The Bristol Railway Archive

I have looked in my records and can find no instances of praries being used on the Bristol Bath Green Park trains, other than 6141 in November 1965. My records only go back to Autumn 1961 and they may have been used prior to that date. Robin Summerhill mentioned the praries 4131 and 6141 and I have put two photographs of them on shed on Flickr

http://flickr.com/photos/bristolsteam/5231042289

http://flickr.com/photos/bristolsteam/5132939170

I have also put on records of engines used on some Bath and Gloucester local trains in 1964.

http://flickr.com/photos/bristolsteam/s ... 5402030561

I hope these may be of interest.

As for 4131, it was used on what Barrow Road called "Bath Road Turns", which probably dates from the closure of Bath Road in September 1960. At this time they were generally panier tanks, but 4103/31 and 6148 were also regular performers.

One of the turns was
T820-11/27 No 7 Transfer

Does anyone know what this was ?

Evening `all

I believe that the 3 prairies at 82E (4103/31, 6148) were used extensively on the Bristol-Radstock coal trains (North Somerset line).

However, I do have a vague recollection of `spotting at Kingswood Junction and seeing 4103 on Barrow Road-Fishponds banking duties.
This would have been spring/summer 1964.

Marsh'Un wrote:Evening `all

I believe that the 3 prairies at 82E (4103/31, 6148) were used extensively on the Bristol-Radstock coal trains (North Somerset line).

However, I do have a vague recollection of `spotting at Kingswood Junction and seeing 4103 on Barrow Road-Fishponds banking duties.
This would have been spring/summer 1964.

I thought the Radstocks were a St Phillips Marsh job until closure when Hymeks took over? (Should this be on the North Somerset" thread?!)

trafalgar45682 wrote: I have also put on records of engines used on some Bath and Gloucester local trains in 1964.

http://flickr.com/photos/bristolsteam/s ... 5402030561

I hope these may be of interest.

You don't happen to have any information on the 0840 Sheffield do you?

If there was ever anything "interesting" on Barrow Road overnight it almost always went back on that train.

I was punished by my teacher at Staple Hill Primary School several times when the train was late. If it came out of Staple Hill tunnel on time then I could run like the clappers and get to school on time - if it was late I was on the carpet

If it came out of Staple Hill tunnel on time then I could run like the clappers and get to school on time

Imagine going to school at Redcliffe with a full view of the SW bound main line out of Temple Meads )

Many a maths lesson was disrupted for me ....

jules wrote:

If it came out of Staple Hill tunnel on time then I could run like the clappers and get to school on time

Imagine going to school at Redcliffe with a full view of the SW bound main line out of Temple Meads )

Many a maths lesson was disrupted for me ....

Unfortunately, all I could see out of the window from my school desk was one of Staple Hill tunnel's ventilation shafts. So I knew that something had gone past some fifty feet beneath but didn't know what it was .....

Thanks 'Trafalgar' for uploading your shots to Flickr, they've left me totally absorbed...

Thanks for the various comments on the work the praries might have done. 6148 was transferred to Taunton in June 1964. Although 4103/31 were never officially transferred, they had gone by June 16 1964 when Barrow Road received the remaining Marsh engines. I have no record of either of them in Bristol after this date.

Robin asked for any information on the 8.40 Sheffield and I have posted on Flickr details of engines used on the train from October 1962 -June 1964. May 8 was the last time it was worked by a Bristol Jubilee, 45682. She was withdrawn a few weeks later.

http://flickr.com/photos/bristolsteam/s ... 5402030561

Hope you find the information useful.

trafalgar45682 wrote:Thanks for the various comments on the work the praries might have done. 6148 was transferred to Taunton in June 1964. Although 4103/31 were never officially transferred, they had gone by June 16 1964 when Barrow Road received the remaining Marsh engines. I have no record of either of them in Bristol after this date.

Robin asked for any information on the 8.40 Sheffield and I have posted on Flickr details of engines used on the train from October 1962 -June 1964. May 8 was the last time it was worked by a Bristol Jubilee, 45682. She was withdrawn a few weeks later.

http://flickr.com/photos/bristolsteam/s ... 5402030561

Hope you find the information useful.

Thanks for that. Obviously you only recorded the information when you saw the train, but even so one Brittania and one B1 appears in your records, together with a selection of "Scots" and the odd double headed "Jubilee"

I find this sort of thing fascinating because it brings back a lot of memories.

It might also be of interest to our younger members who don't remember regular steam in Bristol, to have a look through these tables and see how things used to be.

When looking back, it seems odd now that we saw all this but thought nothing of it at the time, as it was an ordinary everyday occurrence in those days!

trafalgar45682 wrote: As for 4131, it was used on what Barrow Road called "Bath Road Turns", which probably dates from the closure of Bath Road in September 1960. At this time they were generally panier tanks, but 4103/31 and 6148 were also regular performers.

One of the turns was
T820-11/27 No 7 Transfer

Does anyone know what this was ?

I can help a bit. "Transfer" freights normally ran between one of the Bristol marshalling yards and another, or to an offloading or transhipment point.

T820 would have been the train number in the Working Time Table

11/27 probably means 11.27pm (2327) - that was the shorthand used in those days - a full stop between hours and minutes for am times and a stroke between them for pm times.

