Laira Traction Maintenance Depot

Laira TMD

File:Laira TMD.jpg Looking south from the main line.
Overview
Location	Plymouth, United Kingdom
Coordinates
Owner	Great Western Railway
Depot Code	83D (1950-1963) 84A (1963-1973) LA (1973-present)
Type	Diesel, HST
Opened	1901 1931 Enlarged to replace Millbay shed 1962 Rebuilt for diesels 1981 Rebuilt for HSTs
Details
Original	Great Western Railway
Pre-grouping	Great Western Railway
Post-grouping	Great Western Railway British Railways

Laira TMD is a railway Traction Maintenance Depot situated in Plymouth, Devon, England. The depot is operated by Great Western Railway and is mainly concerned with the overhaul and daily servicing of their fleet of High Speed Trains and also the DMUs used on local services. The depot code "LA" is used to identify rolling stock based there.

After sixty years as a steam depot, servicing locomotives used on the Exeter to Plymouth line that runs past the shed as well as local lines, a diesel depot opened in 1962 and was expanded in 1981 to accommodate the High Speed Trains.

History

Steam shed

Laira was the location of the temporary terminus of the South Devon Railway from 5 May 1848 when a small engine shed would have been provided. With the completion of the line to Plymouth Millbay railway station on 2 April 1849 a new shed was provided there and the facilities at Laira dismantled, although it remained a junction for the branch line to Sutton Harbour which was mixed gauge for the use of the Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway.

The Great Western Railway, which had amalgamated with the South Devon Railway on 1 February 1876, a new engine shed opened at Laira in 1901 on a site inside a triangle of lines formed by the main line, Sutton Harbour branch, and a curve that was mainly used by London and South Western Railway trains to reach their terminus at Plymouth Friary. It was adjacent to the Embankment Road with the estuary of the River Plym just the other side of the road. The shed was a 434 by 181 feet (132 by 55-metre) brick roundhouse with a 65 feet (20 m) turntable in the middle. 28 lines radiated from the turntable for stabling locomotives and it was fitted with a 20-ton hoist for lifting locomotives (a 35-ton one was added later).

A small railway station known as Laira Halt was opened on the adjacent main line on 1 June 1904 but closed again on 7 July 1930. The shed at Millbay closed in 1925 and in 1931 a new 210 by 67 feet (64 by 20-metre) four track shed at Laira was brought into use just south of the original roundhouse, funded by a government loan under the Development (Loan Guarantees and Grants) Act 1929. This became known as the "Long Shed" or "New Shed". At the same time the coaling stage was raised and a new 50 ton hoist supplemented the smaller ones in the roundhouse.

Diesel shed

File:Laira Depot Plymouth. - geograph.org.uk - 818770.jpg

'Westerns' stand at the south end of the New Shed built for them in 1962.

Warship Class diesel-hydraulic locomotives started to appear in 1958 and were at first accommodated in the New Shed alongside steam locomotives until the diesel maintenance depot had been finished. The Laira marshalling yard alongside Embankment Road was closed in 1958 to make room for carriage sidings and a new diesel shed, which was fully opened on 13 March 1962, although parts had been in use since 1960.

Laira was designed for the servicing and heavy maintenance of the diesel-hydraulic locomotives favoured by the Western Region of British Railways (the depot became well known as the final home of the "Western" Class). It also handled the local diesel electric shunter and DMU fleets, although servicing of the latter was done initially at Belmont sidings at Millbay.

The diesel shed was in reinforced concrete and comprised three adjoining buildings. The servicing and maintenance building that covers roads 1–4 is on the western side of the shed; number 1 road is equipped with a wheel lathe and lifting jacks for bogie changes. The central building was the Heavy Maintenance Shed; engines can be removed and repainting undertaken on the two roads, numbers 5 and 6. The final three roads were in the servicing shed on the eastern side of the site, where locomotives could be inspected and refuelled. There were covered fuelling points outside in the yard, supplied by a 45,000 gallon fuel tank. A small group of buildings house stores and a workshop for shed equipment and is situated between the main shed and the curve of the Sutton Harbour branch (now realigned to the west of the shed and known locally as the "Speedway"). Carriage washing takes place south of the shed at Mount Gould, alongside the line to Plymouth Friary.

On 30 September 1981 a new shed, 750 metres (2,460 ft) long was built on the site of the old servicing shed that can accommodate the eight coaches and two Class 43 power cars of a High Speed Train set.

Following the withdrawal of steam from the area in 1964, the roundhouse was closed on 13 June 1965 and the area used for additional siding space. This area was later modernised and fenced off in readiness for servicing the Nightstar Channel Tunnel sleeper coaches, but the proposed service from Plymouth to Paris Gare du Nord never materialised.

Allocation

Up to the 1960s Laira had an allocation that consisted of a wide variety of Great Western Railway motive power, including "Castle" Class and "King" Class express passenger locomotives. The following lists give summaries for various years.

