The Bristol Railway Archive

Following a recent conversation down the pub on this topic, I wonder how many members around here remember that particular winter of 1962/63, and how it caused something of an "Indian summer" (if thats an appropriate term under the circumstances ) for steam traction in our neck of the woods.

Specifically, my memories surround the major failures of the Peaks on the Midland main line, resulting in a number of Jubilees and Scots, destined for the scrapyard, being put back into revenue earning service during those months to keep the trains running; and the "scrtach sets" of passenger vehicles sometimes assembled in Bath to work the Bristol local services because the timetables/ stock rosters were running out of synch.

Does anybody else have some memories worth sharing from those days?

I remember it well. On Boxing Day, when I believe the snows started, I walked to Temple Meads from my home in Cotham and stayed there for a few hours. As Robin says, peaks were in short supply and most of the trains to and from the north were very late and steam hauled (1V36 73140, 1N84 45308, 1E24 Cornishman 44858, 1V43 44757, 1N87 44859).
I only recorded trains which were rostered for diesels, but were steam hauled.

On Friday December 28 both lodging turns (1M91 8.00 Plymouth-Liverpool and 1V93 9.05 Liverpool-Plymouth) were steam hauled. The 1M91 (Kingswear portion) arrived separately with mogul 6369, taken out by 1009. The main train arrived 119 minutes late with a diesel. The 1V93 arrived two hours late with 4090 and 7011, but departed with 7011 on its own.

Another famous multiple failure was the Cornishman 1V33 on Monday December 31. Due at about midday, it finally arrived with 44981 at 3.55 (178 minutes late). D863 then backed onto the train and I retired from the bitter cold into the Platform 9 waiting room. On coming out at 4.50, the train was still on Platform 4 with 1009 about to depart after the Warship's failure. It left at 4.55, 290 minutes late. It was no surprise some six years later that D863, one of the last Warships built, was one of the first to be withdrawn. My own notes, just for the Bristol area, so hardly a comprehensive survey, do show it to be very unreliable.

It was indeed, as Robin says, an Indian Summer, and it lasted until mid-March.

I am currently trying to put together a website with photo's and train data for 1964. When I manage to do that, I will do the same for 1963, for which I have daily notes.

Patrick O'Brien

Just drifting off topic on my own thread for a moment ( ), Staple Hill got around 9 inches of snow on Boxing Day 1962, and it never really thawed until March.

Yet somehow, in those days, the schools managed to stay open right the way through the freeze-up, and my headmaster rode his bike from Coalpit Heath every day, despite the weather.

Perhaps they have the "wrong type" of freezing weather these days?

I am afraid it has a lot to do with Health and Safety and the Compensation culture. Having worked in the same school for forty years, it hardly ever closed due to severe weather conditions, until recently. In the last two years it has closed for a total of six days. Whereas parents used to make the decision to send their children to school or not, now if a Headteacher knows that access to the school and paths around the school are potentially dangerous, he or she will be liable if the school remains open and a child falls and injures him/herself. It is always a difficult one to call. My school, St Brendans at Broomhill, never closed during the Winter of 1962/63.

Patrick O'Brien

gentlemen that winter put me off of snow forever as i and my mate clive were stuck at
Draycott for 3 days we were attached a class 22xx fitted with a snow plough.
my engine was 46506 and the other was 2277 nice photos in the cheddar valley book.That winter was before climate change lol.

oldchapie wrote:gentlemen that winter put me off of snow forever as i and my mate clive were stuck at
Draycott for 3 days we were attached a class 22xx fitted with a snow plough.
my engine was 46506 and the other was 2277 nice photos in the cheddar valley book.That winter was before climate change lol.

Yes, but think of the overtime!!!

it took them a month over the b&e to work it out but in the end the girls got there love em!

sun on duty 02-00hrs
mon on duty03 00
tus the same and wednesday ---------to friday off duty @13 50 hrs

I recall that winter very well from living at Foxhill in a house without central heating. I seem to recall that was the winter when the S&D was blocked by snow out on the Mendips.

My school remained open throughout that winter and we just wore an extra layer or two to keep warm. We kept warm at breaks with snowball fights and some good long ice slides - I don't remember anyone getting hurt.


As an anecdote about the closure of the S&D back in 1966, I had purchased the Somerset and Dorset Transacord LP which I frequently played in my bedroom. One sunny day when playing the LP with the windows open, a couple walked past the house only for me to hear part of a conversation along the lines of "I thought the railway had been closed". Priceless.

I understand it was the heat exchangers that froze and split the small bore tubes within on the Peaks. The radiator coolant then went into the oil system and sump as a result. Something which has even occurred in recent times with diesel locos in preservation.

I understand it was the heat exchangers that froze and split the small bore tubes within on the Peaks. The radiator coolant then went into the oil system and sump as a result. Something which has even occurred in recent times with diesel locos in preservation.

