Why?

 

I fancied Ocean Quay as a modelling opportunity. I've not seen it modelled by anyone else (yet?), and I'd been wondering where to find any pictures of the quayside station. There's a few pics of the Stonehouse branch from Devonport station here on this Cornwall Railway Society page.

http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/millbay-friary--stonehouse-branch.html

 

But no pics there of the station or quay themselves. The only pic I've found of the station so far is very grainy and small / far away (Father Ted).

https://wiki2.org/en/Ocean_Quay_railway_station+Newton#Ocean_Quay

 

 

Anyone found anything better?

 

The known history

 

It was originally built by the LSWR to compete with GWR for ocean liner passenger traffic.

 

Quote

From 1893 the LSWR started to attract passengers from trans-Atlantic liners and on 9 April 1904 it opened a two-platform Ocean Quay station at Stonehouse Pool, with a 350 ft (110 m) platform, 2 waiting rooms and a customs hall. ... The GWR continued to hold the contract for carrying mail from the liners to London, but a number of the liner companies arranged for the LSWR to carry their passengers. This caused a race for the fastest train to London with fatal consequences... in the early hours of 30 June 1906 an LSWR special had derailed at high speed passing through Salisbury railway station, after which speeds returned to a more sedate pace, with trains taking around five hours.

 

Ref : https://wiki2.org/en/Ocean_Quay_railway_station+Newton#Ocean_Quay

 

Firstly, here's what the original LSWR Stonehouse Pool Branch looked like.

 

The branch starts in Devonport station, and goes under the Goods Shed, to descend towards Stonehouse Bridge. I’ve coloured that part in red to make it more visible.

 

 

Ref : https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17.7&lat=50.36740&lon=-4.16729&layers=168&b=1&marker=50.673715,-4.613276

 

When the branch was first built, Stonehouse Pool north of the bridge was still a tidal inlet, with a pier beside the Royal Naval Hospital at the head of the inlet. The whole of that has since been filled-in and is now playing fields.

 

Here's the branch descending to Stonehouse Bridge.

 

 

It went under the road through a small tunnel that is still there today and now used as a pedestrian underpass. South of the bridge, the inlet still exists. Here’s the original Richmond Walk section, from Stonehouse Bridge to the quay station.

 

 

Here’s an enlargement of the station area, as it actually existed. The track is shown here in green. At the point where it crossed the Richmond Walk road, it is still visible to this day in the road surface. Just covered in tarmac and never removed?

 

 

A copy of Bernard Mill"s "Backtracking around Millbay, Saltash and the Tamar" arrived, and pages 135 to 147 cover the Stonehouse branch, or what remained of it when Bernard got there with his camera in 1965. The rusting track was still in place, but very little else. Page 146-147 just about show the edge of what was the passenger platform.

Perhaps that means I should use some "creative interpretation" and use some SR-style station platforms, buildings and canopies?

 

I've just read the small print on that Wiki image, and as it says "This work is in the public domain", I'm taking the liberty of reposting a copy here ;-)

(with acknowledgements to the original sources. Railway Magazine, May 1904)

 

Very grainy picture I know, but has anyone seen any model buildings or kits that look similar? The best I've found so far is Scale Scenes new Island Platform.

https://scalescenes.com/product/r004a-island-platform-building/

 

 

I've had an idea!

 

Just suppose, c.1930, that the Richmond Walk Quarry was active long after other quarries in and around Plymouth were being exhausted. And while they were quarrying out the hillside above Richmond Walk, they found an incredibly rare and valuable form of granite. Known, err, as Dumnonian, after the earliest known inhabitants of Devon. They built a few quarry sidings and kept quarrying by tunnelling into the hillside (tunnels in brown). At the same time, the station was expanded to allow access for longer passenger trains.

 

 

Ocean Quay Station, first stage of improvements, with more track round the Jetty area.

 

 

Of course, all the spoil from the quarrying had to go somewhere. So they widened Richmond Walk northwards alongside the Tamar, below Mount Wise. What was Blagdons Yard slipway was filled-in, and deep-water docks were made to export the valuable granite, with one of the tunnels emerging there as well.

 

 

Come 1940-1945, the dock and the extra tunnels under the hillside were much used, and the area was known as Mount Wise Dock, or HMS Hades - but that’s another story.

 

After 1945, a bit of a decline, but then (hurrah!) the Mount Wise Dock was converted into a small container port for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and Ro-Ro Sealift operations. After 2000-ish, security was relaxed and there's small civilian container ships there now as well.

 

https://scalescenes.com/product/t030c-modern-cargo-ship/

 

Good news chaps!

 

Ocean Quay Station is still active and attracts many Heritage Steam Specials, GWR Railcars, etc, with unusual ships (for the area) like one of the Clyde Puffers that became resident.

 

https://scalescenes.com/product/t030b-clyde-puffer/

 

Lots of unusual freight passes through on its way to Mount Wise Docks. Much of it still waiting its turn in the old quarry sidings.

 

Some say that there is another still-secret railway tunnel into Devonport. Rumours of another GWR Strategic Steam Reserve in the Dumnonian Tunnels (like Box Tunnel) are still being denied, despite the late-night arrivals of best Welsh Anthracite (under cover of darkness), and strange puffing noises from the old tunnels ... 😲