Type	1929	1934	1950	1959
2-8-0	1 x 2800 Class 5 x 3000 'R.O.D.' Class	4 x 2800 Class 1 x 3000 'R.O.D.' Class 1 x 4700 Class	1 x 2800 Class 2 x 2884 Class 1 x 4700 Class 1 x WD 2-8-0 Class	2 x 2800 Class 2 x 2884 Class 1 x 4700 Class
4-6-0	10 x 4000 'Star' Class	10 x 4073 'Castle' Class 8 x 4900 'Hall' Class 8 x 6000 'King' Class	3 x 1000 'County' Class 1 x 4000 'Star' Class 18 x 4073 'Castle' Class 9 x 4900 'Hall' Class 10 x 6000 'King' Class 2 x 6800 'Grange' Class 2 x 6959 'Hall' Class 4 x 7800 'Manor' Class	3 x 1000 'County' Class 11 x 4073 'Castle' Class 5 x 4900 'Hall' Class 9 x 6000 'King' Class 5 x 6800 'Grange' Class 2 x 6959 'Hall' Class 3 x 7800 'Manor' Class
2-6-0	3 x 2600 'Aberdare' Class 5 x 4300 Class	3 x 2600 'Aberdare' Class 4 x 4300 Class	3 x 4300 Class	4 x 4300 Class
2-6-2T	1 x 3100 Class 3 x 4500 Class	3 x 3150 Class 2 x 4400 Class 3 x 4500 Class 2 x 4575 Class	3 x 3150 Class 2 x 4400 Class 5 x 4500 Class 5 x 4575 Class 1 x 5100 Class	1 x 4500 Class 7 x 4575 Class 3 x 5100 Class
0-6-0	none	none	1 x 2251 Class	none
0-6-0T	5 x 850 Class 6 x 1076 Class 2 x 1813 Class	6 x 850 Class 2 x 1076 Class 1 x 1361 Class 2 x 1854 Class 1 x 2021 Class 2 x 6400 Class 1 x 5700 Class	4 x 1361 Class 1 x 2021 Class 21 x 5700 Class 7 x 6400 Class 1 x 9400 Class	3 x 1361 Class 1 x 1600 Class 8 x 5700 Class 6 x 6400 Class 3 x 9400 Class
4-4-0	none	5 x 3300 'Bulldog' Class	none	none
0-4-2T	none	none	none	2 x 1400 Class
Diesel	none	none	none	See below

A High Speed Train stands in the carriage sidings beside the depot.

During the 1960s and 1970s it was well known for its fleet of "Western" Class diesel-hydraulics. The last of these were withdrawn in 1977, by which time British Rail Class 50 diesel-electric locomotives had taken over many of their duties. These were later given Warship names in the same manner as the first diesel hydraulics. A fleet of DMUs was also stationed here for operating the branch lines in Devon and Cornwall.

In recent years the allocation has solely consisted of Class 43 power cars for High Speed Trains along with some British Rail Class 08 shunting locomotives. The DMUs in Devon and Cornwall were based at Cardiff Canton TMD for several years, but in December 2007 Laira had an allocation of two-car Class 150 and single-car Class 153 DMUs. After a while these were transferred to a reopened Exeter Traction Maintenance Depot.

File:Laira3HST.jpg

Two FGW HSTs and one CrossCountry HST side by side at Laira depot

Type	1959	1974	1988	2010
Main line	3 x Class 22 5 x Class 41 'Warship' 4 x Class 42 'Warship'	12 x Class 25 11 x Class 46 10 x Class 50 54 x Class 52 'Western'	6 x Class 37 26 x Class 43 30 x Class 50 'Warship'	30 x Class 43
Shunting	2 x Class 03 6 x Class 08	2 x Class 03 7 x Class 08	13 x Class 08	3 x Class 08
DMU		5 x Class 101 3-car 3 x Class 116 3-car 2 x Class 118 3-car 6 x Class 119 3-car 1 x Class 119 2-car 1 x Class 120 2-car 2 x Class 122 1-car + 1 trailer	9 x Class 101 2-car 4 x Class 108 2-car 2 x Class 118 3-car 3 x Class 118 2-car 1 x Class 121 1-car + 2 trailers 3 x Class 122 1-car	none

Shed codes

File:Laira 84A shedplate on D1023.jpg

A shed plate carried by a Laira engine

The following shed codes have been used to identify locomotives allocated to Laira:

LA	Great Western Railway
83D	British Railways	from 1949
84A	British Railways	from 1963
LA	British Rail	from 1973

Named locomotives

File:GWR 3338 Laira nameplate.jpg

The original nameplate of Bulldog Class Laira

Locomotives named after Laira shed have been:

• 3338 (3326 from 1912) Laira GWR Bulldog Class 4-4-0 steam locomotive
• 08641 Laira British Rail Class 08 0-6-0 diesel shunting locomotive
• 08644 Laira Diesel Depot British Rail Class 08 0-6-0 diesel shunting locomotive
• 43179 Pride of Laira British Rail Class 43 power car

External links

• Encyclopedia of Plymouth History – Laira Motive Power Depot and Yard