A battered D1048 “WESTERN LADY” heads an up perishables train at St Erth. The westbound platform ramp lies in the foreground, telegraph poles still flank the line, and milk tanks from the creamery awaiting movement east are parked in the yard behind. 761002B01-SER-D1048-VAN_U
My loco log entries for 1976 opened strongly for Westerns with five sightings on the first day of the new college term, compared with their sole compatriots of one class 50 and two shunters, but the proportion of class 52s never proved so strong again, and dwindled away as the class was taken out of service. With an anticipated commencement of the High Speed Train depot at Penzance, and the excuse of working towards my graphics diploma, I managed to get my tutors to agree a project brief on ‘The rail speed-up in Cornwall’. In order to use the corporate identity properly I got to look more thoroughly at the BRB manuals, and was impressed by what I saw.
A busy scene at Penzance with at least two ‘Westerns’ visible, and judging from the exhaust and signal on Platform 1, possibly another. In the foreground one arrives and one prepares to leave – though hemmed in by a GUV. 7####BX01-PNZ-D10##-PAS_D
So much thought had gone into the components! Although the ‘double arrow’ logo “seems” simple, to get it visually right, the diagonal struts are thinner, and for letterpress printing (a common printing process then) where the middle one joins the horizontals there is a slight curve, to stop ink congregating there and distorting the image. The upper and lower diagonals splay outwards away from the centre because otherwise it optically looks as if they taper there; and positive and negative versions are slightly differently-sized to appear correct when viewed together: this is particularly so when backlit, because the splay of light around the edges gives a halation effect. This research wasn’t strictly necessary for my project, of course, but it fascinated me anyway.
The new symbol, logotype, rail alphabet, house colours and their applications could be found in the manual, updated from time to time. This page is from a reprint of it – £75 from britishrailmanual.com (as at July 2020) – expensive, but excellent value. 200710A01-MIS-CORPM-LOGOS
It is a shame that because the implementation task was so huge, the corporate identity was never universally applied – although with a preference for Swindon influence, I was still glad to see a non-corporate green 47 arrive at Penzance, particularly if it carried a non-kosher red name in a serif typeface. A trip to Paddington for a design conference about three weeks into the New Year brought me 37 Western sightings, but seven of these were in Laira’s scrap lines viewed on the ways up and back, and two the same Western providing heating. Twelve Westerns were in active service in various ways, with minerals and goods beside the usual passenger duties, and I was also pleased by half a dozen named 47’s. It was a nice surprise, too, to see Western Duke on an up china clay train, as living to the west of the St Austell area as I did, such were exceptionally rare sightings for me; and also preserved 821, 7017 and 7029 on route – even the Hymek in Laira’s scrap line – were welcome. Old Oak’s HST shed was nearly finished as I passed on the return journey, and I wondered when Penzance’s would commence.
Apprentices at Swindon kept the external appearance of these “show locos” pristine, situated in full view of the main Bristol to London line. Sadly, the last remaining loco, 818 “GLORY”, was a scrap victim in the closure of the famous Works. 7609##A02-SWW-d818–PARKD
Long Rock MPD had changed little since the early Sixties when two of the 4 roads in the sheds were passed over to diesels and the others allowed to fall into neglect. The diesel shed had its ventilator hole above the entrance blocked up and in time the roof was replaced, with new ventilators, skylights and ducting. Locos would sometimes be buffered-up together under this roof, with more than one of them packing the air with exhaust as they ran their engines to warm them up for service, or while the fitters worked on a problem. With grimy, nearly full-length sunken pits between the rails for underframe inspection, and adjacent roughly-finished concrete floor, caked with layers of congealed oil, it was a gloomy and often damp interior, despite whatever lighting there was.
The north western corner of Long Rock Depot shelters D803 “ALBION’, next to the ‘Enginemen’ room, and the foreman’s office to its left. I used those wooden bridges across the inspection trench many times to avoid staff, when packed with locos. 6####FZ01-LRK–D803-PARKD
The noise could be deafening in that confined area with several operative locos together, and even if their power was switched off, their compressors periodically stuttered, and they made contraction noises as they cooled down – but however few were the locomotives, darting between and peering around then, made unwanted visitors like myself less obvious, so there was a little less likelihood of us being thrown out. The foreman’s office was near the back on the landward side of the shed, and by the time you’d visited him to ask permission to look around, you’d already seen much of what was on shed anyway. It just depended on the whim of the man on duty; sometimes it was fine with him as long as we kept a watch out for anything moving, and sometimes we were practically frog-marched off the premises – which somewhat dampened our ardor and prevented us publicly asking again for a week or two.
