The Bristol Railway Archive

Seeing the pictures of 53809 at Bitton made me wonder how regularly these locos worked away from the S&D.

They certainly did on occasions - I have a book with a photo of 53806 on the Gloucester docks branch, and Colin Maggs' book on the Bristol Port Railway & Pier states that they worked to Avonmouth.

But were these workings regular occurrences, or just once in a blue moon?

Presumably they went to Derby for overhaul, so I wonder if they might have taken the opportunity for them to haul a freight train on their way.

Whilst not an expert on this matter I can confirm that they did work regularly to Westerleigh and Gloucester. I recall one occasion in the early 1960s when one turned up at Temple Meads on a passenger working.

Although they were "S&D" locos I would suggest that being allocated to Bath, they would have been allocated to freight workings in and out of Green Park to destinations which had scheduled services.

I can certainly remember them passing through Clifton Down occasionally on goods to Avonmouth in the early 60s & they appeared on Barrow Road shed from time to time.