The Bristol Railway Archive

Hi there, my names Greg im new here,
long story short im a student at Bristol University doing a history degree and about to enter my 3rd and final year. As I have a keen interest in railways i want to do my dissertation on something to do with the railways. There are issues however. The dissertation has to be based naturally on primary sources thus it kind of makes doing something on railways in Bristol relative because of the location of me and any potential primary sources. Any how i was wandering if any of you had any ideas for possible topics. So far i have only thaught of doing it on the 'battle of the gagues'. My library has an extremely large (largest in the world) of Brunel material which could help. Any way sorry for the length any help would be appreciated!!

Greg

Hi BaggieBird
Welcome to the Forum
You could try the decline of steam through the 1950s to 1963
or how about the railway taking over from the narrow boats on the canal
The railway bought the Kennett and Avon canal and let it fall into disrepair
so they took over all the boat cargo
just a few thoughts

by the way the K & A Canal was built by John Rennie
lot of history there

If you look at a map of Bristol in say 1960, then it had a wide number of lines which should now form the basis of a commuter network -two routes to Bath; circular route to Avonmouth via Henbury and Clifton Down plus circular route via Severn Beach;Potishead serving that side of the river; Radstock via Brislington serving that part of the city.
Bristol should have a fine system of light rail services with an intergrated bus service delivering passengers to stations.

It might be interesting to do something on the failure of Bristol to retain and develop this commuter rail network despite the numerous schemes down the years to revive it

- what were the reasons for the decline in rail
- why did the proposed schemes fail
- what is the possibility for any scheme into the future.

I would have thought there was enough there to write a book.

I must admit I quite like the idea of writing about the decline in local railways, and the fact that if the lines had survived Bristol would have a public transport system the envy of a great many cities.

Combine the given reason for closure (economics) and British Rail's completely barking mad spending on huge numbers of untried diesel classes which had a very short lifespan, and the chucking away of huge numbers of newly-built locos for no other reason than they were 'non-standard' (chucking in the fact that the fitters, engineers etc were highly trained, again at great expense, to work on a daily basis with these non-standard engines, making them 'standard' as far as they were concerned).

So we have the loss of branch lines due to economics, and the vast spending on locos that didn't work, combined with the fact that the loss of the branch lines effectively strangled the entire reason many of the locos were purchased for in the first place. If they hadn't have bought the locos, the money could have kept the branch lines open for a great many years, and certainly into the DMU revolution which would have made them economically viable.

(phew! can you tell I have't had a coffee yet this morning!)

the answer to the question Why is Bristol so backward with a proper transport system ? the answer is that in the 1960,s there was a surplus of oil in the world and government's were being pressurised by the oil producers to remove from the scene the competition ie, public transport and now we are paying the penalty fo corporate greed if the line to Portishead was complete to the site of the station to-dayTHE useless North Somerset Council WOULD STILL NOT TRY to REINSTATE THAT LINE.Add South Gloster to Bristol council and their fiasco with the Cribbs Causeway scheme not a hope in hell of ever getting a decent system in this part of the country.The only thing they (the councils ) can come up with is for you to pay to go any anywhere in your motor thats if there is any petrol left!

Pete looks like an idea for a book here! I have to say I have always felt that a golden oppurtunity was missed especially as the M32 could have passed through the arches of the 13 arches with the right alignment, still all they were worried about was another magnificent concretestructure for the kids to cover in graffiti.This site especially proves what a commuter system we could have had with the right vision back then.Still if you do your dissertation on this subject I for one would like to read it.

Yea this idea sounds lie it could be a starter. However, what kind of primary sources are there available? Im guessing they would be in the form of government reports on the rail network??






Greg

Baggie i have refered to a book in the forum on then and now, you should try to get a copy of it. In 1965 bristol city council had a dream, they wanted to turn bristol into LA with elevated roads enormous tunnels, and pedestrians walking around in the sky. All of the proposals were published. this was to be bristols answer to its transport problems!! it was nonsense. the problem was it was easier for the council to demolish things for this scheme, but of course they never had the money to build it. Try and get hold of a copy of that book it should be at the Central Library.

Even now there are parts of Bristol with big gaps in them where the houses were demolished for the madcap BCC.

I've been watching the realignment of roads at the bottom of the M32 in readiness for the new shopping centre. If they don't do better than they currently are no one will want to come to Bristol for shopping, they won't be able to face the traffic jams.

And of course, the bottom of the M32 was only realigned a couple of years back (at great expense). BCC just love getting our road system completely wrong!

If it's not too narrow a subject, the role of the Severn Beach branch as a transport facility in the past, the loss of the Henbury loop for passengers and the loop from Severn Beach to Pilning, the survival of what is left and its potential for the future. I'm sure there is a vast amount of local history to be tapped on the subject. I find it a fascinating line - a born survivor!

I'd certainly be keen to see the dissertation.

John