St Blazey is really Par’s depot – it is only a short walk from the station, and by rail, merely a short, tight curve away. I never visited it until many years after my boyhood as making a journey that far, it was unlikely to be as productive as pressing on to Plymouth. I only saw one or occasionally two locos from the main line as I passed by the depot – one of which was invariably an 08 shunter – and so I got the impression that it really was not worth visiting, and have only been there a couple of times – once approaching it from the east, and once the west, Even then, I was very cautious about tresspass, so merely darted in and out again as quickly as possible.
Knowing little about China Clay Country (the layout of lines baffles me!) this is 5519 moving a train of clay wagons away from a loading platform at Meledor Mill in 1957. The sidings were nearly at the foot of the Retew Branch that ran 3 miles south from St Dennis Junction on the Newquay line. Copyright photograph: David Lawrence. 57###AD01-MMB-s5519-SHNTG
Pannier tank 9673 is parked up on St Blazey depot between the half roundhouse and a pile of scrap iron sleeper chairs. Behind the loco is the administrative building, and at its front a watering column: 9673 carries an early version of the “cycling lion” emblem. 6####BS01-BZY-S9673-PARKD
St Blazey yard looking north towards the wagon repair shop from close to the main line – trees behind and river out of sight in the background. On the left is the coaling stage, and to the right points rodding, a lamp hut, signal and token-passing apparatus. 6####CN01-BZY-D_YRD-VI__N
With its chimney covered against the weather in storage, Prairie tank 4564 is parked out of use beside the coaling tower mound at St Blazey depot, with sister 5531 not so weather protected. Now steam is eradicated in the west, they await removal for scrap. 63###AA01-BZY-s4564-PARKD
In the same scrap line, 5531 and 5518 await their fate in the lee of the coaling stage. An attempt has been made at some point to lift the ubiquity of the brick interior of the building by painting the upper wall cream, and the lower in a more “dirt-hiding” brown. 6304#AB01-BZY-s5531-PARKD
Beside the redundant ash pit and water column, work-worn D827 “KELLY” is parked up with pristine hydraulic cousin D6312. The rather basic buildings in the background at this end of the depot, without much softening of trees, made it seem “austere”. 660619A01-BZY-D827–PARKD
Beside the coaling plant mound, parked up at St Blazey depot out of use, are D6308 and a sister loco in 1968. The locos show very work-worn appearances to their original green livery, with later added small yellow warning panels. 68###AC01-BZY-D6308-PARKD
The original louvred bodysides of D6302, wearing protruding headcode boxes, and in rather tired green livery, contrasts noticeably with its newer glossy sister behind at St Blazey depot. The water crane and diesel pump echo the disparity. 6####GJ01-BZY-D6302-PARKD
For Par docks traffic, small wheelbase shunter D2129 on one of the shed’s outside roads seen here shortly after transfer from Laira. She was allocated to St. Blazey shed between October 1961 and November 1964. The loco wears an 83E shedplate on its front end and seems in immaculate condition. 62###AK01-BZY-D2129-PARKD
On an approach road to the turntable at St Blazey, one side of blue-liveried D6338 is sunlit as it waits with a green sister, its cab connecting door open. The green loco still carries a cab end builders plate, but merely a mark of where the shed plate was. 6####AA01-BZY-D6338-PARKD
D1010 “WESTERN CAMPAIGNER” and ‘Peak’ D154 are parked together in the drizzle by the side of the half-roundhouse shed at the St Blazey Depot Open Day in 1970 – the ‘Peak’ much as I first saw it. Fueling apparatus is just beyond their couplings, and in the foreground people have been allowed to visit inside the cabs of the locomotives. 700502A01-BZY-D_LOC-PARKD
In rough external condition, and displaying a nearly-appropriate headcode, D1041 ‘WESTERN PRINCE’ heads a train of china clay “hoods” in St Blazey yard in grim and spartan-looking surroundings. Despite its unkempt appearance, the loco still has an elegance about it. 6####FN01-UNK-D1041-CCLAY
Amid a manicured and sylvian landscape, one of the later-produced Class 25 locos, with headcode wound to zeros, leads a train of bogie flats and a brake van over a minor bridge, passing a platelayers hut and flight of sleeper steps at an unknown location. 7701#AA01-UNK-SULZR-GOODS
Seen from between fuel trucks on St Blazey depot, D1023 “WESTERN FUSILIER” heads a train of china clay “hoods” in September 1976. Rivulets of rain flow down the tanks in the foreground, and typical stunted vegetation for this marshy area is in the background, plus short telegraph pole. Photo: John Vaughan. 7609##A01-BZY-D1023-PARKD
All with their destination codes wound to zeros, 45002 heads a row of Class 25 locos at St Blazey depot, alongside an 08 shunter and a Class 47. A pile of concrete castings have been casually heaped before the depot’s impressive administrative building, and the rooftops of the roundhouse can just be discerned above those of the motive power units. 760626A02-BZY-D_LCO-PARKD
A late 1970s picture of the turntable at St Blazey Depot depicts a 47, 08 and 37 parked around awaiting duties. Scrap goods wagon leaf springs and wheel sets litter the left side; oily watery mud the centre, and a spares wagon the right hand side. 7####EM01-BZY-DEPOT-VIS_S
The Eric Curnow Collection 