I can vouch for that! Hydraulics are even worse, as they have dual heat exchangers that cool both the engine and transmission oil. So any frozen water in the heat exchanger can also pollute the transmission. Normally, water in a transmission will boil off, but there is a limit ... So, no surprise the Warships were struggling back then.

Typical solution for a heat exchanger is to fix any accessible damage at the tube plate ends and then any ruptured tubes are simply "plugged off". Of course, there is a limit to how much efficiency an exchanger can lose through plugged off tubes, before it becomes next to useless.

BTW to Robin: I'm still working on that Portishead business plan ) Work intervenes unfortunately!

Off-topic, but illustrative of how remote some places were then, I was at the youth hostel In Capel-y-ffin in the Black Mountains at Easter 1963. Electricity had only reached that valley in summer 1962.

A guy had driven there on Boxing day to go pony trekking and he didn't get his car out until the middle of March!

As I've been up in the attic lately (See the "Bristol to Mangotsfield line" thread) I thought I'd look through my copies of Modern Railways from the time to see what was reported about that winter in our neck of the woods. Copyright Modern Railways of course for what follows:

February edition
Another BR Sulzer type 4 reached Devon on December 21st when no D41 (82A) hauled the 1153 York to Bristol, extended that day to Paignton, throughout to its destination; it is believed to have returned to Bristol with the empty stock the same evening. Next day 2-8-0 no. 4707 was seen pulling out of Bristol with the 0115 Plymouth relief.

The pre-Christmas extra traffic brought some B1s back into the Bristol area. On December 18th 61033 arrived at midday with a parcels train. No 61026 arrived two days later and on the morning of December 22nd no. 61094 was on Barrow Road shed in company with Brittania no. 70051 which had worked in on a special from Richmond NER and worked the 1648 Bristol-Leeds freight on Christmas Eve.

March edition
In the Bristol area the train cuts imposed by the WR as a result of the Siberian weather in January reduced the London service to a two-hour frequency. Trains between South Wales and the south of England were cancelled for a time, but the service over the ex-LMS Bristol to Birmingham line was kept as normal as possible until further cancellations on January 21st affected two of its trains; the other reductions were mainly of Cheltenham-London and Weston-super-mare - London services.

The chief problem appeared to have been the poor availability of diesel power. A correspondent writes that St Phillips Marsh had to produce as many as 20 substitutes for Bath Road diesels in the 36 hours from midnight January 13/14. Frequently "Halls" were the biggest 4-6-0s it could turn out for Paddington and Plymouth trains. On the Bristol-Birmingham route, BR Sulzer type 4s were usually available in sufficient quantity to cover about 80% of trains at the beginning of each week, but by the end of the week about 50% of trains were steam hauled. As Barrow Road now has only three Jubilees and six BR standard class 5 4-6-0s (the latter never popular in Bristol and frequently inactive) it had to rely on Manchester locomotives to cover much of its diesel relief work. These included Royal Scots 46133/40/49, whilst on January 21st 46128 (12A) was on Barrow Road shed acting as the shed's diesel standby.

On January 16th Brittania 70029 brought a football special from Walsall to Ashton Gate: the return working was covered by Jubilee 45685 and the Pacific remained on Barrow Road shed

April edition
The outstanding event of February was the appearance of a Stanier pacific on the North and West route. On February 7th no. 46220 (12B) was put on a special from Crewe comprising through coaches from Glasgow which had been delayed further north and failed to connect with the 0200 Crewe-Penzance. The pacific travelled through to Bristol via the Severn tunnel, and then ran light to Pontypool Road shed, whence it appears to have proceeded light to Shrewsbury on February 7th. Earlier on January 23rd these Glasgow coached were worked indpendently from Crewe to Bristol by LMS class 2 2-6-0 no.46417, which kept good point to point time. No 46417 was still at Barrow Road on February 3rd.

Owing to deficiencies of diesel power, a number of ex-LMS 6P and 7P 4-6-0s, and also Brittania pacifics, were seeing service on the North & West route at this time.

In mid-February ex-L&Y 0-40-0 ST no 51218 was seen dead on Severn Tunnel junction depot for at least a week.


A bit of nostalgia for our older readers and an insight into how things were back then for our younger readers

The visit by 46220 which Robin mentions was quite something, even for the unusual loco workings of that winter. Having heard that 46220 had worked to Bristol early in the morning, I went around St Philips Marsh after school in the afternoon, and it was there on the first left hand road of the left hand roundhouse from the rear of the shed. Quite a sight compared to the smaller GWR engines stabled around it. I did not have my camera to record this momentous event !

I was working at the City Art Gallery at the time, and had been sent to the British Museum on a course, on 1st January. I caught what was ostensibly the 0715 from BTM although it was somewhat later than that. We had a Warship up front, but no heating in the carriages. We eventually hit Paddington at 1300hrs [should have been 0925].

I was staying with an auntie on the east end of the Central Line and that was a nightmare in itself getting to Gants Hill. Never mind - extremely character-building!