The Bristol Railway Archive

I have recently come across reference to the Clifton Extension Railway. It was apparently built jointly by the old GWR and Midland railways around the 1870Æs. It left the old Midland railway at Kingswood Junction, not far from Fishponds station. It passed over the old Eastville viaduct (demolished 1967?) to join the GWR line at Narroways Hill.

I well remember the Eastville Viaduct in the late 1950æs, which has now been demolished. It apparently ran more or less parallel with Muller Road, though for some reason I seem to think it crossed the road and ran northwards, not westwards. I also remember the line approaching the main GWR line at Narroways Hill, though never suspected where it went.

Does anyone know anything about the defunct line. For example - why it was built. The viaduct itself would have been an expensive undertaking. There seemed little reason for a connecting the Midland Railway to Avonmouth at the time, as the port or surrounding area would have hardly been thriving in the late 1800Æs. The port was not opened till 1877. And the railway could have probably gone by the alternative route through Winterbourne, Stoke Gifford -to Hallen, or alternatively throught Filton etc. And when did rail traffic cease. I cannot recall any trains using it.

Ron Wells
Wainuiomata, New Zealand

See on this site:

http://bristol-rail.co.uk/wiki/index.ph ... es_Viaduct

I believe the whole of the line as far as the site of Sneyd Park Junction just short of Sea Mills Station was known as the Clifton Extension Railway and therefore included Clifton Down Station, Redland Station and Montpelier Station .Sneyd Park Junction was for a very short while the point where the new line through Clifton Down Tunnel joined the existing route of the Bristol Port & Pier Railway's Hotwells to Avonmouth line prior to the Hotwells to Sneyd Park section being closed to allow construction of the Portway.

Up until the early 1960's there was a seat in the waiting room at Sea Mills Station marked " Clifton Extension Railway" on the seat back rail.

Also have a look at this thread - we were discussing it on here a few months ago


http://www.bristol-rail.co.uk/forum/vie ... php?t=1704

Thanks for all the comments on my post on the Clifton Extension railway. I have now looked at previous posts. Although these indicate when the line started and finished they give no real clues to the original rationale for the expensive engineering in the first place. Perhaps it was just one of those mad crazy get-rich schemes often indulged in by early railway companies, though the original Prospectus launching the construction must have spelt out the misplaced hopes and dreams of the proposers.

Ron Wells

Ron - perhaps this may explain the situation.

In the early 19th century ships were becoming larger and more and more had difficulty in navigating the Avon to the City Docks so it became obvious that a new deep water port was needed at Avonmouth. As there wa little residential development in that area workers would need to travel to the new dock from Bristol and a method of transport was needed.
The Bristol Port Railway and Pier Company was formed in 1862 to build the line from Hotwells to Avonmouth . It was first thought that this would only be of local use and no connection to other railways was necessary , The line was built with no goods facilities and it soon became obvious if Avonmouth was going to develop a connection to other railways and addition of freight facilities was essential . The BPRP Co first wanted to extend the line from Hotwells to link up with the lines that served the city docks . However as this was through a heavily developed area the cost was prohibitive and beyond the means of the small company . However an approach to the GWR and Midland companies resulted in a joint venture - the Clifton Extension Railway which was managed by a committee of representatives of all three companies . This allowed the development of Avonmouth Dock as it gave connection by rail to all parts of the country.
Had the line not been built Bristol would be a very different place today.

Hobbler has covered most of it, but there is a bit more information here

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics ... cyclopedia