The Bristol Railway Archive

Locos used on the trippers tended to be whatever was available at Bath Road. Usually, 47's, but 31's, 33's, 37's and 50's were not unusual during my time as a freight guard from '84 to '86.
My memory is a bit hazy now, but I seem to recall that the engineering and S&T departments used to load trains there for weekend work out on sites around the Bristol area. On Fridays the trip crew would marshall the trains up and take them to East Depot, with the empties returning to Ashton on Mondays. The sidings at Ashton were difficult to work, being on a sharpish curve and you had to be fit and strong to get the job done.

Thanks for your recollections. So trains were assembled there and then sent to East depot to then be sent where they needed to be sent?

I was wondering if stuff like ballast was loaded at Ashton Meadows?

Do you remember if the civil engineers just used the sidings in the depot or the ones outside the gates?

Thanks again for all the information

jules wrote:Tugboat.

Newlyweds within the carriage,
Please don't consumate your marriage,
Whilst the train is standing here at Crewe;
Please restrain that nat'ral function,
'Til we get to Clapham Junction,
Where there's really sod-all else to do.

And of course my favourite verse:

If twenty pounds you can afford,
Please do pull the communication cord,
'Though you'll be that much poorer if you do.
But, if twenty pounds you do not own,
Then leave the F---ing thing alone;
And that, my friend, is my advice to you !!

This discussion has jogged two meories...

1. One lunchtime in the model railway cellar at school (as in The School Railway Club discussion), an older member of the Club repeated a verse he had heard in pub or folk club the evening before:

Passengers will please refrain
From passing water while the train
Is standing in the station
Railway workers underneath
Get it in their eyes and teeth
They don't like it
How the hell would you?

I've never hear it since - is it part of said immortal song?

2. I remember going a little further down the line in 1970ish to see a Hymek hauled train being used in the filming of A day in the Death of Jo
Egg. I saw the film a few years later, and the only railway bit I recall was shot from inside the train, showing Alan Bates looking out of the carraige window at the gorge and suspension Bridge

76026 wrote:

jules wrote:Tugboat.

Newlyweds within the carriage,
Please don't consumate your marriage,
Whilst the train is standing here at Crewe;
Please restrain that nat'ral function,
'Til we get to Clapham Junction,
Where there's really sod-all else to do.

And of course my favourite verse:

If twenty pounds you can afford,
Please do pull the communication cord,
'Though you'll be that much poorer if you do.
But, if twenty pounds you do not own,
Then leave the F---ing thing alone;
And that, my friend, is my advice to you !!

This discussion has jogged two meories...

1. One lunchtime in the model railway cellar at school (as in The School Railway Club discussion), an older member of the Club repeated a verse he had heard in pub or folk club the evening before:

Passengers will please refrain
From passing water while the train
Is standing in the station
Railway workers underneath
Get it in their eyes and teeth
They don't like it
How the hell would you?

I've never hear it since - is it part of said immortal song?

Both of these quotes contain parts of a song that Fred Wedlock used to do, but if my memory serves me well both posts have bits from different verses. The ones I can remamber are as follows:

Courting couples in the carriage
Do not consummate your marriage
When the train is standing here at Crewe
To perform this natural function
Wait till pasing Clapham Junction
Where there's really sod all else to do


Passengers will please refrain
From flushing dog ends down the drain
You know you really know it isn't right
For railway workers passing by
May try to smoke them on the sly
And soggy dog ends are so hard to light


The other verse relates to gentlemen lifting the seat in the first couple of lines, and the last four ran:
For lady passengers following on
May get it on their sit-upon
And they don't like it
How the hell would you?

He also used to do a song about Bristol Buses - perhaps I should post that on the no.33 bus thread?