Framed by signals, D1051 “WESTERN AMBASSADOR” waits as a few passengers board on Platform 1. The DMU in the background is probably from St Ives, some services of which ran through to Penzance. 74###AE01-PNZ-D1051-PAS_U
By 1974, Penzance Station shunting was now being carried out more often by large locos. Westerns were most frequent on this duty, and even on Rail Strike Day, 15th January, “WESTERN LEVIATHAN” was parked up with ‘Penzance Pilot’ chalked on its side – otherwise classes 25, 45 and 47 all took turns too. A couple of weeks later rough conditions combined with an exceptionally high tide led to floods cutting off West Cornwall from the rest of the rail network and damage to the line just outside the station where Chyandour stream meets the sea. The rail overbridge at this point has granite piers and parapets, marking where the end of a long wooden viaduct once carried a single broad gauge track into the station.
This is where the trackbed is supported on granite piers at Chyandour brook. D1037 “WESTERN EMPRESS” makes for the sheds on the inmost road, her exhaust being blown eastwards by a strong breeze. 740916A01-CYR-D1037-LIG_U
The viaduct here had been twice before destroyed by the sea and rebuilt, and was subsequently replaced by a granite embankment in Victorian times. When the wind blows from the SSW and the tide is high, the area is pounded with waves – spray from which crashes onto the locos or stock parked there and even flying high above the tall signal posts. Any locos positioned there because they didn’t require refueling were removed to the comparative shelter of the yard beside the station, and trains crept slowly past, usually avoiding direct wave contact, but carriage windows would still stream with water from the spray.
Even when the more permanent wall-protected solution to the sea damage problem was addressed, the waves at Chyandour still pounded high above the track causing flooding, and the necessity to sometimes start services from Marazion, as this 1930 picture shows. 3011#AA03-PNZ-WALLS-VI__N
At the beginning of February test borings were being carried out in the eastern goods yard area, and a BR employee speculated that it was to do with one of the signal boxes he had heard of being “taken out”. As the closest was Long Rock, and Ponsandane had just received new gates which were controlled from that cabin, I puzzled how the busier box, and one controlling entry to the Engine Sheds, could possibly be the victim. Long Rock already had lifting barriers from as far back as I can remember because as kids, we would unsuccessfully try to cling to these gates as they raised, waiting to cross the line to the beach with our towels and “cossies”.
The crossing at Long Rock with new lifting gates installed in 1961. As this was the main crossing onto the beach, replacement came earlier than Ponsandane. St Michael’s Mount peeps above the north easterly end. 610521A01-LRK-CRSNG-VIS_S
Locos used the up line more than the down here because beside normal main line activity, access to and from the sheds depended on them waiting on the inland track of this crossing for a change of the indicator signal before powering off westwards, either to switch to the down line, increasing speed back to the station, or slowly pick the way over the points to the depot. The signalman would sometimes push back his window and pass the time of day with the driver, too, as this was a fairly isolated position.
Long Rock crossing with its gates set against road traffic, a little distant from the depot in the background. There is a rake of coal-filled mineral wagons in a siding, a ‘Warship’ outside the shed, and a steam loco beyond it. 6103#AA01-LRK-CRSNG-VI_NW
With 08951 being pushed to the back of those sheds for a few weeks at Long Rock, both goods yard and station shunting were carried out by Type 4’s for a while. 1066 “WESTERN PREFECT” and 1067 “WESTERN DRUID” visited, with nameplates so dirty they were barely readable, and D1003 of Z- condition contrasted with 1024, “WESTERN HUNTSMAN” which arrived in ex-Works appearance. Simply for the record, on 5th March in Redruth, another new era was heralded as I saw my first Class 50 travelling light engine on the down line across the viaduct, presumably on clearance trials, and discovered it was 50027 as it returned eastwards.
A rejected picture, reinstated, as it is the only one I have of a Class 08 shunter in Long Rock shed – undergoing repair in the Fitting Bay. Shunters received light repairs here and although I took this, I don’t remember 08402 ever being here! 760605Z01-LRK-08402-PARKD
Penzance’s shunter returned to service, scrubbed externally but not repainted, and more ex-Works arrivals like 1072 “WESTERN GLORY” and 1023 “WESTERN FUSILIER” brightened the shed. I noted “Yellow handles on every Western’s battery boxes” in my log book, but I suspect this is what I had heard rather than seen as a result of the London derailment involving “WESTERN TALISMAN”. Widespread change of some sort was definitely happening as a new electric light signal was erected at Marazion Marshes, where the line leaves the coast and goes inland, and another on an extended arm across the tracks at Ponsandane. I then heard about the building of a new depot, the axing of two signal boxes and the singling of the line into the terminus, As Penzance’s ground frame was in good condition, this was probably the one to be saved, I was told, and with Plymouth’s MAS scheme well advanced at this time, it was a relief that not everything was to be centralised there.
