The Bristol Railway Archive

During the early 60s (and doubtless later into the 60s as well) Saturdays on the ex-Midland line to Bristol could often produce a pigeon special or two. These pigeon specials often got looped at Charfield especially on busy Summer Saturday mornings. I believe the majorityoriginated in our industrial heartlands where there were the biggest concentration of fanciers. The trains - and they loaded to a dozen or more vans - would sometimes get Brit haulage - not a particularly common sight on the ex-MR line until the Oxley-based locos got regular turns on the Wolverhapton LL - West Country holiday expresses during 1965.
I wonder whether anyone can remember where the trains used to terminate (presumably in the Bristol area) and how long it would take to release what must have numbered thousands of birds from the wicker baskets in which they travelled.
As if in those days there weren't already enough pigeons around main-line stations!!

I'm sure I've seen photographs of pigeon specials working down the S&D but no idea if they went as far as Bournemouth. When I was in York Carriage Works in the early 70's there were a few condemned Gresley full brake vans in the yard designated as BGP's and I believe the P referred to use for pigeon traffic.

I recall reading that Mangotsfield was a popular destination for pigeon specials in the 1950`s/maybe early 60`s.

I expect one of the regulars on this site will be able to confirm....

They used to release the pigeons from the carriages that were shunted into a siding along side the up line between bridge road and Mangotsfield station. stood there on many occasion watching the pigeons released. then used to climb through the fence to pick up the lead that used to hold the fastenings on the baskets.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mao_zhou/2 ... 4369146983

The siding was to the right of the signal and peak. The pigeons would fly off and circle Rodway hill a few times before disappearing to wherever.

That's shed quite a lot of light on the issue, Horace! Another question - did the pigeon trains carry personnel whose job it was to release them or was it down to the station staff at Mangotsfield or wherever?

I used to see many baskets of pigeons arrive on the down stopping trains at Charfield and as a kid I used to help the porter there release them. The smell of wood shavings always takes me back to those times!

I seem to remember it was the station staff that released them. What I do know is that after the station closed the pigeon specials became trucks instead. A few articulated trucks used to arrive on top of Rodway hill, opposite the school and the pigeons were released from there.

Funny what turns up when you start raising questions about a topic. I was flicking through a summer 1963 Gloucester area WTT last night and came across an actual scheduled pigeon/parcels train running Mon - Fri as required ('Q' path) as the 3H21 9 a.m. Wolverhampton LL to Great Malvern, returning from GM at 2:05 pm as 3H11 (pigeon empties). No such working shown for Saturdays, though.

My father used to keep racing pigeons. We would take them on a Friday night to a convenient pub, where they would have all their legs ringed, the time clocks were synchronized and sealed and then they would be delivered to the station in their baskets. I can certainly remember going to Temple Meads and Stapleton Road on occasion.

There were two factions in the pigeon racing fraternity - those that flew what was called the "North Road" (back from as far up as Scotland) and those that flew the "South Road". Amid what seemed a great row to me at the time, my father switched from North to South for some reason, which involved the birds flying back from not only the South Coast, but also from France.

It seemed a very serious business, the birds could be very expensive and I believe there was considerable prize money involved. It was a very popular hobby in the 50s and 60s. I too remember when the railways stopped carrying the traffic and it went over to lorries, that would collect them direct from the pub on the Friday evening and drive through the night. So, my regular Friday night trips to the stations ceased in about 1965.

If anyone has a copy of April 1964 "Railway World" there is an excellent article about a "Pigeon Train to Frome" (from Wolverhampton Low Level) written by "Warren Smith" who was the stationmaster there. In later years I knew him as Mr Smith when he was my boss in the B & E Building.
Fine railwayman and a good photographer although not much of his work ever got into print.
Regards

jules wrote: It seemed a very serious business, the birds could be very expensive and I believe there was considerable prize money involved. It was a very popular hobby in the 50s and 60s.

Still is the Queen has a loft with about 160 birds in it.

So thats what they use the royal train for these days!
Gold lettered siphons anybody?

horace wrote:...the Queen has a loft with about 160 birds in it.

Those are for the dining car!

Alan, you mentioned an article about a pigeon special from Wolverhampton LL to Frome. Does it give a clue as to which route it would have taken? Could have been Stratford/Cheltenham Malvern Rd/Dr Days Jcn/Bathampton, Stourbridge Jcn/Worcester/Dr Days Jcn/Bathampton or Banbury/Swindon/Melksham I guess.

Afraid the routing of the pigeon special from Wolverhanpton refers to Dudley (where vehicles for Bath were detached) and Stourbridge Jn but nothing else; possibly Worcester, Charfield, Yate South, Westerleigh, Dr Days, Bathampton, Westbury.
Alternative might have been Oxford, Foxhall, Swindon, Chippenham, Westbury.
Regards