The Bristol Railway Archive

In case anybody is interested I have posted a scan of the 1964 Gloucester to Swindon timetable on Flickr, illustrated with a photograph of one of the Chalford auto trains https://www.flickr.com/photos/93122458@N08/50192933291/ This was of course the last timetable in which the intermediate stations ...

Express trains stopping at Mangotsfield were few by 1965, with only the 0740 Bradford, 1040 Newcastle and the 1925 Newcastle Mail stopping there. As you say there were none in the reverse direction. The stops were not made as an “early Bristol Parkway,” but were for connections to be made from Bath....

Have you looked on the Six Bells Juction website?

https://www.sixbellsjunction.co.uk/trf/trfindex.htm

It's possible therefore that some steam worked through the area in 66 and early 67. It's not just possible its certain! Here is a shot of one of the rakes on Flickr. Although this one is dated April 1965 such sighta were quite frequently seen in the area during 1966 and 1967. Depending on how long ...

On our way home from school one Friday before a Bath Road Open Day, (1968 or 69?), my friends and I were amazed to see an industrial 0-6-0T arriving "under it's own steam". When Filton Coal Concentration Depot was originally set up they had one there. I can't remember when they got rid oi it but it...

Although not strictly on topic, you’d forgotten how determined the WR were to get shot of steam by the end of 1965, and I’d forgotten about incursions from the south! To answer one of your questions, when Westerleigh Yard close in 1965, then initially its remaining traffic would have gone to Stoke G...

If I remember correctly from the railway press at the time, the WR was hell-bent on ending stem by the end of 1965. Of course, the S&D closure postponement scuppered that particular plan but, post-January 1966, he Spartan service between Bristol and Bath GP was operated from the Bristol end, so no 8...

...agreed, but don't you think the additional cost of the trackwork and signalling might drive a coach and horses through the proposal? :( I think the answer might be “that depends” – post COVID-19 there might, just might, be a new normal. Personally I see little point in speculating about the futu...

When I was carrying out some detailed genealogical research into my family tree recently, it intrigued me why one of my great4 grandfathers died at Keynsham in 1852 when he had lived in Hilmarton all his life and was also buried there (in railway terms Hilmarton is roughly equidistant from Dauntsey ...

While on the subject it has always baffled me why Kingswood Junction was so named. Why not Speedwell, Whoitehall or Greenbank Junction? I gave a brief response to this a couple of days ago, but as the matter intrigued me I looked more closely into how things looked in the area back in the closing y...