Exeter Engine Shed

EXE/83C

Today, sections of the wall from this former engine shed, closed as long ago as 1963, are still in existence, having even survived the completion of a new £42 million depot at Exeter St David's by German-based construction firm Hochtief in 2021 (ref: Exeter Depot Enhancement Works, Hochtief (UK), 2021).

The double-track Broad Gauge Bristol & Exeter Railway (B&ER) was formally opened to public traffic on Wednesday, 1st May 1844 (ref: The North Devon Journal, 2nd May 1844). In early newspaper reports, there is no specific mention of locomotive facilities at St David's, suggesting that there was nothing formal established at the station in those early years. Water facilities for locomotives were, however, mentioned, as were carriage and goods accommodation:

In line with this Building [the Departure Station] is the situation of the two Carriage Sheds, each about 100 feet in length, the roofs of which are plank, with a covering of tarpaulin; and between these sheds is placed the Turn-Table, a most ingenious and curious piece of mechanism on which are turned the several carriages. Further on, and in a line with these buildings, is the return station, being a range of buildings equal in extent with the departure station, just described, with a booking office, &c., but not containing so many rooms. Within the area is a reservoir, the water requisite for which is supplied by the Exeter Water Company; and a tank for the engines is in the course of erection. The stations, offices, &c., are lit with gas, supplied by the Exeter gas company. On the right of the station is a vast building, called the goods shed. This is 140 feet in length and 66 feet in width; having four windows on either side, and roofed over with large slate. Lines of rail are here also carried through it. [The North Devon Journal, Thursday, 2nd May 1844]

Click the above for a larger version. © David Glasspool

The single-track Broad Gauge line of the South Devon Railway (SDR) opened to public traffic between Exeter and Teignmouth on Saturday, 30th May 1846 (ref: The Morning Post (London), 1st June 1846). The SDR was to employ atmospheric power as a means of propulsion, but until the necessary infrastructure for this system had been completed, standard locomotive haulage was initially used. Presumably, a temporary structure would have been in evidence at the Exeter end of the line for housing these locomotives; from the outset, no physical connection was in existence between the tracks of SDR and B&ER, so these companies would not have been able to share stabling facilities. The most imposing building at Exeter at this time would have been the stationary pump house (also known as the "engine house"), then in the course of construction and destined to generate the necessary power for the SDR’s atmospheric system. This was a robust structure built from sandstone blocks, located at the south western corner of the station site, and was one of a series of pump houses situated along the SDR.

Tracing details of the earliest sheds at St David's is quite a feat, and given that a portion of the SDR was for a short period operated on the atmospheric principle, your author ponders what the stabling facilities would actually have looked like. Perhaps the vehicle at the front of such trains, which controlled the atmospheric propulsion, would simply have been stored with the company’s carriage stock. Some more tangible evidence of the locomotive facilities of the then independent SDR and B&ER companies comes to light in an article from 1861, as part of the London & South Western Railway’s (LSWR) scheme to extend their standard gauge line from Exeter Queen Street to St David's. As part of the same works, rebuilding of St David's station got underway:

The down station at St. David’s has been demolished, and as soon as its site is cleared the permanent track of the narrow gauge [of the LSWR] will pass over it towards the Bristol and Exeter station. Now the rails at the bottom of the embankment curve considerably towards the west. On the eastern side of the line and not far from the station which has been taken down, Messrs. Pedrick and Cole, of Plymouth, are erecting a large engine-shed for the South Devon Railway Company, who will occupy the ground from thence up to the three-arch bridge. The Bristol and Exeter Company have built a substantial engine-shed considerably to the west of the line, and their station has been provided with a second platform. Other station improvements are in progress, constructing by Mr. Spiller, of Taunton. [Woolmer’s Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 29th November 1861]

The B&ER shed referred to above was the predecessor of the depot that served steam right through until 1963, situated in-between the station and the River Exe. As for the SDR’s shed site, the "three-arch bridge" mentioned in the newspaper article is that which today still carries the connecting line between Exeter Central and St David's stations over Bonhay Road. This places the SDR’s locomotive facilities beside the LSWR’s curve, leading your author to suspect that the carriage sheds which occupied the site immediately south of St David's’ "down" platform, east of the junction with the spur to Central station, originally formed this company’s engine shed. Based on photographs, these structures were flattened in 1977.

