCity Laira (1991)] At the same time the coaling stage was raised and a new 50 ton hoist supplemented the smaller ones in the roundhouse.

Diesel shed

Warship Class diesel-hydraulic locomotives started to appear in 1958 and were at first accommodated in the New Shed alongside steam locomotives, The Laira marshalling yard alongside Embankment Road was closed in 1958 to make room for carriage sidings and a new diesel shed, which was fully opened on 13 March 1962, although parts had been in use since 1960.cite book | last = Reed | first = Brian | title = Diesel-Hydraulic Locomotives of the Western Region | publisher = David and Charles | date = 1975 | location = Newton Abbot | id = ISBN 0-7153-6769-2]

Laira was designed for the servicing and heavy maintenance of the diesel-hydraulic locomotives favoured by the Western Region of British Railways (the depot became well known as the final home of the "Western" Class). It also handled the local diesel electric shunter and DMU fleets, although servicing of the latter was done initially at Belmont sidings at Millbay.

The diesel shed was in reinforced concrete and comprised three adjoining buildings. The servicing and maintenance building that covers roads 1-4 is on the western side of the shed; number 1 road is equipped with a wheel lathe and lifting jacks for bogie changes. The central building was the Heavy Maintenance Shed; engines can be removed and repainting undertaken on the two roads, numbers 5 and 6. The final three roads were in the servicing shed on the eastern side of the site, where locomotives could be inspected and refuelled. There were covered fuelling points outside in the yard, supplied by a 45,000 gallon fuel tank. A small group of buildings house stores and a workshop for shed equipment and is situated between the main shed and the curve of the Sutton Harbour branch (now realigned to the west of the shed and known locally as the "Speedway"). Carriage washing takes place south of the shed at Mount Gould, alongside the line to Plymouth Friary.

On 30 September 1981 a new shed, convert|750|m|ft long was built on the site of the old servcing shed that can accommodate the eight coaches and two Class 43 power cars of a High Speed Train set.

Following the withdrawal of steam from the area in 1964, the roundhouse was closed on 13 June 1965 and the area used for additional siding space. [cite book | last = Cooke | first = R A | title = Track Layout Diagrams of the GWR and BR WR: Section 12, Plymouth | publisher = R A Cooke | date = 1979 | location = Harwell] This area was later modernised and fenced off in readiness for servicing the Nightstar Channel Tunnel sleeper coaches, but the proposed service from Plymouth to Paris Gare du Nord never materialised.

Allocation

Up to the 1960s Laira had an allocation that consisted of a wide variety of Great Western Railway motive power, including "Castle" Class and "King" Class express passenger locomotives.

During the 1960s and 1970s it was well known for its fleet of "Western" Class diesel-hydraulics. The last of these were withdrawan in 1977, by which time British Rail Class 50 diesel-electric locomotives had taken over many of their duties. These were later given Warship names in the same manner as the first diesel hydraulics. A fleet of DMUs was also stationed here for operating the branch lines in Devon and Cornwall.

In recent years the allocation has solely consisted of British Rail Class 08 or Class 09 shunting locomotives, along with some Class 43 power cars for High Speed Trains. The DMUs were operated from Cardiff Canton TMD for several years, but from December 2007 it has received a new allocation of two-car Class 150 and single-car Class 153 DMUs. ["Fleet and Lineside News", Rail Magazine, 16 January 2008]

hed codes

The following shed codes have been used to identify locomotives allocated to Laira:

Named locomotives

Locomotives named after Laira shed have been:
* 3326 "Laira" GWR Bulldog Class 4-4-0 steam locomotive
* 08641 "Laira" British Rail Class 08 0-6-0 diesel shunting locomotive
* 43179 "Pride of Laira" British Rail Class 43 (HST) power car

References

Further reading

*cite web | last =Mosley | first =Brian | title =Laira Motive Power Depot and Yard | work =Encyclopedia of Plymouth History | publisher =Plymouth Data | url =http://www.plymouthdata.info/Railways-Laira%20MPD-Yard.htm | accessdate = 2008-07-22


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Penzance TMD — Also known as Long Rock TMD is a railway Traction Maintenance Depot situated in the village of Long Rock outside of Penzance, Cornwall, United Kingdom, and is the most westerly and southerly rail depot in England. The depot operator is First… …   Wikipedia

  • Exeter TMD — is a railway Traction Maintenance Depot situated in Exeter, Devon, England, next to the city s main St Davids station. The depot is operated by First Great Western.There are 12 roads, the Traction Maintenance Depot (TMD) can hold 2 sets of… …   Wikipedia

  • Reading to Plymouth Line — The Reading Plymouth line is the central part of the trunk railway line between London Paddington and Penzance railway stations in the southern United Kingdom. It is a major branch of the Great Western Main Line and diverges at Reading, running… …   Wikipedia

  • Night Riviera — Night Riviera …   Wikipedia

  • Devonport Kings Road railway station — [v · d · …   Wikipedia

  • Reading–Plymouth Line — Legende 0.00 …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Bahnstrecke Reading–Plymouth — Reading–Plymouth Legende …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • South Devon and Tavistock Railway — Cann Viaduct The South Devon and Tavistock Railway was a broad gauge railway linking Plymouth with Tavistock in Devon, England. It opened in 1859, was extended by the Launceston and South Devon Railway to Launceston, Cornwall …   Wikipedia

  • GWR 4900 Class 5972 Olton Hall — GWR Hall Class no. 5972 Olton Hall on display at Doncaster Works open day on 27th July 2003 Power type Steam Designer …   Wikipedia

  • Moorswater railway station — Moorswater Location Coordinates …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”