Montpelier station

BaggieBird · Post by **BaggieBird** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 10:56 pm

Any one know anything interesting about this station that isn't already covered on the site? It's literally 5 seconds away from me and strikes me as a lovely little station (i get awesome views from my roof of trains going over the arches on Gloucester road) although its in awful condition in my oppinion. Does anything other than the typical DMU's run on this Severn Beach line as ive never seen anything. It's also very handy for getting into Temple Meads.

simon · Post by **simon** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 9:47 am

very little now runs through it apart from the severn beach shuttle and the occassional diversion.

I believe that it is on the National Rail fragile list - i.e locos are all but banned from it.

I knew the line well from around 1967 when I first became interested in railways and I used to have a friend whol lived in Glos Road so we used to explore round there quite a bit in the late 60s early 70's.

On one occassion we came across the chap who was renting the station and the door to one of the rooms was open There was a BR(W) choclate and cream waiting room sign lying on the floor and I asked him how much he wanted for it. "Take it for free" he said. I still have it in the loft.

Even in those days frieght was sparce.

In terms of the station, there used to be a ticket office next to the footbridge on the disused platform side - but looking at the fotos on the site it all seems to have gone. I have a couple of rather poor photos on my site showing the station in the early 70's

There was of course a big coal yard but the bridge to it was demolished a long time ago.

My sister has a book on the area which has quite a lot about the station and how popular it was in its prime.

It might be worth trying Pete's shop to see if it is still avaiable

BaggieBird · Post by **BaggieBird** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 10:40 pm

thanx

out of interest where is Pete's shop?

It seems a shame that I never saw the Severn Beach line in its glory, being only 20, but then i have this problem wherever i go. I mean stnding on Montpelier platform its hard to imagine what it was once like, as all i can see is an out of use building a single track and grafitti and litter everywhere

Still other places like Temple Meads are better because of how busy it still is

Greg

Post by **James** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 12:04 am

Temple Meads is dead now, compared to what it used to be!

NDTSDN · Post by **NDTSDN** » Wed Sep 27, 2006 4:16 pm

simon wrote:very little now runs through it apart from the severn beach shuttle and the occassional diversion.

I believe that it is on the National Rail fragile list - i.e locos are all but banned from it.

I knew the line well from around 1967 when I first became interested in railways and I used to have a friend whol lived in Glos Road so we used to explore round there quite a bit in the late 60s early 70's.

On one occassion we came across the chap who was renting the station and the door to one of the rooms was open There was a BR(W) choclate and cream waiting room sign lying on the floor and I asked him how much he wanted for it. "Take it for free" he said. I still have it in the loft.

Even in those days frieght was sparce.

In terms of the station, there used to be a ticket office next to the footbridge on the disused platform side - but looking at the fotos on the site it all seems to have gone. I have a couple of rather poor photos on my site showing the station in the early 70's

There was of course a big coal yard but the bridge to it was demolished a long time ago.

My sister has a book on the area which has quite a lot about the station and how popular it was in its prime.

It might be worth trying Pete's shop to see if it is still avaiable

Any reference to TILEY BROS. They were Coal Merchants at Montpelier and owned at least eight coal wagons.

I am still hoping to find some pictures of the wagons.

Neil Tiley

Andrew · Post by **Andrew** » Wed Feb 08, 2012 4:40 pm

I remember Montpelier well as I used to catch the train into TM most Saturdays to go trainspotting. I remember it in double track days as well as after singling. The Redland end of the extant platform used to be very low - don't know if it still is?

I also remember a gorgeous girl (way out of my league) who worked at TM and caught the train in from Montpelier, wearing spectacularly short skirts!

Ian L Jamieson · Post by **Ian L Jamieson** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 6:42 pm

Ah, well, chaps! I am old enough to remember Montpelier in its hey-day. I had to travel across Bristol to school from 1954 to 1960, and it was there that I got my first glance of a loco each morning. There was always an ex-LMS 0-6-0 tender engine which appeared to be doing some light shunting - possibly the aforementioned Tiley wagons. Couldn't get the number, of course, but for a loco-mad chap like myself, at least it was a loco. Later we would be going over the bridge at Temple Meads where we saw oodles of the real stuff! Happy days.

trafalgar45682 · Post by **trafalgar45682** » Wed Feb 15, 2012 7:40 pm

I used to travel the line most days between 1962-1964 on an evening as a teenage trainspotter at Temple Meads.

Here is a photo of my station, Redland in 1964

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bristolste ... hotostream

As luck would have it I was at the Arches on Gloucester Road when a pannier tank was shunting in Montpelier Yard.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bristolste ... hotostream

Andrew · Post by **Andrew** » Sat May 19, 2012 11:13 am

I may have mentioned this elsewhere, but I remember the Redland end of the Up (remaining) platform was lower than usual and it was quite a step up into a train.