The Bristol Railway Archive

While researching for my old school which was Coombe Road in Eastville, I found this very interesting photograph on their website of Eastville and the railway line from Kingswood junction to Narroways Junction.

Why is there such a shortage of photgraphs of the LMS line from Barrow Road, up the incline through Easton and through to Yate, my father worked this line as a driver for many years and I remember travelling up through this part on our way to Blackpool but most of the photo's are of the GWR.

Check out the link below.

I would also just like to say what an excellent site this is.


http://eis.bris.ac.uk/~buinh/school/misc_3.htm

That's an amazing photo. An almost complete lack of housing on such a large area. And Narroways Road stands out as such an oddity, being built away from the main road but up close to the boundary of the railway.

Thanks for the kind comments regarding this website, much appreciated

Am I right in saying that there was a loop from the LMS line from Kingswood junction where it passes into the gas works, then runs through the gas works and then takes a left turn back onto the GWR line headng towards Stapleton Road station?

If you take a look at that amazing aerial photo, take a look also at the Interesting links page,Pathe News clip of the demolition of Eastville Arches in 1968, Merry Christmas to all, http://john-m-hobbs.fotopic.net/

Punker wrote:Am I right in saying that there was a loop from the LMS line from Kingswood junction where it passes into the gas works, then runs through the gas works and then takes a left turn back onto the GWR line headng towards Stapleton Road station?

Yes there was. According to R A Cooke's Track Layout Diagrams (Vol 19B) the GWR connection predates that from the MR. The first Private Siding Agreement from the GWR is dated 15/8/1878 whereas that from the MR is dated 21/12/1894. These are the dates of the Agreements - dates of opening seem to be 12/2/1879 & 7/4/1895.

Fantastic pic, so much has changed I had to put it side by side with a modern aerial pic to work out what i was looking at, lol

The extra lines around the gas works are very interesting, had no idea about them. When did they all dissapear?

It's interesting that the two surviving (but disused?) gas holders aren't even built in this photo.

They would be located next to the GWR mainline, just the far side of the road underbridge.

Thanks for the information mjt, do anyone know of any track plans for the gasworks?

WR Tim wrote:It's interesting that the two surviving (but disused?) gas holders aren't even built in this photo.

A Geographia Plan Of Bristol from sometime in the 1960's doesn't show the gas holder in the photo below at the end of Narroways Road. It shows the two gas holders near to the Rovers ground which you can see in the photo at the beginning of the thread and the two gas holders near Dovercourt Road. Are these the two gas holders you are referring to?
http://bristol-rail.co.uk/wiki/File:Narroways_Hill1.jpg

Punker wrote:do anyone know of any track plans for the gasworks?

Not a track plan as such but the above mentioned Geographia Plan shows some of the sidings around the gas works. They appear to be laid out very similar to the photo. The siding leaves the LMS line on an east to west heading (as seen in the bottom right hand corner of the photo), descends down a fairly steep bank into the gas works then turns left and runs parallel to Glenfrome Road before turning left again and runs parallel with the GWR line before connecting to the main line. The line into the gas works itself leaves the above siding at the west end of Glenfrome Road heads south east then returns north east parallel to Glenfrome Road. The line ends near to the east most gas holder as seen in the photo. Off of the line heading north east are two spurs heading north west, one to the west of the buildings and one to the east of the buildings.

I spent my entire childhood watching the goings on at the Gasworks from the concrete ledge *under* the bridge over the main lines at Narroways. That was 1967-70 (when there was still a hole in the fence!)

As far as I recall, the gasworks shut down about the same time as the Bristol Panel Resignalling (1970-71) and I am guessing all track and signalling was taken out when Stapleton Road SB was decommissioned. I'll look up the exact dates tomo and post again.

The Midland route closed some years earlier, '65 I think, and the gasworks sidings were at the end of their days pretty much after that.

I spent a very pleasant Sunday morning atop the hill - watching a Hymek on an engineering train taking the Midland bridge out some years after. On the other side of the line, the goods yard at Stapleton Road kept going until the early '70's, along with the yard at Ashley Hill, which shut immediately after the August '68 floods.

Both Ashley Hill and Stapleton Road yards were served by the daily (sometimes twice daily 8am & 4pm) trip jobs from Lawrence Hill.

The "checker" at Ashley Hill was called Bill and the shunters who worked these jobs were named Bert and George. Their brick hut under the Midland main line at Lawrence Hill was demolished a few years ago after many years of being bricked up.

I recall sitting in that hut when the subject of conversation was repainting the roof ... and whether given enough tea, Bert or George could "do the job" with their tongues rather than needing paint brushes, buckets and ladders!

Thank God I was allowed to wander the streets of Bristol when I was an eight year old kid - and never came to any harm (apart from unexpectedly ending up at Newport in a brake van once!)

Listening to the news today about molly-coddling of kids and government watchdogs and everyone who so much as kicks a ball around once a month with a bunch of lads has to be checked and signed off by the CRB, I wonder where the hell the kids of today are ever going to meet the character forming sort of working blokes that I grew up with? Who amongst other things taught me how to fly shunt like a demon (a skill not at all appreciated nowadays LOL), how to operate a semaphore box (and recover from my errors) and how to shunt with a Hymek - and they never, ever once "compromised" me.

No wonder trainspotting is a dying art! Still, I'm going a bit "off topic"!!

Oh happy days down at the gasworks ....

BristleGWR wrote:

WR Tim wrote:It's interesting that the two surviving (but disused?) gas holders aren't even built in this photo.

A Geographia Plan Of Bristol from sometime in the 1960's doesn't show the gas holder in the photo below at the end of Narroways Road. It shows the two gas holders near to the Rovers ground which you can see in the photo at the beginning of the thread and the two gas holders near Dovercourt Road. Are these the two gas holders you are referring to?

Those are the ones I was thinking of. They are right down now but they are visibile from Narroways Hill and you can still smell gas every time you walk past them.

jules wrote:As far as I recall, the gasworks shut down about the same time as the Bristol Panel Resignalling (1970-71) and I am guessing all track and signalling was taken out when Stapleton Road SB was decommissioned. I'll look up the exact dates tomo and post again.

According to Cooke (vol 19B again) gas production ceased 26 March 1971. Obviously the connection at the ex-LMS end was taken out when the line closed (14 June 1965). At the ex-GW end the Private Siding Agreement was terminated on 31 Dec 1973 though Cooke seems to inmply that the connection with mainline was taken out-of-use on 25 Nov 1973. The signal box had closed on 19 Oct 1970 but a ground frame controlling the connection to the gas works had been installed.

BristleGWR wrote:

Right, im getting confused now.

Is this pic taken on the current main line with the 47 heading parkway/wales direction?

So thats the severn beach line to the right?

Am I seeing more sidings next to it, where the play area etc is now?

Or (most likely!) im getting totally mixed up on the direction/location of this shot?

Stav - you are entirely right. This shot is looking down the GWR line towards Stapleton Road station.

I assume that the sidings are part of the large scrap yard that was on that side of the line between Stapleton Road station and the Severn Beach line (now restricted to a small area on Gatton Road).