The Bristol Railway Archive

I remember them, but exactly when I stopped seeing them I'm not sure. They appeared sometimes on Gloucester stoppers, as did 2Ps, 4Fs, 2MTs, Black Fives and even Jubilees.

In one of my first posts here I stated my intention of modeling Mangotsfield station. That is still my intention and I have started. Problem is, although I can work out, from the many published photographs, the window and door configuration of the walls facing onto the platforms forming the main ...

I am very interested in this as I am trying to model it c.1960. I've set myself a tough task and much of what lies behind those famous walls will need to be guessed at unless something turns up.

I once read that ex-GW engines were rare on the line through Mangotsfield. That does not accord with my recollections. 'The Cornishman' (down) I recall nearly always had a 'Castle' (which looked great with its chocolate & cream BR standard coaches) until about 1960 when 'Peaks' took over. Pannier ...

Mind you - I could be wrong! In fact I think I am wrong. On reflection I think the picture Staple Hill Tunnel7.jpg is of the western portal looking down across where Staple Hill station was. In that case, the semaphore signal is the up intermediate which allowed two trains to occupy the Fishponds ...

The picture Staple Hill Tunnel7.jpg on this site shows Staple Hill Tunnel right enough, but the Peak-hauled train is not going towards Bristol. This is the east portal and the train is between Seymour Road (just above the tunnel) and Teewell Hill heading towards Mangotsfield and Gloucester. The ...

The Middleton Press book on this route, though a valuable source, contains many errors of fact in addition to some irritating typos. For example:

Picture 19 caption: claimed to be "probably the first occasion on which one of the ('Castle') class ran on the Mangotsfield route.". Not so. I recall ...

Clive Mooe's photo Rodway_Hill1.jpg is captioned "a 2-6-0 heads for Bristol". Might I be allowed to point out that the locomotive in this picture is clearly not a 2-6-0 but a 'Hall' class 4-6-0?

Roger suggests that 1C35 was not 'The Cornishman' but a West Country express from Paddington. Whilst it is certainly true that most WR trains starting with 1C WERE ex-Paddington, it needs to be born in mind that headcodes say NOTHING WATSOEVER about where a train is FROM - only where it is going ...

The picture showing 'The Cornishman' with the headcode 849 is pre-1961 - i.e. with the old ex-GW three-character headcode. From around 1961 the standard four-character BR train numbers (still used today though no longer displayed on the loco) were introduced. With that system the first character ...

Several of the books I have include photographs of the down 'Cornishman' bearing the four-character headcode 1C35. On ex-GW locos such as the usual 'Castle' the GW headcode frame only allowed for three characters and this is C35, as the first digit of the four-character headcode is the train type ...

Yes, I remember the concrete sleepers, and there was a fixed distant signal on the approaches to Clevedon - the only surviving signal then (1962).

Does anyone remember the Yatton-Clevedon Branch? As a teenager I visited the branch, probably just in time before closure, with a school friend. It must have been 1962, just before I was dragged screaming and kicking to Australia. The "train", which left from the Yatton bay platform on the 'up' side ...

There is no broad gauge TRACK left, but there is plenty of broad gauge RAIL. Brunel used an unusual rail profile called "bridge" rail for his celebrated 7-foot gauge, and lots of it survives around the former GWR system. A few years ago I got off a train at Castle Cary and found that numerous fence ...

I hadn't realised this had been drawn by a contributor and had assumed it to be professional. The unidentified 'Guest' has missed the point. Constructive suggestion is intended to eventually result in improvement, which is surely the point of a growing website like this. It is not criticism for its ...