The Bristol Railway Archive

Can anyone tell me when the Avonmouth - Bromford Bridge 'Esso' oil trains ceased running? I remember them from the mid- to late-60s and there were generally two loaded trains northwards and two trains of empties southbound per day. Although they were timetabled via Hallen Marsh, Stoke Gifford and ...

Have you any photos of the inside of the box at charfield?
No, Tony, unfortunately I haven't. However, somewhere back in my parents' house in the village I have got some old reel-to-reel recordings made at Charfield station in the mid-60s and amongst those was a recording made in the signal-box ...

There was a trailing single slip on the up line but this move could potentially block both lines for a while, maybe this is the reason?
That's a good enough reason, Tony - in addition to which there would only be sufficient traffic for the one wagon drop/pick-up per day so why not make it a down ...

Shortwood Signal Box was situated on the UP side, at 123m57c, and closed 22/2/65 (when the last of the sidings and points were taken out of use)
In the 1960/61 Bristol District freight WTT, Shortwood Sidings is shown in the relevant table in the down direction but not in the up. Presumably only ...

Try and find yourself a copy of an historical record of the Midland in Gloucestershire
Funny you should suggest that - I ordered a second-hand copy last night! Looking forward to receiving and reading it. The 'replacement' up-side box was a much squatter affair. The original must have swayed in ...

Horace, I didn't even realise I could access old OS maps online! I've spent an interesting hour looking at maps from 1887 onwards showing Charfield railway station. I suppose this is a bit off-topic but it does have to do with location of signal-boxes!
From at least as far back as 1928 (year of the ...

Horace,

I found the photostream of the Shortwood area very interesting. I can remember a brickworks chimney there. Your maps are fascinating. By any chance would you have them covering the line as far as Charfield? If so, there are a couple of things I would very much appreciate clarifying.

Therefore the boxes going up from mangotsfield are as follows,

Mangotsfield North Junction, on downside

Shortwood brickworks, on upside

After 'replaying' my childhood journeys from Charfield to Temple Meads in my mind I am pretty certain that the Shortwood box I remember in the 60's WAS on ...

The confusion is over the sidings, the mapping shows no sidings near what you are refering to as shortwood box, the only siding i can find is the single line that goes into the brickworks which is 500 yards south of the box.
Yet in the 1937 LMS Sectional Appendix to the Working Time Tables the box ...

.. the box in the photograph, as thought by me and as confirmed by Rob Tarling, is Mangotsfield North box.
From what I can see, the pointwork behind the telegraph pole is a single slip and trailing crossover presumably serving the down siding. So the actual junction between the Bath and Bristol ...

down you can see it in the photo i posted a link to in my last posting
I am certain Shortwood box was not in such an open situation. but it was 50 years ago and my memory's not what it was! And that junction signal in the photo must be Mangotsfield North Junction's - Shortwood had nothing so fancy ...

So which side of the line was Shortwood Signal Box - up or down? - I have to admit I can't remember!

As a lad of 10 or so I recall often seeing from the Gloucester - Bristol train a string of mineral wagons on the Coalpit Heath branch from Westerleigh North Jcn. When did the colliery close? If prior to 1961 then by that year the branch would have been used just as a repository for wagons from ...

Assuming any manual signal-boxes remain, a string of 1P's on its way to shed (kennel) would be signalled 2 -3, 2 - 2, 2 - 2, 2 - 2, 2 - 2, 2 - 2, 2 - 2, 2 - 2, 2 - 2 recurring!
They could speed up services utilising 1P's by running a 1R (Reynard class) in front of the train - observing strict ...

simon wrote: But you need to add in Mr P making a ham fisted attempt to polish a bell then thanking Mr Bong for the chance to try.....

Ah - I think he must have been 'trying his hand' during the zzzzzzzzzz phase of the scene! (that was where I would have fallen asleep).