The Bristol Railway Archive

Talking of South Wales, during the miners' strike in 1984/5 Nantgarw coking plant managed to dispose of the vast majority of its stockpiled blast-furnace coke to Llanwern steelworks using (amongst other wagons) coke hoppers (the ones that had wooden boards around the tops to increase capacity for co...

As regards steam in the Bristol area, I have a photo I took of 9F 92212 heading north LE at Charfield in July 1966. It was a Sunday and it had worked an extra freight south that morning, presumably from Washwood Heath and as far as Stoke Gifford. The photo I have shows it tucked in behind a works tr...

One of the memorable sights from steam days around the Bristol area were the superb 9F's in charge of the twice-daily class '5' Avonmouth - Bromford Bridge oil trains and the returning empties (running as class '4'). My memory fails me, however, when trying to recall if these passed to diesel haulag...

It also occurred to me that non-fitted heavy coal trains would have benefited from the extra braking capability provided by the pilot loco on the descent into the tunnel. I wonder also whether the pilot loco from STJ was not the same loco that banked to Patchway. I have just spent a few minutes peru...

A bit further afield we had heavy up coal trains being piloted through the Severn Tunnel to Pilning then banked up to Patchway. What was the thinking there? My guess is that as there was a very significant downward grade to well under the Severn, it could have been difficult if not plain dangerous ...

I have just found an addendum pasted into my battered old LMS Sectional Appendix 1937 (Midland Division) which reads as follows : "Engine Shed Sidings - Banking of Passenger Trains. Indicators are provided positioned outside the Up Main Line at 11, 12, 13 and 14 coach lengths in advance of the Up Ma...

I was just a year or so too young to see Big Bertha banking on the Lickey but remember quite well ascending the bank with two or three panniers on the rear. This was always the case with up express trains but I also remember in around 1962 marvelling at the relative ease with which a Peak took a sim...

I admit to having no knowledge whatsoever regarding TPO stock, but I recall regularly seeing 1N59 (the evening Bristol - Newcastle mail) complete with at least two TPO vehicles plus one sleeping car pass through Charfield at around 20:00. I believe it called at Mangotsfield and then ran non-stop to ...

Was it just the TPO vehicles which were taken to Mangotsfield for turning on the triangle or was it the whole consist (which I seem to recall included a sleeper)?

Thanks for answering those queries, Roy. Perhaps my memory was playing tricks on this occasion or perhaps he mistakenly referred to the wagon shops as St Philips. Can't ask him now unfortunately!