There was an interchange on the Facebook Group, “Nostalgic Penzance & Newlyn” where Edward Hands, a shunter in the Penzance area for 10 years, shared interesting information about his experiences, with contributions from a few others. It was difficult to follow some of these but I have done my best, and I have eliminated much of the back-and-forth banter about individuals, unless they are pictured. The entries are essentially as they were provided, but slight editing has been carried out to make them more concise, read a little smoother, and spelling and punctuation better defined. The fuller, original, is also well-worth a read, particularly if one knows the people mentioned.
This is a picture of Edward Hands as a 20 year old shunter at Marazion, taken by the long gone old marsh sidings past the closed Marazion Station, towards St Erth. The others in the picture are Len Reeves and on the locomotive Keith Bawden. The sidings were known as Marsh 1 & 2, both could hold about 10 coaches and were often used to stable summer Saturday trains. (13 March 2022)
These pictures are from Penzance Station yard. The station pilot, D4161, knocked Edward down one morning when he was a shunter at Penzance in 1974. Fortunately, he was knocked away from the track and survived. That incident, he said, made him decide to draw a close his 10 year career as a shunter and become a guard instead. In the picture on the right, those shown from left to right are: Stan Harris (aka “Steam Heat”), Second Man; Geoff Lewis, Driver; Terry Addicoat, Shunter (off duty); and Tommy Rutter, Head Shunter. The bottom picture was taken between Top Bank and Number 2 Bank, of Nelson James, Carriage & Wagon Oiler. (23 May 2020)
Edward says this was the yard foreman’s offices/shunters cabin, carriage and wagon examiners cabin and stores. Up until 1980’s this would have been a hive of activity with several staff. He spent many hours in there as a shunter in the mid-1960’s. (12 May 2021)
Edward says, “this is a picture taken in 1965 of shunting at Marazion Station Yard in the broccoli/potato season. In the picture is me as a very young shunter, overalls covered in oil and grease as I was always, a mucky pup as a shunter. On the locomotive is Second Man Keith Bawden and the picture was taken by my uncle Bill Hand, who was the driver. In railway marshalling yards, all sidings had either names or numbers. I can’t remember what the name of the siding where the picture was taken, it may have been New Bank and the siding on the other side may have been Old Bank. Some of the other sidings were – Outside Road, Straight, New Found Out and Fathers Siding – I would love to know the origin of that last name. Below the road bridge towards St Erth side was Marsh 1 & 2 on the up line, and Downside 1 & 2 on the down line.” Phil Jones commented, “Old Bank and New Bank are part of the sidings at Ponsandane yard. Old Bank, New Bank, Kings and Sandy. These are now being relaid.” Edward confirmed this, adding that there were also Shutes, Crane Road, Shed Road, Loop and 1 to 7 sidings. Penzance Station had sidings – Top Bank; 2 Bank; 3 Bank; Hoskings; Gas Road; Loop; Sea Sidings; Long & Short Road; and Slopers. (13 May 2022)
Edward came across some pictures from the old engine sheds at Long Rock, from circa 1970, shown here. The sheds were opened in 1915 and closed when the High Speed Train Depot was built in 1976, which was replaced by the current GWR Depot a few years back. Prior to the Long Rock engine sheds the GWR engine shed was just outside Penzance Station at Chyandour. Referring to the Long Rock depot during his time there, he said that the cleaner boys would swim in the tank above the coal stage (pictured behind 7504) in the summer. Allegedly a conger eel was in the tank, which he was not sure was true, and probably a tale put out by the shedmaster to frighten the boys into not climbing up there! (18 June 2022)
This steam days nostalgic picture was taken at Penzance engine shed in 1954, it says on the back. On the locomotive are Driver Bill Hand (Edward’s late uncle) and Fireman Dougie Davis. He worked with Dick Hand for 10 years (no relation – and they were known as “left” and “right”). (12 May 2022)
Edward provides more history along with these pictures. “In the good old railway days shunters had a wagon to ride on. These were known as runners in some parts of the railway, chariots or gigs in others. In my shunting days in the 1960s/70s, there were two runners, one at Penzance Station, the other at Ponsandane Yard. There may have been one at Marazion, but I don’t remember that. Both were built by the GWR at Swindon Works in 1915. As shunters we loved those runners. We were told that if they ever required any major repairs, they would be scrapped. Therefore, we got people like wagon repairer and track welders to do any repairs on a fiddle unknown to management to prevent them going to the breakers. Sadly, both runners met the same kind of fate and went to the great railway in the sky. Unfortunately, I was involved in both accidents. The first I was directly involved in was on 13th July 1966 at Penzance Station. This involved a collision with the Royal Mail (Postal) – the only time in my railway career I was ever charged with