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Plymouth Cattewater branch.


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I now have got back my video (yes, video, sorry!!) of this area  and it includes this branch when it was still fully open to the Oil Terminal. If anyone wants to borrow it just let me know, it is a great watch with helicopter footage as well.

Phil

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  • 4 weeks later...

Nostalgia time!  Thanks for this thread which reminds me of a time long gone when it was one of our haunts.  Going to Sutton High, Friary was on our way home from school so a quick look around and on to Laira.  Other days it would be off to Cattedown in the hope of trains shunting the industries but without present day on line info, etc,  we rarely were lucky!   We had better luck on the Embankment road bridge over the tracks overlooking Laira shed and the yard where there was more action.  Not much there now!

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Hi Phil, this was steam age; late forties, fifties and I left just as the diesels had taken over in the West Country. After seeing 18000 come into North Road, we thought nothing would ever supersede steam but I was just a train spotter at that age and all I knew came from Ian Allan,  but these forums sure have stirred memories.

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Our paths may have crossed at some time then as I was spotting in Plymouth from '58 till about '63/4.

Devonport High though, (boys, but spent quite some time hanging around the girls' place !!!!)

Happy times.

Phil

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Plymouth College here - 61-68

 

And our hangout was the Plymouth High (School for Girls)

 

My mum went to  Devonport High for Girls (1925+) when it was at Stonehouse near Kings Road Station

Edited by Coombe Barton
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It would appear then that we all had the same ideas back then, trains and girls.  Train related and somewhat relevant to this thread;  the Sutton Harbour line at North Quay. How far along did locos actually travel, assuming that any shunting was by horse or mechanical means also assuming trains were pushed there after runaround.

 

Brian.

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I once (and only once by chance really) saw 30183 coming back up the Sutton Quay Branch. Think I might have been walking from School to get my BCG Jabs in Union Street near the Plymouth Breweries building (that isn't a joke), or going to swimming at Sutton Baths. Think that's what they were called (outdoor pool - blood* freezing even in summer)?

This is getting to be a bit of a Janners' reunion thread :mail:  Good to chat lads.

P

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No doubt most Janners have found this site, part of a humongous Plymouth historical epic.   But in view of this discussion, there are some excellent views of traffic on the branch more or less in its prime as well as plenty of main line traffic, when there was traffic!!

 

Brian.

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Nostalgia time!  Thanks for this thread which reminds me of a time long gone when it was one of our haunts.  Going to Sutton High, Friary was on our way home from school so a quick look around and on to Laira.  Other days it would be off to Cattedown in the hope of trains shunting the industries but without present day on line info, etc,  we rarely were lucky!   We had better luck on the Embankment road bridge over the tracks overlooking Laira shed and the yard where there was more action.  Not much there now!

I was also at Sutton High and walked through the park, past Friary to get home to Grenville rd

I used to enjoy the Thursday? walk to school as there was normally a 33 on the bitumen tanks in the old station area.

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After my time!  My era was steam, the Turnchapel Express, B4's on the Cattedown branch, the ACE and very early on, the GW Yealmpton branch train which we took on Sunday school excursions for a while after the war.  That's how long  my interest in trains has been!

 

Brian.

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Having just checked out these great pictures, I suppose this was a part of  the BLS tour.  If so and if I may digress, is this the same trip through the sidings at North Road station?  If so, are the two sidings east of the station ever covered as well as the short siding under the bridge on the down side.  I note the two sidings next to Pl.8 are traversed but are all these sidings ever used for any reason?

 

Brian.

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Having just checked out these great pictures, I suppose this was a part of  the BLS tour.  If so and if I may digress, is this the same trip through the sidings at North Road station?  If so, are the two sidings east of the station ever covered as well as the short siding under the bridge on the down side.  I note the two sidings next to Pl.8 are traversed but are all these sidings ever used for any reason?

 

Brian.

Hi Brian, the two former parcels docks/sidings on the down side (London-end) of the station are used on quite a few days to stable FGW units in between workings, or in connection with changes to unit diagrams. The same goes for the two Park Sidings next to platform 8, although they last saw regular, intensive use when the postal traffic was still running.

