The engineer was Sir Morton Peto and he built workshops for the railway on the north side of Par, close to the adjoining town of St Blazey.

The turntable has been retained to turn the preserved steam locomotives that still visit Cornwall on special main line workings.

This resulted in an allocation of locomotives designed for hauling freight trains, and with the tight curves encountered on some of the branches, types with a short wheelbase suitable for such lines were usual.

The smallest engine allocated to St Blazey in later years was the tank used for the Lostwithiel to Fowey branch, which was usually four-coupled.

One loco was used to shunt St Blazey yard, and a second locomotive was used as trip pilot travelling to Wenfordbridge clay dries Monday/Wednesday/Friday.

This was a dual-braked example to work both the vacuum-braked 'clay hood' wagons commonly used on china clay trains in the St Blazey area and the passenger stock that would be shunted at Penzance.

[20][21] Since the demise of British Rail the depot has been operated by English, Welsh & Scottish Railway (EWS, now DB Cargo).

[22] The yard was used to store several DMUs overnight for British Rail and later Wessex Trains then Great Western Railway.