The Bristol Railway Archive

I posted in the Last BR steam workings in or around Bristol? chat that I donÔÇÖt recall being interested in industrial steam at the time Imperial Smelting Co no 2 (an Avonside 0-6-0 ST) appeared at Bath Road Open Day. The Bristol Harbour Railway website has a picture of it - albeit on standby- at the ISC site in 1970, so had I been bothered I could have subsequently tried to see it ÔÇÿat homeÔÇÖ myself.

I did later become interested, but by then the only working industrial steam I saw within the BRA area was ÔÇÿKilmersdonÔÇÖ (a Peckett 0-4-0 ST) at Kilmersdon Colliery -once on a coach trip revisiting disused S&D stations on the 4th anniversary of the lineÔÇÖs closure- I think that might have been organised by someone then trying to set up an S&D group- and once when I cycled there on an unofficial visit).

What did I miss? Are there other Forum members who saw industrial steam- or for that matter diesel- at work at

-the Port of Bristol Authority at Avonmouth, Portishead or the Floating Harbour
-the Gas Works at Stapleton, CanonÔÇÖs Marsh or Bath
-Albright & Wilson at Portishead
-FryÔÇÖs at Keynsham?
-Sandford Quarry on the Cheddar Valley line
-Western Fuels at Wapping Wharf in the 1980s
-PeckettÔÇÖs factory at Speedwell (did anyone get inside the works and see locos under construction?)
-anywhere else I havenÔÇÖt thought of?

Hello. I only saw a tiny amount of working steam but IÔÇÖve annotated some comments/Info to help you.

Bristol Industrial Museum working steam (on coal trains) was for 3 weeks only in 1981 (Oct/Nov) if I remember correctly.

The above is all I saw in account of being born in 1967!

PBA Avonmouth finished with steam certainly by 1965.

Kilmersden Colliery closed by 1973 - the Peckett remained there until the end.

British Cellophane Bridgwater saw its Peckett loco scrapped in 1962.

Whatley Quarry had the sentinel locos and the last one left in 1971 - IÔÇÖve never seen any photos of the sentinel steam locos working in 1970 or 1971.?

Sandford Quarry had closed (to rail) by 1963/64 when the Yatton to Cheddar section closed. The Sentinel steam loco went back to Whatley Quarry in 1964

The Peckett works lost its rail connection byJune 1958 when the connection to BR closed - theyÔÇÖd already built their last steam engine before then.

Hope that helps. Paul

Eastville (officially Stapleton Road) Gas works has their own 0-6-0ST, but I never saw it.
This loco was mentioned on the previous version of this forum.

Connected to the GWR mainline on 12th February 1879 and the Clifton Extension Railway on 7th April 1895. Gas production ceased on 26th March 1971. The gas works lost it's rail connection on 25 Nov 1973.

According to the Industrial Rly Society handbook there was no 060 saddle tank at Stapleton Rd gasworks.All steam locos at the site were 040 configuration. The last steam loco left May 1968; the diminutive Peckett that was on the Gwili Railway (as Merlin).

Stan The Steam wrote: Sat Mar 20, 2021 4:57 pm According to the Industrial Rly Society handbook there was no 060 saddle tank at Stapleton Rd gasworks.All steam locos at the site were 040 configuration. The last steam loco left May 1968; the diminutive Peckett that was on the Gwili Railway (as Merlin).

Apologies for the duff gen. As I said I never saw the loco, but went by what I had been told.
Meanwhile I found this on youtube; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVTQhpkAITo
6' 39" for Bath Gas Works and 24' 25" for Kilmersdon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDsvm0-iDYg shows just Kilmersdon as does this; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MVQOimJcsk

Thanks Paul, I wasnÔÇÖt aware of the British Cellophane loco at Bridgewater. Looks as though it is now at Telford -see https://www.railwayblogger.com/telford-steam-railway/.

I hadn't realised that PeckettÔÇÖs had lost their rail connection so early.

