OLD DEVONPORT . UK
www.olddevonport.uk
 

©  Brian Moseley, Plymouth
Webpage created: April 02, 2017.
Webpage updated: April 18, 2017

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ROYAL DOCKYARD  |  DOCKYARD RAILWAY

LOCOMOTIVE SHEDS

There were two locomotive sheds on the Dockyard Railway.

The shed in South Yard was a lean-to construction of galvanised sheets and a timber frame attached to the front of the Smithery.  It had a very high roof to enable steam cranes to access the shed.  It was closed in 1962 when the fly-over was constructed.

Eight locomotives  could be accommodated on the three roads in the North Yard Shed, which was located opposite the the original Central Office Block.  It was built of a combination of masonry and sheeting.  At the rear were pits where servicing could be undertaken but any locomotives requiring major work would be sent into one of the workshops in the Quadrangle.  It was closed in the 1970s and demolished for the Frigate Refit Complex to be constructed.

The North Yard Shed was staffed at the end of the Second World War by one fitter, one boilermaker, and a couple of labourers, and in his book about the "Devonport Dockyard Railway", author Paul Burkhalter tells of a fitter who was working on a locomotive accidentally driving it through the back wall into the roadway outside.

The principal source of information has been "Devonport Dockyard Railway" by Paul Burkhalter, published by the Twelveheads Press, Truro, in 1996