Three years after my last visit (blog: November 2020) it is time to make a day return to charming Liskeard on 3 October 2023, and attempt to photograph the dwindling ranks of GWR’s Castle HST sets and semaphore signals, as well as trekking out to a fine vantage point some way east of the station.
This is an over-bridge on a narrow lane called St. Keyne Road (264 miles 10.75 chains) that offers a fine panoramic view looking west of trains as they pass the first of Liskeard’s six semaphore signals, its down outer home (LD35), which stands just before the line curves west over the short Bolitho Viaduct.
Last time I had reached this spot by taking a challenging 35-minute walk, turning left outside the station and heading downhill towards Coombe Junction before turning left and heading up a steep and narrow lane, but looking at the OS map it seemed that an easier walk was via the town centre and then heading south-east on Plymouth Road.
As this extract from the OS map shows the clockwise route is no shorter in distance, but is a much easier 35-minute walk than the one I had taken previously. Arriving at the bridge, one disappointment was to be reminded that LD35 lacks a finial.
A recent culling of GWR’s HST Castle fleet has left just four weekday diagrams for the 2+4 sets between Cardiff, Plymouth and Penzance, but a check on Realtimetrains suggested I would be able to see three of the day’s four diagrams in action during the four hours I was spending at Liskeard.
My plan was to photograph 2U20 (10.50 Penzance-Cardiff Central) departing the station, before heading off to St. Keyne Road, where the two other HST sets would hopefully appear on 2P13 (11.50 Penzance-Plymouth) and then 2U24 (12.50 Penzance-Cardiff Central) before the set forming 2P13 returned as 2C27 (14.18 Plymouth-Penzance).
Deployment of the Castle sets is subject to last minute change, so whilst the diagrammed set of 43092/154 on 2U24 was replaced by 2-car 150243, a more positive change was replacement of a 5-car IET on 2C69 from Cardiff Central (09.00) by 43189/186.
These short notice changes meant I was still able to see three Castle HST sets in action during my time at Liskeard, these being 43187/097 (set GW06), 43189/186 (GW07) and 43153/155 (GW08).
Liskeard’s 1915 Great Western Railway signal box is painted an attractive chocolate and cream colour, but still has to be adorned with one of the attractive heritage-style nameplates that are feature of other boxes in Cornwall such as Par and Truro, both of which scheduled to close next year.
Its six semaphores comprise four in the down direction, with LD35 followed by home signal LD34 at the station end of Liskeard Viaduct, starter LD33 at the end of the down platform and section signal LD32 beyond and on the right of the running lines for sighting reasons.
The only up semaphore signal visible from the station is home signal LD3, a wooden-armed centre-pivot signal that is something of a rarity and one of only four surviving examples on the national network, along with those at Droitwich Spa, Shrewsbury and Worcester Shrub Hill.
Out of sight to the west is up outer home signal LD2, which stands close to Moorswater Viaduct, where the main line crosses high above the currently-disused freight line leading north from Coombe Junction Halt to Moorswater cement terminal.
RailwayWorld.net 
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