Thanks 22A for the youtubes. Nice to see the Bath Gas Works loco and Kilmersdon, not to mention the Baddesly Garratt (even though it is a few miles out of area)

Hopefully not to outrageous but the Imperial Smelting 060 at Bitton and the two Avonmouth dock steam locomotives feature in my next book -https://www.mortonsbooks.co.uk/product/ ... WHSTRREw5o

In response to the posting by 76026 listing industrial railway sites in the Bristol area I can think of one which I saw fairly frequently and which is not listed but which was diesel. This is Ashton Containers in Winterstoke Road. Their premises extended from the rear of the fire station (now the Robins pub) along the west side of Winterstoke Road as far as a road which was then unnamed but which is now Barons Court. Across this road there was then a rail connected yard with a fan of sidings in which rolls of paper, the raw material for Ashton Containers production, were stored. These arrived at Bristol Docks by ship and were originally delivered by railway. Presumably BR (WR) had a rake of opens which trundled from Wapping Wharf to Ashton Containers and back when a ship arrived.

Ashton Containers site backed onto the Portishead branch, the other side of which were allotments, my father having one of those which adjoined the railway line so I used to get to see Ashton Containers 200 yard (max!) industrial line regularly in the mid- to late 1950's. They had a green four-wheeled diesel shunter which was parked at the factory end of the line where it was under cover but visible. I cannot recall that I ever saw it move. My belief is that by 1960 at the latest rail delivery and movement had finished.

Noting the references to British Cellophane's industrial loco, for those that recall the distictive aroma of the industry, I wonder if they have managed to get the smell off it yet!

Thank you for Ashton Containers, C2759. ThereÔÇÖs a post-Ashton photo at https://www.flickr.com/photos/12a_kingm ... 6948436018 showing it on hire (to Southampton) from a Joseph T. Pugsley & Sons Ltd at Stoke Gifford. ItÔÇÖs a 1938 Fowler. This might be a foolish question since so many decades have passed, but does it look familiar?

I vaguely recall there being a scrapyard at the east end of Stoke Gifford- was that J.T. Pugsleys?

The flickr collection https://www.flickr.com/photos/12a_kingm ... 6910668388 that includes the Ashton loco has some great shots of other industrial locos in the ÔÇÿSouth & WestÔÇÖ including many at Avonmouth (I particularly like this https://www.flickr.com/photos/12a_kingm ... 910668388/ of a cyclist and a shiny 1960s Humber waiting at a crossing for a saddle tank and its train to pass. It also flags two other industrial systems that IÔÇÖd forgotten:

-ICI Severnside works

-British Waterways Sharpness Docks

Robins post in the Last BR Steam in or around Bristol topic, and the photo in this very archive at File:Filton Coal Concentration Depot5.jpg - Bristol Railway Archive (bristol-rail.co.uk) has reminded me of

-Filton Coal Concentration depot

Having recently acquired the remains of an Industrial Railway Society Handbook for 1973 (all the pages before Herefordshire are missing!) IÔÇÖve been reminded of some more systems in Somerset:

-the MoD branch to the RoF at Puriton (which had an 0-4-0 diesel hydraulic shunter, now at the West Somerset Railway)

-a narrow gauge loco at Combe Hay mines (Laforte industries) (never heard of this before)

-the Esso oil depot at Flax Bourton

-John Dickinson Paper Mills, Keynsham

-Foster YeomanÔÇÖs Quarry at Merehead

-ARC at Whatley Quarry, which had the Sentinel steam loco 7387, now on display at Sandford & Banwell station; I believe the last Sentinel that worked at Sandford Quarry did also work at Whatley after the Cheddar valley Line closed, but was subsequently scrapped)

-the Roads Reconstruction Quarry at Vallis Vale near Frome, which had Sentinel 9374. (This went the ÔÇÿYieldingtreeÔÇÖ Railway Museum at Bleadon & Uphill Station; online sources suggest it was subsequently cannibalised and the remains exported to Romania. Other locos exhibited at Bleadon were

Cardiff Railway 1338 (formerly the Bridgewater Docks shunter, now at Didcot),
Hunslet 1684 from Kilmersdon (now at the Middleton Railway),
a Hibberd 4wDM
and the (not-at-all industrial) AC Cars Railbus 79976, which was briefly used on Kemble- Cirencester Town and on Yeovil Town/ Junction/ Pen Mill trains).

If any members have an Industrial Railway Society Handbook that includes the A-G pages, they may be able to add some more Bristol / Gloucestershire industrials to the list