Southern Region Locos in the Bristol area ?

[Hobbler]

In the thread relating to locomotive types that worked on the Portishead branch is a reference to a couple of Southern Region classes not being allowed to work further down the branch than Clifton Bridge station.

It may be that this was a generalisation of all places these locos couldnt go or it was a residual order from World War 2 workings but it made me wonder if any SR classes were regular visitors to Bristol .

Certainly apart from visits by preserved locos in recent years I dont ever recall seeing an SR steam loco in or around Temple Meads except for a USA tank at a Bath Road Open Day . There exists a photo of other USA tanks being offloaded from barges at the docks during World War 2 but they were probably for the US Army Transportation Corps at that time.

The only place that SR locos could be seen regularly was Green Park and I suppose its possible an occasional one could have worked through to TM or even up from Salisbury .

Anyone ever record any visits ?

[Robin Summerhill]

I have seen WC/BB pacifics working into Temple Meads on Weymouth trains during the summers of 1963/64. Some of these trains ran to a decent weight and more usually an SR Standard class 5 was used - I certainly saw my first named Standard class 5 in Temple Meads on one of those trains.

Also in 1964 I recall seeing a couple of Maunsell Q class 0-6-0s on St Phillips Marsh. How they got there gawd only knows!

Don't ask me to prove any of the above, its just what I remember from over 45 years ago!

In addition, in one of Mike Smith's books about the S&D, he makes mention of a few days in 1960 when the S&D was blocked at Midford and the Pines was diverted via Fordingbridge, Salisbury and Dr Days.

On the first occasion the WC/BB worked through to Birmingham but it ran dangerously short of coal, so for the rest of the diversion period the SR engine came off at Dr Days and was serviced on one of the Bristol sheds (I forget which one) On the final day of the diversion, the Southern pacific again came off at Dr Days, then ran light to Bath Green Park to pick up the return working.

[Robin Summerhill]

In the thread relating to locomotive types that worked on the Portishead branch is a reference to a couple of Southern Region classes not being allowed to work further down the branch than Clifton Bridge station.

It may be that this was a generalisation of all places these locos couldnt go or it was a residual order from World War 2 workings ...

I posted details from the engine restriction section of the 1959 WTT with tongue stuck firmly in cheek regarding the "King Arthurs."

Somebody will probably have more knowledge of this subject than me, but it appears to me that the engine restriction pages containd a lot of "standard" restrictions that were disguised as class descriptions. (For example, a maximum axle load on a loop or crossover would then be shown as restrictions on those classes that were known to exceed it)

For example, the Midland Line section lists restrictions on "Duchess" class pacifics, the Fell diesel mechanical loco 10800 and Ex-Caledonian 0-4-4 tanks! I don't know about you, but I never saw a Caley tank on a Gloucester stopper

[Hobbler]

For example, the Midland Line section lists restrictions on "Duchess" class pacifics, the Fell diesel mechanical loco 10800 and Ex-Caledonian 0-4-4 tanks! I don't know about you, but I never saw a Caley tank on a Gloucester stopper

I know it sounds very unlikely but I did actually see a Caley at Temple Meads ( No - I wasnt drunk).

Sometime in the late 1950's ( I think) as part of a promotional tour on behalf of the then new tv company Westward Television a special train toured the area which had City of Truro and Caledonian 123 as motive power . The train spent several days in the motorail bay adjacent to platform 9 whilst it was open to the public. Quite why they used 123 is anyones guess .

[Robin Summerhill]

There were also of course trainloads of ex-SR locomotives being hauled to South Wales in 1966/67.

Luckily, most of those that went to Barry came back again!

Others were not so fortunate

[mjt]

SR locos seemed exteremely uncommon - until they started appearing on their way to South Wales scrap yards c1964. In fact I think you were far more likely to see an ex-LNER one. (I think they may have been commoner pre-WW11 on trains from Salisbury. The Soole collection does have at least 1 photo of an N 2-6-0 on Bath Rd shed).

I did have one notable 'cop' at TM though. On 31 December 1960 (or perhaps 1 Jan 1961) my father & I went down to TM to pick a friend up who had been in London over Christmas. It was probably about 6pm & we were waiting in the car outside when he ran up in an excited state. 'Just get inside & see what's at the platform' he said to me. Much to my impatient father's annoyance I abandoned the car & rushed in. Amazingly, just inside the barrier stood King Arthur 30803 'Sir Harry Le Fise Lake' at the head of a train. I never did find out what it was doing there - has anyone any ideas?

Also have a look at this fotopic site: http://g.e.r.fotopic.net/c702402.html - photos 5 - 9 shew rebuilt WC 34029 'Lundy' at TM. The date at the top of the page says '24 September 1958' but I don't believe all 57 photos were taken that day - there's far too much variety (& D805 wasn't built until May '59 in any case). In fact as 34029 wasn't rebuilt until December '58 I suggest the pictures were taken between Jan 1959 & Aug 1960 (which was when demolition of 82A started I seem to remember). In fact the next 2 pictures shew 3440 & the tender of Caley 4-2-0 123 which of course visited TM at the end of March 1960 after being on display at the naming of 92220 at Swindon. The owner of the site is Malcolm Wilton-Jones - does anyone know him, it would be useful to get a better of the dates of some of these pictures.

