The Bristol Railway Archive

Might have known that you would have a story to tell on this topic, Robin! :wink: :wink:

Nothing seems to pass you by, does it?

You make it sound like you have suspicions that I made the story up :)

No proof, I'm afraid - my camera was not with me that day, but it was on hand on this day ...

Might have known that you would have a story to tell on this topic, Robin!

Nothing seems to pass you by, does it?

Thanks for that, Andrew. I've never driven an engine, but I used to employ a similar tactic when parking the car in a confined space - it is possible to lightly touch another vehicle, or wall, perhaps, with careful use of the clutch.

Having done that all my driving life - fifty-two years - my ...

Circa 1952 we had been down to WSM for the day, and to get to my local station [Horfield], we had to change trains at Temple Meads - although nothing surprising in that!

We clambered into the Severn Beach via Pilning train, and while we were still standing, another train pulled by a Prairie of some ...

You are quite right Jules they were called Spaceships MWtype but were indeed used on a lot of the country services around Bristol.

Yes, the MWs were the standard Bristol/ECW single decker from around 1959 until 1966 or thereabouts. I never heard them called spaceships though.

You have a good memory, Yes it was the 324, I had to think about that even though i drove the dam things.

Those funny little Bristol single deckers with the rounded roof and split windscreens with the door at the front - we used to call them "Spaceships" when I was a kid.

I wish that I knew ...

Andy - Thank you for the links, and I found the three photos of great interest. It probably was the orientation of the station building that made me recollect that the line arrived at ninety degrees to the 'beach'

Robin - Yes. When I typed the word 'beach' I thought that it was overstating the ...

Have a look here: http://www.old-maps.co.uk/maps.html enter "Severn Beach in the search box, then move the cursor to the station by clicking, say at the station entrance. I looked at the 1972 1:2500 scale map which will be in the list on the right hand side of the page.

You will see that there was ...

My first acquaintance with Severn Beach was circa 1952 when we took a train from Redland [via Avonmouth], and my lasting recollection is that we arrived at a dead-end platform at 90 degrees to the beach.

Subsequent study of relevant maps shows that the line via Avonmouth continued up to Pilning and ...

Brilliant - the best bit of misplaced rail clip yet! Portillo was in Ireland in tonight's offering, so inserted in a particularly boring treatise on Irish butter-making was a shot of a 9F on a fitted freight. Running on the sleepers I assume!

Yes! It was exactly this sort of calamity that made me ...

Whilst we're talking about this subject, what do others think about the "Locomotion" series currently running on BBC?

Well, I've seen all the episodes, and I was quite impressed. I think that Dan Snow is a good presenter for this kind of thing and appears to have researched his subject well. I ...

Oh dear
You clearly don't like the man. But there is no need to lower yourself to name calling though.


Oh I don't mind him as a person. It's just his noxious politics and beliefs I don't like and I won't make any secret about it, anywhere! :D

His breaking out into TV has always made me think ...

However, back to Mr Portaloo -


Tut tut, I hope that was just a slip of the keyboard?!???

Nope. An accurate description. Full of sh 1 t ... just like the rest of them, despite trying to "soften himself up" wit ha career as a (not very good) TV presenter :D

...........Oh!, and the colours he ...

Thanks. I must have read about it in the Railway Mag - and then forgotten!

Portillo was having a generally good time on the WSR last night apparently on a Churchward 2-8-0 , but the inside shots clearly showed 6960 above the driver's head.

Apart from the obvious lack of continuity, I was not aware that Raveningham Hall had been to the WSR recently, if at all. This tends ...