Chyandour is the area immediately outside Penzance Railway Station, in my youthful parlance changing to Ponsandane at the next “River” as I walked towards the Engine Shed. In my “innocence” I believed I was not trespassing if I walked on top of the boundary wall and clambered along the metal railings at ‘Three Tunnels’, though I was probably far more conspicuous than if I kept to the shadows of the wall. No one ever seemed to challenge me, anyway, as it was fairly obvious that I wasn’t “up to no good”.
My father once told me of a period when a ghost had been seen by locomen returning to the town in the middle of the night along this stretch of road, and that he, too, had seen on at least one occasion, when he was so scared he took a wide berth across the tracks and onto the beach to avoid it – and he wasn’t a man who could be frightened easily! Even in “my day”, when traffic was light in the evenings, I occasionally felt “prickles up my spine” as I trudged home, and sometimes kept well away from that stretch of “spooky trees”!
Once from the metal railings on the bridge across Chyandour stream I saw several hundred mullet all clustered together and pointing inland, and when I dropped in a small pebble only those closest moved aside, and then regrouped again. Spawning or something? I don’t know: but memorable sights like that broke the monotony of the long journey back from the sheds, and encouraged me.
This is detail of an old print of Penzance Viaduct where the Chyandour stream flows into the sea. Underneath the cloud of smoke and steam is the second engine shed. And at the tail end of the carriages is the coaling stage and water tower. 9####AA01-CYR-VIADT-VI__W
With the Mount on the horizon, 3340 “MARAZION” crosses the station end of Penzance Viaduct with a down train. The wooden trestles were swept away twice before an embankment was built here, that still suffers similar storms today. Copyright: L&GRP. 8#####AE01-CYR-s3340-PAS_D
This 1930’s photograph shows concrete fence posts flattened and granite boulders washed towards the railway by a storm before the rock armour was heightened to give more protection. Trevarrack Stream flows into the sea at the iron railings. 3011#AA02-CYR-EMBKT-VI_NE
The stock of the Royal Duchy is hauled out from the station and across Chyandour by shunter 8473 in July 1959. The carriages carry the train nameboards, and a General Utility Van heads the rake, separated from the locomotive by a shunter’s truck. 5907##A01-CYR-s8473-SHU_S
Watched by schoolboys behind Sea Siding stock, 1002 ‘COUNTY OF BERKS’ blasts away as it drags an up express through Ponsandane. It is about to pass a half brake second in Sloper’s Siding. Sadly the trees beside the railway are no more. 5####AZ01-CYR-s1002-PAS_U
Penzance Station, with a phalanx of vans, is framed between a maroon carriage against the sea wall, and the Water Tower at Chyandour Cliff. Like Long Rock’s Water Tower, this one with its rust staining was an eyesore when greeting visitors to the town. 64###AD01-CYR-WTR_T-VIS_W
Resting before being sent eastwards again, 45001 is recorded parked in the sea sidings at Chyandour in fine weather on 15th September 1978. Beyond the calm sea behind are the beaches leading around the bay to St Michael’s Mount. 780915A01-CYR-45001-PARKD
The vegetation in this slide seems very parched as unusual visitor 47201 passes through Ponsandane in the hot Summer of 1976, its headcode turned to “zeros”, hauling an up passenger service. Although the drought made cleaning difficult, a rake of very presentable sleeping cars awaits reuse in adjacent Sloper’s Siding, the yellow stripe indicating first class provision. 76###AN01-PDN-47201-PAS_U
Displaying perspex disks in its headcode box, the doyen of its class, 50050, powers away with a train of ACS and a GUV into Ponsandane. A sunbather is near the water, and two men amble along the raised walkway towards the town. 780712A01-CYR-50050-PAS_U
On a drizzly day, two Class 50s are parked next to the sea wall at Chyandour awaiting reuse. The sea wall is one I often walked along, and the boulders piled beside it added in the early 1970s to strengthen the wall from strong waves. The photo is taken from where I “rescued” a milepost from a refuse fire. 7####FS01-CYR-500##-PARKD
A dismal rainy day finds 50045 and a class mate parked in the short sea siding against the wall at Chyandour in the late 1970s. I was always in a bit of a quandary passing locos as I walked the sea wall, happy to view them closely and feel their warmth and smell, but also wary that a loco man might upbraid me for trespassing from a cab as I passed along beside them. 7####GQ01-CYR-50XXX-PARKD
Large-logo 50031 ‘Hood’ is parked alone, well into the sea siding at Chyandour, on a grey day. Adding to the calm serenity, a pile of redundant sleepers and position shunt signal lie in the foreground, and new sleepers and points rodding between the tracks. 8####AU01-CYR-50031-PARKD
47613 “NORTH STAR” cautiously leaves the pointwork of Penzance Station as it gains the up main with an acs train on 15th April 1988, Below it are the “Three Tunnels” – the left, a metal bridge and the other two, largely hidden, are more conventional arched stonework of an earlier era. This was the earliest access from the town to the beach when I was young. 880415A01-CHY-47613-PAS_U
The Eric Curnow Collection 