The town of Penzance hugs the “holy headland” after which it is named (in Cornish), separated from Ponsandane crossing at bottom, centre, through beach sand revealed by a very low tide. The view is taken from the helicopter to the Scilly Isles. 660507A04-PCE-TOWNS-VI_SW
Penzance – ultimate destination of the ‘Cornish Riviera Express’ – was still a railway venue of importance at the end of the 1960’s. From it, strung along the coastline eastwards towards iconic St. Michael’s Mount, were carriage sidings, goods shed and a motive power depot, along with three signal boxes controlling traffic across their sections. Penzance box was mainly occupied with the forming and breaking of passenger trains. Flat-roofed Ponsandane managed a vehicle crossing onto the beach and the transfer of stock into and out of the carriage sidings. The most easterly cabin, Long Rock, also covered a beach crossing, and additionally movements on and off the MPD of the same name. All boxes had some concern with goods traffic as well, to some degree, as although loading only took place in the station and goods yards, assembled freight trains used to wait outside the MPD in Long Rock section before being called on from there to follow in the wake of a passenger service.
A maroon-liveried Western takes seven coaches eastwards past the eastern access to Slopers Siding at Ponsandane in the evening gloom. Fresh ballast has been dropped in selective piles on the down track. 6####CK01-PDN-D10##-PAS_U
Despite being born into a railway family, two pre-school encounters with ‘British Railways’ had nearly destroyed my interest altogether back in the early part of the 1960s. The first happened when I was in the care of my Granny, ensuring she got some housekeeping from Grandad at the station pay office before too much was drunk away. I was staring up at a huge steam loco in Platform 3 next to me, when it suddenly whistled its intent to move off, causing me to race away to Gran, cling to her skirts and howl and howl. The other still vivid memory was of a short time later, hanging onto my Dad’s overalls on a steam shunter’s bucking footplate with the open fire only a few feet away, making a trip to Marazion yard, beyond Long Rock, which was still open at that time.
Rain hurries passengers of a recently arrived train at Platform 3 under the cover of the overall station roof. It was usually a bit dark under there, even when lamps were replaced by more modern versions soon afterwards. 68###AB01-PNZ-COACH-PAS_D
From then on I seldom intentionally went near the railway until my early teens. However one Saturday afternoon just into the new year of 1969, I accompanied a friend to meet someone off the train, and stood on platform three again, roughly where I had years before, but this time I was fascinated by the huge bulk of the ‘Western’, the metal name and numbers, and the smell – even the little recess for the driver’s card below the side window. I must have been examining it pretty thoroughly because the driver engaged me in conversation, and when I mentioned my Dad’s name (who a few years earlier had been a well-known local driver himself) I was invited aboard, and even taken through the engine room. Both my friend Brian and myself were suitably impressed, but couldn’t stay longer then, so we vaguely agreed to come back for a visit sometime.
A good eight years separate this sight from my similar view of D1050 “WESTERN RULER” that started my interest in railways in 1969. Here D1068 “WESTERN RELIANCE” is parked close to the buffers behind the station bookshop. 7607#AA01-PNZ-D1068-PARKD
Our forays to the station began when, for variety, we’d take the long way home from school – down the hill to the station and then up the main shopping street. Crossing the road to the cliff top overlooking the station we had a great panoramic view of the bay and would normally at least see the Riviera come in, the twenty past four 2C24 depart, and the station pilot (normally D4161) – very likely at rest, beside the sea wall. If we hung around the area a bit, playing on the beach or just wandering around the station, we’d usually see in the five to six 1V57 arrival too.
The ‘distant’ rises into place as a 12-coach passenger service leaves the environs of Penzance Station in 1969. Waiting to enter is a maroon-liveried ‘Warship’, its exhaust gently blowing eastwards. Coaches in the sea sidings are being cleaned and await reuse. 69####A01-CYR–D8##-LIG_D
Standard fare for the time were Warships and Westerns, plus the occasional visit by D63XXs and Brush Type 4’s. The styling of the “Brushes” appealed to me most, as they were neat, compact and yet also looking “the business” for hauling those long passenger trains. Depending on whether we thought we would be missed by our parents or not; if the weather was reasonably conducive; and assuming we had the energy; we’d sometimes walk to the Sheds just in case there was something interesting there, too, but at this time of a weekday that wasn’t very usual. At the weekend, I’d undertake this same journey at a more leisurely pace.