Smoking exhaust as it creeps over newly-laid track, D1005 “WESTERN VENTURER” heads for the sheds past building work that includes a wall for an ancillary building. The roofs of the old buildings are in a very poor state. 74###AH01-LRK-D1005-LIG_U
Appearances of Westerns parked on shed continued to be the most numerous category I saw of the nearly 300 sightings I made of this class in 1976, with many light engine movements back and forth to the station. There were 81 passenger train movements in my notebook, 28 on mail services, 15 sleeper, and a sprinkling of milk, goods and minerals workings. January brought 78 sightings, and each month sequentially following they were 37, 38, 23, 20, 19, 4, 25, 21, 15,16, and 8 in December – and although the Summer months were affected by my not traveling to college each day, the sequence still gives a rough indication of the demise of the class.
Two locos working together was at least a nice respite to the normal single ‘Western’ occupations that by now slightly bored me. D1072 “WESTERN GLORY” and another class mate wait at the buffers in Platform 3, next to the loading bays. 7509#AT01-PNZ-D1072-PAS_D
Western Fusilier was the most frequent visitor to the West of the 52’s in my experience this year – appearing in no more than average condition until its October revamp – and in the monthly figures, Empress and Musketeer predominated in February, Trooper in April, Fusilier was outshone by Glory, Pathfinder and Sultan in June, and Ranger and Lady, sequentially, in the early Autumn. Ambassador, Hussar and Lady were in good appearance until late Summer; Cavalier and Consort in poor until their disappearance off the scene, and in very poor condition were Prince and Nobleman until they, too, stopped visiting.
Waiting with empty coaching stock next to the shunter’s cabin on the east fringes of the Carriage Sidings, D1023 “WESTERN FUSILIER” – with headcode misleadingly set to ‘1000’ – looks decidedly tired and lack-lustre. 760601A01-LRK-D1023-E_C_S
Not only were the last “mobile” remnants of GWR philosophy fading with the rundown and gradual disappearance of the class 52 Westerns, but in West Cornwall the residual architecture of that company was also being swept away. Contractors’ buildings had arrived on Long Rock depot in mid-March and by less than a month later, the huge coaling tower and the hump it sat on – which had dominated the approach to the town since the 1930’s – were removed. Very sad days for me! I had sometimes lain on it’s flowery seaward side in the sun watching rail movements and the sea, and more often used it as a refuge from the rain and vantage point to survey the shed – when the wind wasn’t whistling through it!
The skeletal remains of the girders once supporting Long Rock depot’s Water Tank show stark against the clear sky. The front face of the building below has fallen and a pier hangs at an angle. 760407A23-LRK-WTR_T-DMLTN
Long Rock MPD was closed for a week from 5th June when the rail approach to the depot was altered, ladders were raised to commence demolition of the roof of the steam section of the shed in July, and the Pump House fell in August, but like the Westerns, the main shed and fitting bay endured into 1977. This site had always largely consisted of puddle-strewn ballast, coal dust and clinker, spread with hummocks of moss and weed where undisturbed; and along with the diamond-ribbed bricks underfoot and red and black bricks of the buildings beside you, there was a special “feel” to the place. But storage sidings were being built, isolating the shed from its traditional access, and the footings of a new depot were being put in place.
A foundation trench for the main new building has begun, and the strata of the sand spit it was built upon can be clearly seen. A temporary access track to the old shed runs behind. 760628A24-LRK-C_SDG-VI_NW
Example of a Loco Log entry during 1976
Sat 05/06/1976 Penzance to Long Rock, return
D1056 PassD 1O56 LA Western Sultan(B) [NOTE: LONG ROCK TO BE CLOSED FOR A WEEK] 46002 ParcD 0O00 LA 47196 Parkd —- CD 08840 ShunS PZ 50031 Parkd —- CD 50031 PassU 1O00 CD 1012 Parkd LA WESTERN FIREBRAND D1049 Parkd 1C52 LA WESTERN MONARCH (A) 47193 Parkd 0O00 CD D1072 PassU 1O72 LA WESTERN GLORY (B) 45074 PassD 0O00 TO 08402 LighD PZ 50004 LtEnD 0O00 LA 47171 PassD 0O00 CF
The Eric Curnow Collection 