Mid-1930s

The South Devon Railway’s former atmospheric pump house forms the backdrop of this photograph — its location in relation to the engine shed is marked on the diagram above. By this time, the GWR was using it as a gas works, and a huge water tank had been placed upon the tower. The locomotive is "Castle" Class 4-6-0 No. 5012 "Berry Pomeroy Castle". In the October 1925 edition of "The Railway Magazine", No. 5012 was noted as being named "Wallingford Castle"; however, by the October 1927 edition, the locomotive carried the name "Berry Pomeroy Castle". The engine remained in service until 1962, being withdrawn from Oxford (81F) in April of that year (ref: RCTS’ The Railway Observer, June 1962). © David Glasspool Collection

In March 1876, it was reported that narrow gauge track had reached Exeter from Bristol, and that the sidings at the former were also being altered to mixed gauge:

The narrow gauge has been laid through to Exeter, and the mixing of the lines in the station yards is now being completed. The Cheddar Valley branch was altered from broad to narrow gauge in November. The interlocking apparatus is completed and in operation at most of the stations on the main line. [Bridgwater Mercury, Wednesday 1st March 1876]

It seems likely that the yard alterations included laying mixed gauge within the B&ER's shed. By Act of 27th June 1876, the B&ER was amalgamated with the Great Western Railway (GWR), this being effective as of 1st August; by a subsequent Act of 22nd July 1878, the SDR was vested in the GWR, this taking effect on 1st of the following month (ref: Bradhsaw's Railway Manual, Shareholders' Guide, and Official Directory for 1894). Maps from 1880 mark the site of the SDR locomotive depot as Carriage Sheds, which your author feels makes credible that all engine activities were focused on the ex-B&ER shed after the 1878 takeover.

1956

Large Prairie No. 4157 is seen on the eastern-most shed track, the building being evident behind. The shed had been re-roofed in asbestos by this time (previously, it was slate) and doors removed. In the 1955 Ian Allan ABC Locoshed book, current to 21st May of that year, No. 4157 was listed as being allocated to Bristol Bath Road (82A). The engine was withdrawn from Severn Tunnel Junction (86E) in June 1965 (ref: RCTS’ The Railway Observer, August 1965). © David Glasspool Collection

From Thursday, 17th May 1877, the GWR started to run standard gauge passenger trains to Exeter; until then, all such services had been Broad Gauge south of Taunton (ref: The Taunton Courier, 23rd May 1877). Well-documented is the final Broad Gauge train from Paddington, which was the 10:15 morning departure of the Cornishman to Penzance on 20th May 1892 (ref: The Pall Mall Gazette, Monday Evening, 23rd May 1892). The same train was scheduled to return late that night from Penzance to as far as Exeter, whilst clearing out every remaining Broad Gauge vehicle from Cornwall and Devon on its way (ref: The Pall Mall Gazette, Monday Evening, 23rd May 1892). The end of Broad Gauge quickly brought a series of motive power depot improvements by the GWR in Devon. In 1892, a new engine shed at Newton Abbot was commissioned, which was reported in the Totnes Times and Devon News on Saturday, 28th May 1892 as having "only two pits in which are as yet ready for the reception of narrow gauge engines". In 1894, the existing shed at Exeter St David's was rebuilt (ref: An Historical Survey of Great Western Engine Sheds 1947, by E. Lyons), the design being based on the aforementioned new depot at Newton Abbot, and on 24th September 1895 the GWR formally invited tenders for the completion of a then new roundhouse at Taunton (ref: Taunton Courier, 2nd October 1895).