Another “brightening” of the rail scene in 1974 was the appearance of D1013 “WESTERN RANGER” with red backgrounds to its name and number plates, and white surrounds to its wheels. The loco shunts mineral empties in Ponsandane Yard. 74###AG01-PDN-d1013-MINLS
On the 5th of April 1052 “WESTERN VICEROY” was taking my train to college, but it failed conveniently outside the depot and was replaced by 1021 “WESTERN CAVALIER”: five days later 1062 “WESTERN COURIER” also broke down on my return journey at St. Erth. Repairs were made to the pointing of the sea wall at Chyandour, a control box was added beside Penzance Signal Box, and half-barriers replaced the single arms at Long Rock. Sightings this month included 1046 “WESTERN MARQUIS” that looked as if whitewash had been poured down its side, and D1012 “WESTERN FIREBRAND” that appeared fine from one side, but had pit holes on the other that had alone been touched up, and the lower part of the loco was still extensively covered in rust. It was also displaying the first small squarish ‘LA’ depot sticker I’d seen.
Rolling in to Paddington at the end of its run, D1046 ‘WESTERN MARQUIS’ passes the departure side signal box, and a dangerously-close trackside worker who at least is wearing a clearly-visible fluorescent tabard. 74###AJ01-PAD-D1046-PAS_U
In the middle of May a steam crane lowered additional boulders over the sea wall parapets at Chyandour to break up the force of strong incoming waves and drainage work continued along to Marazion where the earlier flooding had occurred. The semaphores lost their arms, single-line working was introduced and new shunting signals positioned. The first air conditioned coaches I had seen in West Cornwall arrived in a down passenger train at the end of the month, and then amidst all this change I left the area for the early part of the Summer for holiday work in Oxford. Although not “Riviera” country, for the record I’ll just say that between here and London I saw six of the remaining nine Hymeks a few dozen times altogether on various duties, but most often parked up on Oxford depot. It was good to get up close to some of these on occasions, and even be permitted to cab 7018.
Most of my sightings of the remaining ‘Hymeks’ were captured glimpses, like this, from a train. 7017 was one of the fortunate ones to live on in preservation and it waits at Reading, bearing vinyl replacement numbers instead of aluminium ones. 740528A01-RDG-d7017-PAS_D
After a few brief days back in Penzance it was off to London for a quick visit where I made a couple of handfuls of Hymek sightings including those lined up for scrap at Old Oak Common, plus 7028 on a parcels at West Drayton – a loco I’d missed on my visits from Oxford. Passing Laira it seemed that some Westerns I thought scrapped had been reinstated, and all too soon the Summer was over and my wander lust curtailed.
‘Westerns’ still populate their “cathedral” at Laira, on this view taken from the main line fronting the building. Although difficult to see in the twilight, to the left of two of the class are an 08 shunter, DMU and ‘Peak’ Class 46 – typically pouring out exhaust! 741026A01-LRA-DEPOT-VI_SW
In September I noted what I think was D1033 “WESTERN TROOPER” leading a dynometer car and a couple of carriages up the main line, and D1064 “WESTERN REGENT” in A+++ condition with white wheel rims on one side, but not so treated on the other. My first 50/52 sighting was when 50050 and D1072 “WESTERN GLORY” arrived on a down passenger in Penzance on the 20th, and I recorded damage to “ODIN”’s plate and the absence of “ISAMBARD KINGDOM BRUNEL”’s. The year drew to a close with the demolition of Ponsandane and Long Rock signal boxes, and telegraph poles lopped as far as Marazion. Sad it was that no longer would I hear the whistling of the wind off the sea in the rigging of the telegraph, the ring of bells in the signal boxes as I passed their sites, nor the clang of a semaphore as a lower quadrant fell into place.
This long nameplate so suited the long slab side of the Class 47 loco, and I am glad that this loco carried at least one when this picture was taken in 1976. The 17 such “GWR” diesel electrics certainly helped better endear the class to hydraulic enthusiasts. 760731A01-LDR-47484-NAMEP
Example of a Loco Log entry during 1974
Sat 29/06/1974 Penzance to Long Rock, return
D1063 PassD 2B10 LA WESTERN MONITOR
47024 PassU 1M96 BR
50027 ParcD 1B83 LA
08928 ShunG PZ
M50379 Parkd C.C.E.D.V.I.U.No.1
25307 Parkd Z88 LA
47254 Parkd 1C83 CF
1012 Parkd LA WESTERN FIREBRAND
D1049 Parkd 1C52 LA WESTERN MONARCH (A)
45003 Parkd 1V37 TO [number at both ends of loco]
1008 Parkd 1A79 LA WESTERN HARRIER (A)
1073 Parkd 1A09 LA WESTERN BULWARK (A)
47085 PassU 1A4- OC Mammoth
D1001 LtEnD 4B08 LA WESTERN PATHFINDER (C)
1012 LtEnD LA WESTERN FIREBRAND
1012 PassU LA WESTERN FIREBRAND
50027 GoodU 4B17 LA
D1063 Parkd 2B10 LA WESTERN MONITOR (A)
D1001 Parkd LA WESTERN PATHFINDER (C)
The Eric Curnow Collection 