Many of the North Somerset Collieries owned large fleets of Private Owner Wagons however I have seen very little information about any wagons owned by the Bristol and South Gloucestershire pits.
In fact apart from a few of the coal merchants such as Thomas Silvey , Brickworks such as The Cattybrook Company and of course the large fleet owned by the PBA I have seen little information on any Bristol companies which ran their own fleets .
Anyone know any others as there must have been quite a few firms in the area.
Private Owner Wagons in Steam Days
Thank you thats a useful suggestion - I have had a look at a lot of information from the Gloucester Carriage & Wagon Co but the majority of their customers seem to have been North Gloucestershire and Forest of Dean which would indicate there was another business supplying wagons in the Bristol area.
Slaters do (or maybe did) a 4mm kit for a 5-plank Gloucester wagon lettered for S Brookman of Montpelier. (Grey body, black lettering shaded red). Having been born in a house overlooking Montpelier Station (in the days when it still was a GW/LMS joint station) I just had to have one - but of course it's just joined the great stack of unstarted kits that modellers seem to acquire!
Martin
Dynamic Rail Maps: http://www.railmaps.org.uk
Dynamic Rail Maps: http://www.railmaps.org.uk
Don't forget the "BD's", or Bristol Docks Internal User fleet. A fine collection of second-hand rolling stock if ever there was one. Might be worth some research ...
All painted with the white letters B. D. on both sides. I think many were in grey undercoat.
I suspect an awful lot of these wagons would have been ex-private owner, acquired by Bristol Docks when then big railways stopped running them.
Though of course, they would never have escaped the Docks systems at Avonmouth / Portishead.
All painted with the white letters B. D. on both sides. I think many were in grey undercoat.
I suspect an awful lot of these wagons would have been ex-private owner, acquired by Bristol Docks when then big railways stopped running them.
Though of course, they would never have escaped the Docks systems at Avonmouth / Portishead.
Will have to keep an eye open for one of them having used Montpelier Station on a daily basis en route to Fairfield Grammar I have fond memories of watching the shunting operations of the coal yard across the bridge over the station approach.mjt wrote:Slaters do (or maybe did) a 4mm kit for a 5-plank Gloucester wagon lettered for S Brookman of Montpelier. (Grey body, black lettering shaded red). Having been born in a house overlooking Montpelier Station (in the days when it still was a GW/LMS joint station) I just had to have one - but of course it's just joined the great stack of unstarted kits that modellers seem to acquire!
As far as I remember most of the ones I saw at Avonmouth were ex Midland Railway and lettered P B A , the ones at the City Docks were labelled B D , at Sharpness Dock the wagons were lettered S D but I do not remember if Portishead or Gloucester Docks had their own individual lettering.jules wrote:Don't forget the "BD's", or Bristol Docks Internal User fleet. A fine collection of second-hand rolling stock if ever there was one. Might be worth some research ...
All painted with the white letters B. D. on both sides. I think many were in grey undercoat.
I suspect an awful lot of these wagons would have been ex-private owner, acquired by Bristol Docks when then big railways stopped running them.
Though of course, they would never have escaped the Docks systems at Avonmouth / Portishead.
Hello,
I've just come across a new book 'Private Owner Wagon of Bristol & District' published by Lightmoor, see:
http://www.lightmoor.co.uk/railway.htm
It looks interesting.
I've just come across a new book 'Private Owner Wagon of Bristol & District' published by Lightmoor, see:
http://www.lightmoor.co.uk/railway.htm
It looks interesting.
Martin
Dynamic Rail Maps: http://www.railmaps.org.uk
Dynamic Rail Maps: http://www.railmaps.org.uk
Agreed and they have also reprinted the Tony Cooke "Track Plans - Bristol" to which it would appear a new photo section has been added.mjt wrote:Hello,
I've just come across a new book 'Private Owner Wagon of Bristol & District' published by Lightmoor, see:
http://www.lightmoor.co.uk/railway.htm
It looks interesting.
Private Owner Wagons
A new book has just been published, (May 2009) comprehensively covering this topic. Entitled Private Owner Wagons of Bristol & District by Ian Pope @ ú18.00 ISBN 978 1899889 36 5. Profusely illustrated, detailed information about the owners and their wagons. A gem.
For anyone in to model railways East Somerset Models occaisionaly have limited edition private owner wagons for sale ie local colliery wagons and local quary wagons. ( would most likely be somerset coalfield than Bristol but worth enquiring )
Another point of interest is Midsomer Norton station folks are re-building a wooden colliery wagon from the wheels up ( wheels are original all new wood ) they seem to be making good progress.
Another point of interest is Midsomer Norton station folks are re-building a wooden colliery wagon from the wheels up ( wheels are original all new wood ) they seem to be making good progress.
We're also rebuilding a five plank GWR open wagon at the D&EPG on the West Somerset. The frame has been shotblasted and the running gear is good and we've through piped it for vacuum, but alas, we are not making good progress. We need all new wood too and whilst we could fund the wood, we don't have enough volunteers to work on the wagon as we're always busy maintaining our fleet of heritage diesels.Another point of interest is Midsomer Norton station folks are re-building a wooden colliery wagon from the wheels up ( wheels are original all new wood ) they seem to be making good progress.
We hope to contribute the wagon to the WSR heritage freight train when we eventually get it completed.
So, new volunteers are always welcome! Message me or post here for more details.
See wsrdepg.org