Exeter’s 1894 shed covered four tracks, as per its predecessor, and all of these passed beyond the rear of the building. A fifth track passed through a lifting shop situated on the shed’s north western corner. The main shed building was increased in length by 50% over the size of the original B&ER structure to 195-feet, measured 70-feet in width, and was flanked on its western and eastern sides by single-storey offices and a boiler house respectively.

Thirteen years after the shed’s rebuilding, the motive power arrangements at St David's were recounted in the October 1907 Edition of The Railway Magazine:

Exeter is a locomotives sub-district, and has attached to it some fifty engines and about 200 enginemen, fitters, cleaners, etc., under a foreman, who is responsible to the Divisional Locomotive Superintendent, Mr B. Giles, Newton Abbot. The engine shed is situated on the west side of the station, and has accommodation for about sixteen tender locomotives. When altering the atmospheric engine house to a gas works, advantage was taken of the height of the building to strengthen the walls and place on the top a water tank capable of holding 76,000 gallons. This is kept full by the Tangye steam pumps in the pump hose adjoining, and provides an ample supply for all the locomotive requirements of the station and yard. The pumps recently installed are capable of delivering 25,000 gallons an hour if required.

26th August 1962

A northward view from the western-most island platform of Exeter St David’s has the engine shed roughly centre distance and, just visible above the 4-6-0 "County" Class on the left, is the elevated coal stage. At multiple GWR sheds, the coal stage also hosted a water tank, but since this was instead put atop the former pump house at Exeter, a shed with a slated pitched roof prevailed. The tracks to the right of the engine shed formed a freight loop that bypassed the station and passed over Red Cow Crossing, the latter immediately north of the platforms. © David Glasspool Collection

Also worthy of mention is the coal ramp, which sat to the south west of the engine shed: a single track upon an embankment passed through a pitched-roof shed. Often, the GWR installed huge water tanks above coal ramp sheds, as per that still in evidence today at Didcot; however, as mentioned in the extract from The Railway Magazine, the tank was instead situated upon the redundant atmospheric pump house tower.

GWR locomotives allocated to Exeter displayed the code "EXE". Under British Railways (BR), Exeter shed was coded "83C"; it had a sub-shed at Tiverton Junction, which had been the case in GWR days, and came under the umbrella of the huge depot at Newton Abbot. By the 1959 Edition of the Ian Allan ABC Locoshed book (current to 21st March of that year), twenty-eight locomotives were allocated to the depot, four of which were 0-6-0 diesel-electric shunters (later Class 08). The 1963 edition of the same publication (current to 9th February of that year) showed that Exeter's allocation had dropped to seventeen locomotives, which included five [Class 08] diesel-electric shunters. Diesels had arrived in force on the Western Region by this time, large allocations being present at both Newton Abbot and Laira (Plymouth). Exeter shed closed to steam from 14th October 1963 and its code, 83C, was reassigned to Westbury, which until that time had been 82D (ref: The Railway Magazine, January 1964). Subsequent Ian Allan ABC Locoshed books show that the tiny shed at Tiverton Junction became a sub of Taunton (83B) for its final year of operation.

26th August 1962

A second northward view, much closer to the shed, shows an 0-6-0 diesel-electric shunter lurking round to the left, upon the track that led to the lifting shop. The Ian Allan ABC Locoshed book of 1963, current to 9th February of that year for the Western Region, noted five diesel shunters allocated to Exeter at that time: Nos. D3521, D3522, D4129, D4130, and D4162 (latterly Nos. 08406, 08407, 08899, 08900, and 08932 respectively). At the time of closure, the shed had already become devoid of its roof. © David Glasspool Collection

Exeter (EXE) Allocation: 8th January 1938

Engine numbers sourced from: RCTS’ Great Western Railway Locomotive Allocation list, published March 1938.

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