Penmere Platform in the 50s

[fender]

I've only found a couple of pics which show the platform and a siding which was the headshunt to a MoD oil depot a little further up the line.

 

the problem is, I can't find any pics of this oil depot and the Old Maps site only has maps which bracket (almost exactly) from just before this depot was built (1940) and then just after it closed (60s).

 

if anyone knows where I could find some pics and/or a track diagram from that period, that would be a great help.

[Jack00]

Only 'place' I can think, there used to be the 'Penmere group' helped keep the station tidy and such things. They have loads of history on the station (and the branch for that matter) I beleive one volunteer whos names slip my mind have pictures.

Perhaps search on the Internet and send a few people some e-mails. Falmouth MRC would be a good starting point as they were once members of the club.

 

Good luck, and keep me posted

 

Jack.

[fender]

Thanks for the info Jack. I had thought of contacting them, "Friends of Penmere Platform" I believe. Their website doesn't have anything I could see. If the new book I've ordered (Falmouth, Helston& St Ives Branch Lines) doesn't bear fruit in this regard, then I'll drop them a line.

[fender]

reviving an old thread (and idea) here. I've found a picture if anyone is interested: http://www.nrm.org.uk/ourcollection/photo?group=Sellick%20collection&objid=1997-7219_RJS_LLC_12

 

my next question would be that since these were private sidings for the MoD, what type of locos would have been used to bring/retrieve rolling stock here?

[D820]

I don't remember Penmere in the fifties (bit young for that!), but I do remember it in the sixties as we lived in Swanvale for a while.  The depot was still in use at that time, although trains seemed rare.  It closed in 1967, April I think, although the loop remained intact for while afterwards as the October 1967 photo shows on the CRS website.  This is the link: http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/falmouth-branch.html

The station was manned until about 1968 and had gas lights into the seventies, as the 1974 photo on the page listed above shows.  The "new" electric lights stand side by side with their gas predecessors.

Shunting tanks was carried out using BR engines.  Between Penmere and Falmouth (now Falmouth Docks) there were pipes buried along side the track, these were visible where the railway crossed over streets as it passed through the town.  Although they have been removed, you can still see the pipe ends in the abutments.  The large oil stores depot at Swanvale (only a few yards form the houses) was in use until a few years ago.  A fleet of Wincanton road tankers regularly transported fuel away on a daily basis, I think a pipeline was installed in the eighties.  Today most of the depot has been built over with new housing developments. 

[fender]

I don't remember Penmere in the fifties (bit young for that!), but I do remember it in the sixties as we lived in Swanvale for a while.  The depot was still in use at that time, although trains seemed rare.  It closed in 1967, April I think, although the loop remained intact for while afterwards as the October 1967 photo shows on the CRS website.  This is the link: http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/falmouth-branch.html

The station was manned until about 1968 and had gas lights into the seventies, as the 1974 photo on the page listed above shows.  The "new" electric lights stand side by side with their gas predecessors.

Shunting tanks was carried out using BR engines.  Between Penmere and Falmouth (now Falmouth Docks) there were pipes buried along side the track, these were visible where the railway crossed over streets as it passed through the town.  Although they have been removed, you can still see the pipe ends in the abutments.  The large oil stores depot at Swanvale (only a few yards form the houses) was in use until a few years ago.  A fleet of Wincanton road tankers regularly transported fuel away on a daily basis, I think a pipeline was installed in the eighties.  Today most of the depot has been built over with new housing developments. 

 

thanks very much for that.

 

so the tanks would have been brought to and from the sidings using the normal locos for the branch? i.e. not special locos just for that task?

[D820]

thanks very much for that.

 

so the tanks would have been brought to and from the sidings using the normal locos for the branch? i.e. not special locos just for that task?

 

Yes, in the sixties it would most likely have been D63xx locomotives.  Prior to dieselisation, the line was mainly worked by 84xx/94xx and 45xx tanks.  However the line was route coded 'red', so anything up to a County would have been permisable.

[Xerces Fobe2]

My mothers cousin lived in a house which overlooked Penmere Platform in the 1960s and I can remember seeing the station loop and oil depot sidings however the track was very rusty and I never saw a train in the depot.

D820 might correct me here but I think the gates to the depot surviived into at least the late 1980's . The only real evidence that the depot ever existed today, is the road overbridge to the south of the station which still has the extra span that served the depot.

XF

[D820]

The gates and fencing lasted well into the eighties, as well as the blue enamel signs proclaiming 'No Naked Lights'.  Strictly speaking this area was a loading point rather than a depot.  There were pipe connections to the docks and the Swanvale oil depot. 

[fender]

very good. thanks very much.

 

next question is, would the loop have also been used at any time as a passing place for trains going in opposite directions? such as a freight one way and a pax the other.

[D820]

very good. thanks very much.

 

next question is, would the loop have also been used at any time as a passing place for trains going in opposite directions? such as a freight one way and a pax the other.

 

No problem with this one.  The loop was controlled by two ground frames, there was no signal box or signals. This meant that trains had to be in pocession of the Falmouth - Penryn token to access the sidings at Penmere.

[Xerces Fobe2]

Here is a view of Penmere Platform in July 1964

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ingythewingy/8254192207/

 

and another one from a similar time

 

 

http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/uploads/7/6/8/3/7683812/___5654945_orig.jpg

 

XF

[robert17649]

not really useful to you.Years ago in my childhood we lived near Penmere for a bit and often took the train to Truro . Once just as the train approached Penmere it stopped, one local told me that this was because the siding was in use and someone was shunting. Looking ot of the window we could see two guys picking mushrooms .When their baskets were full they came back climbed into the engine and drove the train the few hundred yards to Penmere where they handed the mushrooms over to  the ? guard/porter . some shunting!

[Xerces Fobe2]

Here is a photo of Penmere Platform featuring  - Elephants!

 

http://rememberfalmouth.co.uk/view/715/

 

XF

[D820]

Here is a view of Penmere Platform in July 1964

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ingythewingy/8254192207/

 

and another one from a similar time

 

 

http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/uploads/7/6/8/3/7683812/___5654945_orig.jpg

 

XF

 

I'm not sure the first photo was taken in 1964 as the loop is clearly overgrown.  This would suggest it was in fact taken in the summer of 1967, between its closure and removal.  The second picture was taken by a friend of mine around 1966 and as can be seen, the loop is in good condition. There is another picture by Sid Sponheimer of Penmere here:-

http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/falmouth-branch.html

This view is looking north and by the state of the track, I would date it around the spring/summer of 1967.

 

Here is a photo of Penmere Platform featuring  - Elephants!

 

http://rememberfalmouth.co.uk/view/715/

 

XF

 

An interesting view possibly taken from the rear of Penmere Crescent, looking west over what was then fields.  Today the area is covered by the Boslowick, Mongleath and Longfield (1960s/70s) housing estates. 

[Xerces Fobe2]

Here are some photos of the location of the site of the old oil depot today (02/07/13). In one of the photos the railings of the bridge to the depot can still be seen. When it stops raining I will return and take some photos of the bridge to the old oil depot from the road .

 

 

XF

[Xerces Fobe2]

Here are some more detailed photos of the Penmere Railway bridge where the later oil depot span can be clearly seen.

 

Nigel