Laira Traction Maintenance Depot
Looking south from Laira Flyover
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| Location | |
|---|---|
| Location | Plymouth, United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | Coordinates: |
| OS grid | |
| Characteristics | |
| Owner(s) | Great Western Railway |
| Depot code(s) |
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| Type | Diesel, HST |
| History | |
| Opened | 1901 1931 Enlarged to replace Millbay shed 1962 Rebuilt for diesels 1981 Rebuilt for HSTs |
| Original | Great Western Railway |
| Pre-grouping | Great Western Railway |
| Post-grouping |
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Laira T&RSMD is a railway Traction & Rolling Stock 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, diesels started to arrive in 1958. A diesel depot opened in 1962 and was expanded in 1981 to accommodate the High Speed Trains.
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).
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