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The steam engine often gets taken off at Plymouth and the tour goes down into Cornwall diesel hauled. The steam engine then runs back to the Laira to be turned on the triangle and returns to north road station to be coaled and watered.
You can certainly see the depot siding from the main road, although its a bit overgrown in places. As you mentioned you can also walk along the footpath to the back of the depot between Mount Gould and Lipson, however it does pass through the grounds of a large school and the last time I...
Good to hear, nobody has been hurt. My understanding is that there's been a large programme of cutting down / back lineside trees in the area to try and avoid these incidents.