My memory wasn't playing tricks with me. I went back to Hallen yesterday and found the site of the old oil sidings which I remember stumbling across some 25 years ago!
Sadly, there is not a lot there now. Back in the70's it was all in place, oil pipes, waggon stands, electrics, buildings, track, but it was all becoming overgrown and rusting gently away. At some time in the last 25 years, the track has been lifted, the discharge stands cut down and buildings demolished.
But what does remain is the boundary fence, the earthworks and some very strange concrete structures to the south of the sidings. The fence is crumbling away in many places, so access is relatively easy. Whilst an attempt has been made to place barbed wire where the fence has fallen down, this looks more like the efforts of the local farmer to keep animals out, rather than people.
How to get there:
Drive down Hallen Road towards Hallen from Bristol and turn left into Windmill Lane. Follow this road and take the second right into Hill End Drive. At the end of this road you will find a small cul-de-sac called, I think, Darley Drive or Close. In front of you, between the houses, you will find a five-bar gate with a conreted lane leading down through a small valley.
Climb over this gate (it's easy) and follow the lane down into the valley. At the bottom of the valley, the lane levels out - this is where the short branch to the sidings crossed the footpath. To your right and left, you will see old sets of gates (or rather their posts) that closed off the sidings and the branch from the main line from the footpath. (I guess the footpath was the pedestrian access to these sidings). You can also see the old wartime style fence that still surrounds the entire site.
Following the footpath further down, you come into a field and to your left, the fence runs along both this and the next field up. Access is possible at several points, though there is not a lot to see within the depot apart from some old earthworks and a few rotting sleepers and a few cut-off girders based in concrete. The depot was actually more extensive than I remembered and from the second field, you can walk right to the end of the cutting that was the end of the sidings (could this have been a headshunt?). I never realised that this depot actually extended quite a long way into the hill in a deep cutting at it's Lawrence Weston end). On the multimap link in my last post, the entire cheese shaped triangular area of trees is actually the area of the old oil depot.
Returning to the bottom of the lane that runs down the valley, walk down the edge of the field towards thge main line. This triangualr area, set between the main line and the line of the old branch to the oil sidings, contains three very large and very strange concrete structures, formed of lots of concrete ribs running horizontal to each other, about 50 yds long. I have no idea what these were - could it be the tops of old subterranean oil tanks - or maybe some kind of oil traps in case of spills? From here, you can also see the earthworks of the branch that ran into the depot, but it is not possible to go any closer to the site of the old junction.
One warning - the fields around here are very wet and soggy - I wish I'd worn stout boots! You get a good view of the other side of Hallen embankment from down here too. Also, go take a look from Ison Hill Road at the other end of the housing area. There is lots of building of new houses going on here, so walk down rather than drive. You can look over the wall at the route of the old branch into the sidings and also see the main line.
So, what was this depot all about? It was obviously connected with the nearby oil storage tanks (the hills around Hallen are full of them) and the nearest one, being just a little furhter down Ison Hill and still operational, would have been the obvious destination for rail traffic to and from these sidings. The whole lot was obviously once rail connected. My family tell me aviation fuel was stored there, particularly during the war years. Could it be connected with the temporary re-opening of Hallen Halt? It would be interesting to find out when it was built, when it closed and why it was left in place right up to the late 70's/early 80's. Also, what arrangements there were at Hallen Halt for controlling traffic - there must have at least been a ground frame.
I took some photos of what is left here, which to be honest is not a lot. You can view them here:
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/the_ch ... /my_photos
I've captioned each pic to explain what it is, as it ain't always obvious! Feel free to use any on the main site for Hallen if they are of any use. Would be good to see this hitherto unknown piece of Bristol's railway history mentioned on the main site
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