Unfortunately I don't have a working time table from the time that the prairies were at Barrow Road, but trawling through my 1959 WTT tells me that "no. 7 transfer" at that time involved:

2352 Bristol TM to East Depot arr 2359
0030 East Depot to Kingsland Road then Temple Meads arr 01h35
02h30 Temple Meads to Kingsland Road arr 02h35.
03h35 Kingsland Road to Temple Meads arr 03h40.
04h00 Temple Meads to Kingsland Road arr 04h05.
04h55 Kingsland Road to East Depot arr 05h00.
05h20 East Depot to Ashley Hill arr 0707 (lengthy stops at Lawrence Hill and Stapleton Road).
07h35 EBV Ashley Hill to Stapleton Road arr 07h40
08h00 Stapleton Road to East Depot arr 08h11
08h25 EBV to Lawrence Hill arr 08h30
1042 Lawrence Hill to Clifton Down arr 1128
1205 Clifton Down to Lawrence Hill arr 1218
1552 Lawrence Hill to Stoke Gifford arr 1728
1905 Stoke Gifford to Ashley Hill arr 1928

If no 7 transfer was doing the same in the mid 1960s as it was in 1959, I suspect it was engine off shed 2327, LE to Temple Meads and pick up working. I suspect the crew would have been relieved at Lawrence Hill between 0528 and 0643 - it wouldn't be far to walk from Barrow Road!

PS - note unfamiliar and very un-English "h" entered into the times shown above because my Skype programme keeps trying to turn every number beginning with "0" into a telephone number

Hello again.

Just an update on the Prairies.
The last North Somerset line steam workings appear to have been Barrow Road duties.

4103/31 were transferred from SPM to Barrow Rd in October 1962, both were withdrawn whilst at 82E Aug/Sept 1964.

6148 was transferred 82B - 82E March `63.
Left Barrow Rd 6/64, withdrawn 9/64.

Marsh'Un wrote:Hello again.

Just an update on the Prairies.
The last North Somerset line steam workings appear to have been Barrow Road duties.

4103/31 were transferred from SPM to Barrow Rd in October 1962, both were withdrawn whilst at 82E Aug/Sept 1964.

6148 was transferred 82B - 82E March `63.
Left Barrow Rd 6/64, withdrawn 9/64.

I agree with your dates for the Prairies at Barrow Road - I ought to have researched my own research properly before I posted

However, I'm still suprised about the Radstock coal trains being Barrow Road turns - have you an internet link to any evidence, are you quoting from books, or do you know somebody who worked them? Just intrigued!

Incidentally, on your other statement about a prairie on banking duties to Fishponds - one of my friends who was a junior fireman at Barrow Road 1959-62 tells me that anything would have been preferable to the Midland 4F that was usually on the job. Trying to keep enough steam up to get to the top of the bank was often a Herculean taske!!

05h20 East Depot to Ashley Hill arr 0707 (lengthy stops at Lawrence Hill and Stapleton Road).
07h35 EBV Ashley Hill to Stapleton Road arr 07h40

Fascinating

I frequently used to go to Ashley Hill Goods Yard in the mid 60's to meet that train coming in. The load was London Brick Co and coal for the local merchants and the motive power by then was a Hymek or D63xx, but I do remember steam working it in the early 60's.

The shunters' names were Bert and George and the checker at Ashley Hill, in his warm hut with a cup of tea for anyone who wanted one was called Bill, an ancient gentleman who must have been long past retirement age.

Bert and George lived in the hut under the MR mainline bridge at Lawrence Hill, long bricked up but only demolished a few years ago. Many a happy afternoon spent in there as a kid

Ashley Hill also had a train about 4 in the afternoon. I wonder which diagram that was?

Robin Summerhill wrote:

Marsh'Un wrote:Hello again.

Just an update on the Prairies.
The last North Somerset line steam workings appear to have been Barrow Road duties.

4103/31 were transferred from SPM to Barrow Rd in October 1962, both were withdrawn whilst at 82E Aug/Sept 1964.

6148 was transferred 82B - 82E March `63.
Left Barrow Rd 6/64, withdrawn 9/64.

I agree with your dates for the Prairies at Barrow Road - I ought to have researched my own research properly before I posted

However, I'm still suprised about the Radstock coal trains being Barrow Road turns - have you an internet link to any evidence, are you quoting from books, or do you know somebody who worked them? Just intrigued!

Incidentally, on your other statement about a prairie on banking duties to Fishponds - one of my friends who was a junior fireman at Barrow Road 1959-62 tells me that anything would have been preferable to the Midland 4F that was usually on the job. Trying to keep enough steam up to get to the top of the bank was often a Herculean taske!!

The ironic thing about the Midland 4s is that one was given a petticote arrangement that cured the steaming problems- the sad thing is it was never applied in BR days to others.

Thanks for all the memories-

Thanks for the informationo on praries and trip workings - that was very interesting.

As for banking, 6148 was on 5.45 Banker on May 2 1964. At the time the favourite was 82007, which was on the turn no fewer than 38 times between April 20 and June 16, 1964. It was withdrawn a few days later and then Midland 4F's predominate. The banking duty ceased from Monday January 4, 1965. In that final week, 43924 was banker on Monday 28 December and 44264 on Tuesday 29 December, 1964. I have put on Flickr a photograph of the Barrow Road Roster Board, from which I have gained most of my information. Also an accurate mock up of the Barrow Road turns and engine details for May 13, 1964.

http://flickr.com/photos/bristolsteam/s ... 5402030561