The Bristol Railway Archive

76026 wrote: Sat Jun 05, 2021 12:06 pm
-John Dickinson Paper Mills, Keynsham

Was it from there that the BSRS obtained their 0-4-0 diesel shunter?

I have just been browsing R A Cooke's Bristol trackplans and I see that Ashton Containers was served by a trailing connection from the down line of the Portishead branch (Ashton Junction North Ground Frame) and by a trailing connection from the up line (Ashton Junction South Ground Frame) thus forming a loop into the works. The former is shown as removed in 1964 and the latter in 1968 which looks like it might tie in with the diesel turning up at Pugsleys who were, as 76026 correctly surmises, scrap merchants.

Looking at the map I am puzzled by there being a siding shown belonging to Bristol Tramways. The Ashton Junction Signal Box is on the down side of the line on the Portishead side of the level crossing. There is a trailing siding from the down line the other side of the level crossing, which crossed the up line and then ran across Winterstoke Road into Braby's Works. No doubt someone will correct me if I am wrong but I think they were an engineering firm. In any event, this siding is shown as removed in 1946 which is before my time. However, there is then a trailing siding on the up side which crosses the Braby's siding and runs back, presumably parallel to, and between Winterstoke Road and the Portishead branch to terminate at the level crossing and this is identified as 'Bristol Tramways siding'. The location is not more than 100 or 150 yards from Bristol Tramways Winterstoke Road Depot which was, at that time, not long opened but I would be at a loss to understand why Winterstoke Road Depot would need a rail connection. The track plan notes that the siding was removed on 4 March, 1956. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind do I have a recollection that Tramways undertook War Production somewhere around Duckmoor Road, either where the City Ground car park now is or where the flats overlooking the ground were later built? Is that why the siding was there?

I have also come up with some more local industrial steam but not one any of us are likely to have seen. I am fairly sure that the colliery in South Liberty Lane had a four wheel saddle tank. I have seen pictures taken from the hillside above the railway showing the engine. My grandfather could remember the colliery; he was born in 1880 and the plan of the sidings in R A Cooke's track plans is dated 1890. My father who was born in 1913 never spoke as if the colliery was there during his time. I think it probably closed around the turn of the last century. For my part, I spent many hours collecting engine numbers from the top of it's spoil heap next to West Depot. (This colliery is always known to the best of my knowledge as South Liberty Colliery but R A Cooke's track diagrams refer to it on several occasions as Ashton Vale Colliery and once as Ashton Vale (South Liberty) Colliery which is potentially misleading as there was another colliery served by rail from Ashton Jcn S.B. on the Portishead line which is called Ashton Vale Colliery.)

Seasonal Greetings one and all!

Yesterday I stumbled on another example of an industrial loco that had worked within the BRA area Before being sold to BR.
It was a Ruston & Hornsby DS48 ÔÇÿ0-4-0ÔÇÖ design built in 1946 and delivered to the Bristol Aeroplane Company at Weston-Super-Mare. According to the 1937-61 25-inch OS map, it appears that BAC had six sidings accessed from the Weston avoiding line.

The loco was purchased by BR (Southern Region) from BAC in 1948, joining their Departmental fleet as DS1169, initially at Folkestone Warren PW depot until 1962, subsequently at Broad Clyst, and possibly at Yeovil Junction at some point.

I donÔÇÖt think that DS1169 survived, but at least one other example of the DS48 design has.
Intrigued as to whether BAC bought a different loco in 1948 or gave up using the railway to transport raw materials and products.

Picking up my own question of how long the Bristol Aeroplane Company factory at Weston-super-Mare continued to use its railway connection:

-the Weston-super-Mare entry in 1956 edition of the British Transport CommissionÔÇÖs ÔÇÿOfficial Hand-Book of Stations including Junctions, Sidings, Collieries Etc on the Railways of Great Britain and IrelandÔÇÖ does include a
'Central Electricity Authority SidingÔÇÖ

and a

ÔÇÿSouth Western Gas BoardÔÇÖ siding

but it does not mention any BAC siding. That suggests that sometime between 1948 and 1956 the BAC gave up their railway connection.

Of course, now Im wondering whether the Electricity Authority or the Gas Board had their own loco

Would those sidings be the ones controlled by HUTTON signal-box, opened 1940 and closed 1964?

The short answer is that I donÔÇÖt know.

The Bristol Aero branch joined the Weston avoiding line very close to the site of the long removed Weston Junction, so that seems about the right place for a box controlling access to Bristol Aero. It's not that far from where Hutton Moor Lane crosses the avoiding line, so it could have been called Hutton Signal Box.

A useful way of tracing where current and former lines and sidings ran is railmaponline.com which is superimposed onto a google map showing current landmarks and road layouts for reference. It's a free website which is relatively easy to navigate. It shows a network of sidings around the Weston airfield site close to Weston Junction.
Roy

There was a siding that ran from the Up side of East Depot to Lysaght's engineering works, crossing Whitby Road on the level and then over the Avon. The siding was constructed in 1924. It is not shown on many maps but I have found one here https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=1 ... rs=193&b=1

The siding was used not only to connect with the main line, but for internal use as the steel stockyard lay, separated from the main works by the river, adjacent to East Depot

There is a photograph in Steam Around Bristol (Mark Warburton & Gerry Nichols, Crecy 2018) showing a Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST (works Number 3333 of 1918) shunting in the works in 1960. According to the book, the private siding agreement was terminated in 1967 but the connection had been severed in 1964.

The loco was numbered JL 19. I don't know whether Lysaght's ever had as many as 19 locomotives; they did have other premises for instance in Newport. The loco was scrapped in 1967.

Steam Centres: Bristol by Colin Maggs has a picture by the Revd Alan Newman of a little Peckett 0-4-0ST named Fenwick at Canon's Marsh gasworks in 1955. It was scrapped in 1960.

Another photo of Fenwick here https://www.flickr.com/photos/boxbrowni ... otostream/

And a Ruston diesel here https://railphotoprints.uk/p50246835/h4 ... #h4064ed8e

And and Avonside at Bath gas works https://railphotoprints.uk/p109948357

Hi Andy,

(Belated) thanks for this.

I wasn't aware of the Lysaght's system, neither have I seen the photos of the Canon's Marsh Gas Works' locos before, so you've given me three useful additions to my somewhat sketchy knowledge!