[Tiddles]

Also there were the "Monkey Specials" to Clifton Zoo.
Mike Vincent in Lines to Avonmouth, mentions that on at least one occasion a Bulleid Pacific worked through on a Portsmouth-Clifton Down zoo excursion.
I can remember seeing several of these at Montpelier in the 1950s.

[Robin Summerhill]

Amazingly, just inside the barrier stood King Arthur 30803 'Sir Harry Le Fise Lake' at the head of a train. I never did find out what it was doing there - has anyone any ideas?

My bet would be on a Weymouth turn. Salisbury MPD had no workings on the Westbury line as far as I am aware. That said, had there been a failure of the GW engine at Salisbury then something might have been purloined from the shed.

[Robin Summerhill]

In fact I think you were far more likely to see an ex-LNER one.

B1s were certainly quite common by the time I got interested (1962) - about one a week on average turned up.

They usually worked back on the 0840 Sheffield the following morning. In fact, most "unusual" engines that turned up at Barrow Road tended to work back on that train

[Hobbler]

In addition, in one of Mike Smith's books about the S&D, he makes mention of a few days in 1960 when the S&D was blocked at Midford and the Pines was diverted via Fordingbridge, Salisbury and Dr Days.

On the first occasion the WC/BB worked through to Birmingham but it ran dangerously short of coal, so for the rest of the diversion period the SR engine came off at Dr Days and was serviced on one of the Bristol sheds (I forget which one) On the final day of the diversion, the Southern pacific again came off at Dr Days, then ran light to Bath Green Park to pick up the return working.

I remembered this incident but could not recall the details and so have done a bit of research and come up with the following information.

In early December 1960 the area around Bath experienced exceptionally heavy rainfall resulting in some of the worst flooding in living memory. At Midford a section of the bank between Midford station and Long Arch Bridge where the formation was on a narrow shelf slipped down the hillside towards the course of what had been the Somerset Coal Canal . The actual slip occurred on a Sunday when the line was closed to traffic so fortunately no trains were in any danger . Disruption was however severe with all north bound passenger trains having to terminate at Radstock and the coal traffic in chaos.

Ballast was brought to the site from Bath Green Park and the line repaired to reopen on 9th December.

The north bound Pines Express was diverted at Broadstone via Ringwood,Salisbury,Westbury,Bath Spa , Stapleton Road, Filton Junction and Yate South to regain its normal route.

On 5th December it was hauled by Bullied 34102 LAPFORD from Bournemouth to Birmingham and returned next day with the southbound train . I believe this was the engine that had coaling problems resulting in a change of engine at Dr Days for the next couple of days as normal service was resumed on the 9th.

[Robin Summerhill]

Also have a look at this fotopic site: http://g.e.r.fotopic.net/c702402.html

Wonderful thing this 'ere internet ...

What surprises me is that those photographs were uploaded in 2005 and most have had less than 100 viewings

[simon]

Also have a look at this fotopic site: http://g.e.r.fotopic.net/c702402.html

Wonderful thing this 'ere internet ...

What surprises me is that those photographs were uploaded in 2005 and most have had less than 100 viewings

I guess the lack of picture captions would have meant they didn't show up on fotopic searches.

A great shame a lot of great pics there - need more publicity.

[jules]

I can remember rushing down to Ashley Hill on Sunday mornings to "cop" the derelict Southern region steamers being hauled to South Wales in 1968. Having just gained an interest in railways after the end of WR steam, these hunks of iron seemed very "exotic" to us WR kids and we were pleased to see them, even if they were only wrecks at the time.

They were usually marshalled in a normal freight, two or three locos per train, with the coupling rods removed. By memory, they always used the up main rather than the relief lines through Ashley Hill, so I guess they must have gone to Stoke Gifford for inspection before continuing on their journey? There must have been special instructions for such workings ...

From the late 1960's diesel era, there were two trains each summer Saturday afternoon, that were always double-headed by SR class 33's, once again always on the up main through Ashley Hill. These were reliable as clockwork during 1968 / 69 and were the only time we ever saw 33's in the Bristol area. I managed to cop a fair amount of the class from these workings. Never have been able to find out which trains these were though, or when the return working was, which we never ever saw (probably after bedtime!).

No doubt someone will know .....

[Robin Summerhill]

These were reliable as clockwork during 1968 / 69 and were the only time we ever saw 33's in the Bristol area.

I've got a photograph somewhere, probably taken mid-70s, of a class 33 with a 4-car EMU trailer set (as were used post-1967 on the Bournemouth to Weymouth section) at BTM on a service from Weymouth.

I wasn't ever into diesels as such, but I took the photograph because the sighting was unusual. I'll see if I can dig it out!

[madhattie]

Here they are!