The Bristol Railway Archive

A friend of mine in Australia has asked if I could come up with a list of private industrial lines/sidings in the Bristol area that had their own locomotives .
I have thought of the following so far and wondered if anyone can think of any more.

Ashton Containers , Ashton Gate - Fowler Diesel Mechanical
Western Fuels , Wapping Wharf - ex PBA Diesel
Albright & Wilson , Portishead - Peckett and Rustons (?)
Black Rock Quarry , Portishead - 2 Hudswell Clarkes (Narrowgauge)
Portishead Docks - PBA locos
Portbury and Portbury Shipyard (?)
Avonmouth Docks - PBA locos
Imperial Smelting , Avonmouth
ICI Severnside (?)
Sharpness Docks - Dock Company and latterly
British Waterways locos)
Stapleton Road Gas Works - Peckett and Rustons
Stapleton Road Scrapyard - 4 wheel mechanical
Filton Coal Concentration Depot
Keynsham Paper Mills
Bath Gas Works - Rustons (possibly Pecketts as well)

I have not included any of the Bristol locomotive builders or collieries in N. Somerset as these are fairly well documented elsewhere but have probably missed others.

I seem to recall as a kid, stothert & pitt in bath had a small loco shunting about their yard/workshops...There are books about the firm that might help. J.R.

As you've gone as far as Sharpness in your list, perhps you ought to look south of Bristol as well to the North Somerset coalfield. There was a Peckett at Kilmersdon (now preserved on the WSR) until the early 1970s and also something at Norton Hill colliery. I don't remember what it was but I did see it in store at Kilmerson in 1967, where it ended up after Norton Hill was closed.

When you start to look at colliery lines there were also pits at Coalpit Heath and Soundwell (depending how far you want to go back!). Whether these had their own locomotives I wouldn't know, but I dare say someone has done some research into the matter.

Some more to add to your list:

British Gas, Seabank Works, Hallen. 0-4-0DM RH 418792/1959

Cadburys, Keynsham The last shunter here was Somerdale 0-4-0DM HC D1009/1956

Fisons, Avonmouth 0-4-0DH EEV D1124/1966 Later Norsk Hydro Fertilisers, this passed to Murphy Warehousing at Avonmouth along with another loco, 0-4-0DH JF 4220001/1959 and were stored there for some time.

An ex Albright & Wilson 0-4-0ST Peckett 1611/ 1923 is now preserved alongside the East Coast main Line at Beal station, Northumberland

Birds, Stapleton Rd
D2123 0-6-0DM Sdn 1959 later used as generator before scrapped

ICI, Severnside Works
Iburndale 0-6-0DE YE 2725/1958
Kildale 0-6-0DE YE 2741/1959

Western Fuel Co Ltd,
Filton
0-4-0DM Bg 3410/1955

Wapping Wharf
Western Pride 0-6-0DM HC D1171/1951 former PBA loco
Later moved to Filton.

Robin Summerhill wrote:As you've gone as far as Sharpness in your list, perhps you ought to look south of Bristol as well to the North Somerset coalfield. There was a Peckett at Kilmersdon (now preserved on the WSR) until the early 1970s and also something at Norton Hill colliery. I don't remember what it was but I did see it in store at Kilmerson in 1967, where it ended up after Norton Hill was closed.

Once you get into industrial locomotives in the North Somerset coalfield the list becomes extensive.

Kilmersdon Colliery for example not only had the Peckett 1788 (now on WSR) but there were also 2 Ruston Hornsby Diesels and the other steam loco you saw there that had been at Norton Hill was Hunslet Side Tank 1684 ( last heard of at the Swanage Railway).

Other collieries that had either standard or narrowgauge locos were Norton Hill (Peckett Lord Salisbury being best known), Camerton Colliery , Dunkerton Colliery , Foxcote Colliery, Lower Writhlington Colliery, Clutton Colliery, Newbury Colliery , Bromley Colliery Farrington Colliery and others as well as a number of quarries.

carpetcone wrote:Some more to add to your list:


An ex Albright & Wilson 0-4-0ST Peckett 1611/ 1923 is now preserved alongside the East Coast main Line at Beal station, Northumberland

Thank you for that information - that is one loco I had lost track of (excuse the pun).

Interesting how many locos with Bristol use connections are still around - another ones details which I came across the other day is the oldest Hunslet in existance built 1887 which is now named Vigilant but was formerly called TRYM and was used on construction of the Portway.
Its now in Northamptonshire

Coalpit heath colliery coal co' had 5 of their own loco's:
0-4-0t Fletcher jenkins
0-6-0st Fox Walker 1876
0-6-0st peckett 1906 Lord Salisbury
0-6-0st Peckett 1900 Lord Roberts
and a diesel mechanical built Ruston Hornsby in 1946

all working the lines around Frog lane Mayshill and nibley, from Coalpit heath station and down the Midland branch to the Yard at Westerleigh.

All the above taken with out shame(I'm not that knowledgable) from" GWR the Badminton Line a portrait" by K roberts and David Abbott.

wasnt there a small 0-4-0 shunter at stone house coal depot too?

tonyperks wrote:Coalpit heath colliery coal co' had 5 of their own loco's:
0-4-0t Fletcher jenkins
0-6-0st Fox Walker 1876
0-6-0st peckett 1906 Lord Salisbury
0-6-0st Peckett 1900 Lord Roberts
and a diesel mechanical built Ruston Hornsby in 1946
?

I wonder if that is the same Lord Salisbury that worked at Norton Hill.

AndyK wrote:

tonyperks wrote:Coalpit heath colliery coal co' had 5 of their own loco's:
0-4-0t Fletcher jenkins
0-6-0st Fox Walker 1876
0-6-0st peckett 1906 Lord Salisbury
0-6-0st Peckett 1900 Lord Roberts
and a diesel mechanical built Ruston Hornsby in 1946
?

I wonder if that is the same Lord Salisbury that worked at Norton Hill.

I would think its a fair bet that its the same Lord Salisbury as the one at Norton Hill ( an X Class Peckett 0-6-0ST ) which was also built in 1906 and scrapped in 1965. There was quite a lot of movement of locos between collieries as pits closed down.

The 0-4-0T described as a Fletcher Jenkins is more likely to have been a Fletcher Jennings

I see that many people have done some research on this matter, as I suspected

Weston Gas Works had a diesel called "Planet" - I managed a ride on it aged about 6! And did Sandford Quarry have a loco of some kind?

Cattybrook Brickworks had a narrow gauge railway as did Tytherington Quarry.

jolly47roger wrote:Weston Gas Works had a diesel called "Planet" - I managed a ride on it aged about 6! And did Sandford Quarry have a loco of some kind?

Sandford Quarry had an Avonside 0-4-0ST built in 1911 called FINETTA at one time.

Not sure about Weston Gas Works but I think it may have been a Hibberd Diesel - anyone know ?

It is surprising how many manufacturers of these little industrials there were, I guess they were mostly small companys.

Not, perhaps, 'industrial' but the Oakhill Brewery had its own narrow-gauge railway to the S&D - see 'Old Mendip' by Robin Atthill