Rent Depot: Vol.1: Plymouth / Laira (2006)
0h 40min
- General info
- Available formats
- All series
- Synopsis:
Every day, British Rail handles thousands of train movements, transporting millions of passengers and thousands of tons of freight. Every journey requires motive power, to make those movements work, and staff, to make it happen. A key part - largely unseen - is played by the many and varied depots which service the trains and maintain the locomotives. Whether it be the trainee engineer, the skilled technician, the cleaner or the depot manager, they all figure in the daily cycle that ultimately makes the wheels turn and the trains run. 'Depot' is a series of programmes which takes the viewer behind the scenes, to see the workshops in operation and the locomotives they service in action. Each programme looks from a different angle and features different areas of the network. Made with the full co-operation of British Rail and with unrestricted access, 'Depot' provides an authentic and fascinating record of BR's locomotive fleet and the staff who keep it hard at work. Laira depot, Plymouth, opened in 1901, was for 60 years the framed centre of operations in the south west for the GWR's steam fleet. Well removed from London and its labour problems, Laira was first selected in 1961 as BR Western Region's first main diesel maintenance depot and was completely rebuilt. During the 1980's, it became one of BR's ten 'level 5' depots, undertaking the heaviest overhauls today, besides maintaining its own allocation, it services locomotives from depots near and as far as part of BR's Component Exchange Maintenance Programme. Depot: Laira looks at the work of the 400 strong workforce, whose charges include a fleet of IC125's and Class 50's, which make light work of the notorious South Devon banks, and the faithful 37's, workhorses of the region's traditional China clay traffic. This video shows the locomotives at work on main lines and branches, and unaergoing servicing and repair at Laira. - Aka:
- Depot: No.1
- Studio:
- Boulevard Entertainment
- Genres:
- British TV, TV Documentaries