Bristol Parkway

From Bristol Railway Archive

To Bristol or Wales: Hatchet Road
To Yate or London: West of England Post Office Rail Depot

History

Opened on the 1st May 1972 on the site of Stoke Gifford marshalling yard which closed on 4th October 1971. The original station was built by Stone & Co. of Bristol and consisted of open platforms connected by an open footbridge. Only very basic booking and waiting facilities were provided.

The station was redeveloped through the year 2000, and a new main building opened on 1st July 2001. A third platform was opened in 2007 with a fourth planned for 2008.

Track Plans

A track plan of Bristol Parkway from 1988.

1970s

D1025 enters Stoke Gifford Yard from the east. © Andy Kirkham	As does 37230 on the same day. © Andy Kirkham	The official BR portrait of the station taken just before opening in 1972.	37294 and 37270 depart light engine from the station on 19.8.76. A long van train heads for wales in the distance.
At the other end of the station on the same day were 37239 on a ballast train, 47508 on a 12.55 service to Swansea and 45041 with the 10.40 service from Leeds to Paignton.

1980s

A snowy station during the winter of 1981. © Roger Childs	A Class 31 at the east end of the station. © Roger Childs	A Class 47 enters the station with a coal train. © Roger Childs	37291 at the west end of the station with a rake of coal wagons. © Roger Childs
A Class 50 heads through the station in 1982. © Roger Childs	A large logo Class 56 shunts wagons at the east end of the station. © Roger Childs	As do a pair of Class 37s. © Roger Childs	A view across the car park at Bristol Parkway with Concorde coming into land at Filton Airport to take part in a families airshow day. A Class 47 waits with a parcels train, while in the background a rake of cement wagons that will have either come from, or are going to Lawrence Hill or Avon Street. Between them is a rake of wagons destined for Filton Tip. © Geoff Hartland

2004-5

The 2001 station building.	A look at the main building. The left hand side is the meeting area and concourse. The bottom right of the building is the ticket office. The top right is the waiting room. You can see for miles across Bristol from up there.	This footbridge leads to the platforms. It crosses the through lines first though.	A quick look inside the concourse. I need a really wide-angle lens to do justice to this place. I would have taken more photos but the light was fading fast and I started to get followed by a security guard with a worried expression on his face.
At the west end of the station is this crossing.	The view west from the west end of the station.	A Voyager gets the right of way and heads for Temple Meads.	Looking east along the platforms. A healthy crowd is awaiting a London-bound HST.
The view east taken from the footbridge. Disused Royal Mail coaches await their fate in the sidings.	An HST bound for Swansea arrives on platform 2.