The Bristol Railway Archive

jolly47roger wrote:Not, perhaps, 'industrial' but the Oakhill Brewery had its own narrow-gauge railway to the S&D - see 'Old Mendip' by Robin Atthill

The Oakhill Brewery Railway was of particular interest to Robin Atthill as he lived nearby . The railway which was unusually for this area of 2ft 6" gauge was built in 1904 and closed around 1914 when the brewery's sales dropped off due to WW1 . The line had two 0-4-0 Saddletanks named OAKHILL and MENDIP which were used to haul trains of open wagons loaded with barrells (probably around several thousand a week) from the brewery to a transfer shed in Binegar station goodsyard for onwards movement via the S & D.

Sandford Quarry supplied a lot of stone for the building of the Royal Edward Dock at Avonmouth. It had an extensive 2' gauge system as well as the standard gauge. "Finetta" an 0-4-0 Avonside of 1911 No 1565 was an ex War Dept Loco and was used at Sandford before being transferred to Conygar Quarry at Clevedon (which had a connection to the Weston Clevedon and Portishead Line). It also had an unusual 1918 Manning Wardle 0-4-0 Petrol Mechanical Loco, works no. 1954 which was rebuilt by the Sentinel Wagon Works about 1927 as no. 6219, a vertical boilered steam loco. One of the last loco's to be used was a Sentinel vertical boilered 0-4-0 loco no. 9391 which was supplied in 1949 and left the quarry in 1964 after the Cheddar Valley line was closed, going to the New Frome Quarry. "Roads Reconstruction" owned all of these and there seems to have been a fair bit of moving locos around from one quarry to another.

Another site new to me which has turned up whilst looking for information is that a Ruston 48DS was supplied new to the British Aircraft Corporation at Weston Super Mare . It didnt stay in their possession long being aquired by BR in 1948 and was subsequently used at Folkstone , Broadclyst Sleeper Depot , Taunton Engineers yard and eventually ended up at Yeovil.

Another industrial enterprise with its own internal rail system was John Lysaghts steel works on the Feeder Road at Netham. This was connected via a bridge over the Avon, across Whitby Road then exchange sidings to the up side marshalling yard at East Depot. They had two locos according to the Nov 1949 Railway Observer, both 0-4-0 STs. Sirius, H.L. 2234/91 and J.L.Ltd no 6, H.L. 3333/18. As a kid I often went to the Whitby Road crossing to see wagons being taken to or from the exchange sidings. In later years I seem to remember a diesel, but have no details of this.