an offence under disciplinary action. Fortunately, I was found not guilty of any offence and nothing went on my service record. It is too long a story to tell on here as the accident would even have implications in the London area in the early hours of the following morning and a Ministry of Transport major inquiry resulted. The second accident was in the late 60s at Ponsandane Yard. I was only indirectly involved in the second accident when the poor runner’s demise happened. The accident again involved the Postal. Les Richards was the yard foreman that day and I was head shunter at Ponsandane Yard. The enginemen and I went down to the cabin for tea at 1630 before the busy evening ahead. The phone rang and Les answered. It was Ponsandane signalman asking if he could let the Penzance shunter into the yard to propel the postal into Penzance. The Penzance pilot (shunting loco) came into the yard and went up to the top of the yard to be attached to the postal. We heard the phone ring by the Penzance shunter to Ponsandane signalman to ask for the road (railway line) to Penzance Station. I was making the tea and looked up and to my horror saw the postal coming down towards the cabin instead of heading in the direction of the main line. As the Penzance shunter had the signal for the main line, the train was proceeding at full speed. What the shunter, Walter Curtis, had failed to notice was the hand points in the yard were set towards the cabin and not to take the train towards the main line. Had the door of the cabin been open I would have got to a set of hand points and diverted the speeding train into an empty siding. Unfortunately, the wheels of the leading vehicle were on the blade of the point which prevented me from changing the direction of travel. I had to dive for cover from the impending smash (in shunters terminology – ‘a pitch in’) in case the vehicles turned over. There was an almighty crash and the poor old runner was no more, as can be seen in the pictures. The loco 4013 (which I believe today is preserved on the Severn Valley Railway at Kidderminster) was undamaged as our beloved runner took all the impact. I think the man in the picture was Derek Stewart a Carriage and Wagon Examiner.” (20 May 2022)
In light of Edward’s earlier post, I (Eric Curnow) wondered whether he or anyone else could precisely identify the lines in the Penzance area – naming the siding using the letter/number of my diagrams.
Les Richards remembered some names from Ponsandane Yard during the late 60’s – Newbank, Oldbank, Kings, No5 that went into the Goods Shed passing the crane, No4 that went right through the Shunt Yard and was the running road. No 6 and 7 sidings were for loading/unloading animal feed. No1 and 2 were used to store coaches.
The Penzance diagram as far as Edward could make out was – A, Top Bank (that held 7 BR Mark 1 coaches;. B, Gas Road (that held 1 BR Mark 1 coach); C, No 2 Bank (that held 3 BR Mark 1 coaches); D, No 3 Bank (that held 3 BR Mark 1 coaches); E, Hosking’s Siding, also referred to as Warspite Siding (that held 2 BR Mark 1 coaches.); F, The Loop (that could run around 4 BR Mark 1 coach);. G, Sea Siding Short Road (that held 7 BR Mark 1 coaches); H, Sea Siding Long Road (that held 11 BR Mark 1 coache) and I, Slopers (that held 11 BR Mark 1 coaches).
I later said that I had tidied up entries from Mr R. A. Cooke’s ‘Track Layout Diagrams of the G.W.R. and BR W.R. – Section 10 – West Cornwall’ of the 1970s and removed inessentials, adding what I believe was what I’d been told so far – and asking for confirmation as to whether ‘Top Bank’ is the one normally called Platform 4.
Edward said about Marazion: 1, Outside Road; 2, Straight; 3, New Found Out; 4. Old Bank; Y, New Bank. Not being entirely sure about the others, he suggested: 5,?; 6,?; Z, Fathers Siding; 7, Marsh 2; 8, Marsh 1; O, Downside 1; 9, Downside 2. He added, 6 was known as Behind the Box 1; 5, Behind the Box 2 (referring to Marazion Signal Box which was on the downside). Whether that was their official name he did not know, but it was how they always referred to those two sidings. Behind the Box 1, held the camp coaches for many years. Sidings always started with the earliest number for the siding nearest the main line.
In Ponsandane yard: Q, Number 7 (JH Bennetts coal); R, Number 6 (wagon loads for unloading); S, Shute’s; P, Crane Road; N, ?; M, New Bank; [L, Old Bank, L, ?]; K, Kings Bank; O, Shute’s; J, Outside Road (but he was not entirely sure this name was correct).
Thomas R. Jehu said of Ponsandane: road side; sandy road; sandy bank; kings new bank; old bank; shunts spur; fuel road number 4; running road; crane road (feeding NCL); number 6; number 7; oil road; shunt spur; new road (put in beside shunt spur). Walters; Curtis; then as more changes came there was also an Alberts and Hooper. (21 May 2022f)
There still seems to be variances, some of which might be due to changes of track patterns over time, that I can’t quite harmonise from what I’ve been told, but the information here shows a rich fondness of ex-staff with the work they undertook, and a flavour of the naming of sidings before such information becomes irretrievable. Thanks, Edward, and you others!
The Eric Curnow Collection 