The Bristol Railway Archive

Thought I'd let you guys know that I've posted twenty-odd pictures of trains running through the snow on Tuesday morning on RMWeb here:

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=38202

I'm not going to repost the images, etc, here because I can't be bothered faffing around with any of the image hosting websites .

Excellent stuff! A bit of a cold day for hanging around on exposed railway bridges, but definitely worth the effort looking at the results.

WR Tim wrote:Thought I'd let you guys know that I've posted twenty-odd pictures of trains running through the snow on Tuesday morning on RMWeb here:

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=38202

I'm not going to repost the images, etc, here because I can't be bothered faffing around with any of the image hosting websites .

Lovely shots indeed Tim, what camera and lens did you use?

Very Best Wishes,
Bob.

Glad that you guys like them

The cold wasn't too bad on Tuesday actually - no wind so it didn't work through your clothes.

Camera is a Canon Powershot A720 - it's an 8 megapixel compact but with full control over aperture, shutter speed, film speed, etc. It seems to struggle a bit in low light (probably because the lense is about 10% of the size of an SLR one) but otherwise I'm happy with it.

They are super shots.

WR Tim wrote:Glad that you guys like them

The cold wasn't too bad on Tuesday actually - no wind so it didn't work through your clothes.

Camera is a Canon Powershot A720 - it's an 8 megapixel compact but with full control over aperture, shutter speed, film speed, etc. It seems to struggle a bit in low light (probably because the lense is about 10% of the size of an SLR one) but otherwise I'm happy with it.

Cheers Tim for the info

WR Tim wrote:Thought I'd let you guys know that I've posted twenty-odd pictures of trains running through the snow on Tuesday morning on RMWeb here:

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=38202

Really enjoyed these - great stuff! I was up on Narroways today trying to take photos of where the MR line would have run from Montpelier up to the remains of the bridge across the main line and then the other side across to Royate Hill. What I can't work out is how the MR line crossed the footpath which leads from the Stottbury Road area to the footbridges across the remaining two lines. I assume from the height of the remains that it must have gone briefly underneath the footpath before emerging to run past the houses in Narroways Road, I think it was. Does anyone know?

What I can't work out is how the MR line crossed the footpath which leads from the Stottbury Road area to the footbridges across the remaining two lines.

It crossed on a footbridge (probably the highest footbridge in the world!) on two very high brick columns.

In the early 80's (I think), it was decided to use the cutting as a landfill site, so what you are walking over nowadays is a huge rubbish dump. As the cutting filled up, the rubbish buried the brick columns supporting the bridge and when the dump was full, they simply took the bridge away.

Next time you are up there, walk up to where the bridge would have been at the back of Stottbury Road. As you cross where the cutting was, you will notice two very pronounced "humps" in the path. These are where the old bridge support columns are located

I use to spend all my time up there as a kid - we called the area "Three Bridges", despite the fact there were four if you count the MR railway bridge (also long gone). I remember the Sunday the engineering train came to take it away. We sat and watched the whole operation.

Our favourite place to sit was on a concrete ledge *underneath* the higher end of the middle footbridge. What a grand view we had of all the passing Warships, Westerns, Hymeks etc. Though how we never feel off the cliff whilst getting ourselves down there I'll never know

Thanks for that info, Jules! I'd been wondering how the present-day topology of that area squares with some of Ian Tiley's old pictures of the line, in particular the first photo on the 13 Arches page showing the view down the back of Narroways Road. I don't suppose any pictures of the footbridge exist?

Gary wrote:Thanks for that info, Jules! I'd been wondering how the present-day topology of that area squares with some of Ian Tiley's old pictures of the line, in particular the first photo on the 13 Arches page showing the view down the back of Narroways Road. I don't suppose any pictures of the footbridge exist?

Yes, great answer. And "Three Bridges" is coming back to me. I don't know whether I'm imagining this (we are talking more than 50-years ago) but I thought back then at least one of these footbridges was wooden, as far as the base was concerned. My elder brother told me that if you were walking across when a train went underneath, the steam would cause the wood to collapse and you would fall through - I believed that at 7 or 8!

Like Jules, I would love to see a photo of the footbridge. Someone somewhere will have it.

I do have a good picture of the footbridge, albeit in the distance, but it is embedded in a Word document (Yuk!) and I can't seem to extract it by any means.

If you'd like to email me (the_chelsea_inn at yahoo.co.uk) I'd be happy to forward you the document.

The picture also includes a good view of the gasworks at Stapleton Road.

It was the Severn Beach line bridge that had wooden flooring