The neat design of the Brush Type 4s is exemplified by the alignment of roof vents, window positioning and side doors and optimised by the bodyside stripes of the two tone green livery of 1729; seen here from Penzance Station wall, passing the station pilot. 6####EI01-PNZ-d1729-LIG_D
Although D63XXs were rare visitors to Penzance, a family holiday to Fowey that year took me to Par Station where I saw several en route, and I then stood on the bridge awaiting a lift eastwards. A Western came down the slope from St Austell in some trouble judging by the smoke, and I noticed some fuss the station staff were making. D6319 was roused from the shunter bay by the bridge, trundled back and forth over the pointwork and was fixed onto the front of the train. With a spluttering roar and plumes of emissions from the Western, the train slowly drew out and disappeared from view – my first and last experience of a 63XX on a ‘double-header’.
In the early 1960s, inside the steam shed at Long Rock and prior to nose warning panels being added, D6319 is parked alone. The droop of the windscreens, ramshackle smoke deflectors and the grime covered hanging lamps all add a dismal feel. 6####FA01-LRK-D6319-PARKD
Once a train had arrived and its passengers disembarked at Penzance Station, the loco would uncouple and pull forward to separate itself from the coaches – the Shunter disappearing between the buffers, unwinding and unhitching the link, and disconnecting the flexible pipes as the buffers pressed together. Many’s the time I feared for the safety of the man crouched there!
A shunter is pictured between a carriage and 31410 at Huddersfield on 12th May 1984. The loco’s buffers are compressed against those of the Mk2 carriage, so the coupling links can be lifted off the hook and the hoses connected – the ETH cable hangs like the buffer sleeve, chained, until it is required, and the blue star coupling code emblem can just about be seen. 840512A01-HUD-STAFF-CPLNG
The main arrivals platform was No. 3, where there was a crossover to platform 2 near the buffers and by which, sometimes, the loco could make its way to the fueling point by passing alongside its train. More normally, the platforms were all full, so the loco would have to wait until the empty carriages had been taken away by the station pilot, or else propel them out to the sidings itself.
The crossover from Platforms 2 to 3 near the buffers is in use as a ‘Western’ leaves light engine for the Sheds on 14th October 1976, having only brought its carriages to the limit of the station roof. The Shunter, resplendent in safety clothes, walks towards the camera. 761014A01-PNZ-D1054-LIG_U
For passenger departures, the carriages would either arrive pushed all the way by the shunting loco – guided by arm signals from a Shunter in the first vehicle – or “fly-shunted” by gravity following a “shove” from the shunting loco outside the station – which required a lot of skill on the wind-down handbrake to ensure the coaches didn’t stop short, or run into the stop blocks! I seldom heard a clash of buffers as this procedure was being performed, and merely once noticed the shunting loco having to follow right in to ensure the coaches were better positioned. Engines would return from the sheds (if they’d been there for attention or refueling) or leave the sea siding (if they’d just parked up there temporarily) before being coupled up for the journey back east.
Passage of locomotives back and forth for refueling kept the stretch of the line to Long Rock busy, and my walk to the Sheds a zig-zag from the shoreline to the line side as I realised something was moving. A ‘Western’ passes before Hotel Royale. 75#####-PNZ-D10##-LIG_D
With the exception of losses caused by the shredding of my earliest (flimsy and perforated) notebook by a gale force wind, I managed to keep up fairly comprehensive records right from the start, though some dates are suspect as I confused July and August for a few years and wasn’t good about the year change at the end of December either. Still – most of the inconsistencies have been resolved, and with the help of an Ian Allen book that I eventually did obtain after a while, I’m fairly confident about what I saw. The possibility of spotting a long sought-after escapee of a class, or something like a named Brush or ugly yet fascinating NBL Type 2, all provided the allure to keep me a frequent visitor to Penzance Station and Sheds in 1969, and with the backdrop of Mounts Bay, fresh air and exercise, what nicer way could there be of spending one’s time?
A few years before I visited the station regularly, D868 “ZEPHYR” heads a short train of vans midway up Platform 3. Hoses for topping up carriage water tanks are in the “6 foot”, and the gasworks tower protrudes above the loco in the background. 69###BU01-PNZ-D868–GDS_U
Example of a Loco Log entry during 1969:
Sat 19/07/1969 Penzance to Long Rock, return
D1019 PassD 1C14 WESTERN CHALLENGER
D822 GoodU 6C08 HERCULES
D4161 ShunS
D1059 PassD 1C12 WESTERN EMPIRE
D1046 PassU 1V49 WESTERN MARQUIS
D4013 ShunG
D6315+ Parkd 0B31
D838+ Parkd 1A56 RAPID
D864 Parkd 2C77 ZAMBEZI
D825 Parkd 1C32 INTREPID
W51346+ PassD 2C20
W59498
W51388
Afternoon
D6315 GoodU —-
D1045 PassU 1C20 WESTERN VISCOUNT
D868 PassU 1V31 ZEPHYR
D838 PassD RAPID
D827 PassD 1C22 KELLY
D1018 PassD 1C20 WESTERN BUCCANEAR
The Eric Curnow Collection (BAK) 