 

However, as in one or two other locations, I am working on another 'cunning plan' to see them used more...

 

I think it was a previous BLS trip that traversed these sidings, the one on 10th May just did Cattewater then straight down into Cornwall, IIRC.

Edited by Captain Kernow
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Thanks Cap'n.  In my day(!), there was a very old GW inspection saloon parked under the bridge and probably rusted to the rails.  Never seen it used for any other reason then although the sidings on the up side were frequently used by locos waiting to back onto trains.  But you knew that!!

 

Brian

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  • 1 year later...

A year has passed since visiting one of my favourite topics but now that the branch is virtually disappearing in the bushes, a new venture is opening up Victoria Wharves as a cement storage facility.  Cement is brought in by boat and taken out by lorries which will cause significant traffic problems as usual.  This commodity lends itself to rail transport and lines are still there but with no hope of a connection to the existing stub to alleviate this problem.  In other words, act in haste and repent at leisure which seems to be a repetitive NR problem.  It's doubtful they they repent though!

 

Brian.

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A year has passed since visiting one of my favourite topics but now that the branch is virtually disappearing in the bushes, a new venture is opening up Victoria Wharves as a cement storage facility.  Cement is brought in by boat and taken out by lorries which will cause significant traffic problems as usual.  This commodity lends itself to rail transport and lines are still there but with no hope of a connection to the existing stub to alleviate this problem.  In other words, act in haste and repent at leisure which seems to be a repetitive NR problem.  It's doubtful they they repent though!

But if the cement was being brought in by rail, it would still be going out by road causing (yadda yadda)....  :scratchhead:

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Thanks Cap'n.  In my day(!), there was a very old GW inspection saloon parked under the bridge and probably rusted to the rails.  Never seen it used for any other reason then although the sidings on the up side were frequently used by locos waiting to back onto trains.  But you knew that!!

 

Brian

I remember that. It had gone by the time the first bog carts arrived and got parked there.

The up sidings east of the road bridge (near the site of the old Mutley Station) were opposite the Plymouth Eye Hospital and near a bit of wall at the end of these sidings) where I used to trainspot quite often. I used to think that it would be a good hospital to be in if one was a spotter but hadn't thought that it being an 'eye hospital', then patients may not be able to see anyway! Idiot child I was!

Phil

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        Also posted in the 'Railways of Devon' SI section (Railways of Plymouth)

 

A few snaps taken about 10 years ago of the track near the entrance area of the Cattewater bitumen depot.

 

 

 

       At the conclusion of my second o'seas'. posting, (Cyprus.), it was time to return home to either GB. or to Germany.  - I opted for the former and chose 42. Field Reg't. in the Royal Citadel, Plymouth; that would be in mid-1958. or thereabouts.

  Shortly after my joining the reg't. was chosen to be the first all-regular regiment in the Royal Artillery, (despite that our eqp't. still remained WW2. vintage.), which cut-down on my excursions into Plymouth City and into its surroundings.

  I must allow that I thought that I'd managed to get to know that City quite well during my 14 mos. therein - but this thread came as a complete surprise to me!  In short: 'So much to know and so little time.'. 

 

       :locomotive: 

Edited by unclebobkt
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A year has passed since visiting one of my favourite topics but now that the branch is virtually disappearing in the bushes, a new venture is opening up Victoria Wharves as a cement storage facility.  Cement is brought in by boat and taken out by lorries which will cause significant traffic problems as usual.  This commodity lends itself to rail transport and lines are still there but with no hope of a connection to the existing stub to alleviate this problem.  In other words, act in haste and repent at leisure which seems to be a repetitive NR problem.  It's doubtful they they repent though!

 

Brian.

This scheme has not got NR approval at the moment, so don't despair just yet. Clearly such traffic should be forwarded on by rail, or not at all.

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But if the cement was being brought in by rail, it would still be going out by road causing (yadda yadda)....  :scratchhead:

The premise was in by boat, out by rail - no lorries! But unless the good Cap'n can work miracles, too late now!

 

Brian.

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