{"id":272,"date":"2020-08-13T22:09:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-13T21:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.teignrail.co.uk\/scouting\/?p=272"},"modified":"2024-10-09T11:29:00","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T10:29:00","slug":"41-maintenance-depots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.teignrail.co.uk\/scouting\/41-maintenance-depots\/","title":{"rendered":"42 Maintenance Depots"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Viewing the new \u00a340-million* D.M.U. maintenance depot nearing completion at St. David’s brought back memories of Newton Abbot’s diesel depot, the ruins of which the scout scavenged.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The utilitarian expanse of sheet steel, built, as an operational structure, under the railway’s “permitted development rights,” containing train maintenance facilities, traincrew quarters, offices and meeting rooms, now dominates what is left of the traditional railway architecture which tells of the evolution of St. David’s from the original “one-sided” station.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The place looks less like a station with every “flat-pack” building that is added. Much of the unique railway atmosphere went when colour light signals replaced semaphores in 1985 and the track layout was rationalized, but a residue of the overall roof can still be seen and the 1930s alterations to the frontage remain largely intact.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Taken from the same position as the one above in 2016.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From the general purpose to the monofunctional<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The new work occupies the sites of the goods shed, the goods office and sidings which were part of the station’s only yard before Riverside was opened in 1943.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond lay the carriage chutes, cattle pens, cartage stables and cottage, part of the goods avoiding lines and the locomotive shed, with its coaling stage and turntable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This depot has been built for passenger trains alone and no provision has been made for the general purpose system that will surely be needed if the railway is to contribute fully to decarbonization and other pressing challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it is, not a single modern manager will be ashamed to admit that all the fuel, supplies and parts, and even on occasions the trains themselves, will come by road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why would Cadbury’s have a rail depot?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

On this side of the line, there are further reminders of the diverse transport services once provided by the railway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n