Author Archives: corwinb

Harbour Festival 2025

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Harbour Fest was held on 19th and 20th July this year, as always it was a packed event with lots of visitors. The crowds mean taking additional safety measures such as volunteers on crowd control duty. Always a busy time but no mishaps, thanks to the volunteers and staff of the Working Exhibits.
Saturday night saw a BBQ for the workers, held aboard John King.
Pyronaut unfortunately sustained some damage due to another vessel. She required some emergency repairs to the handrails to be able to take part in the celebrations.
A particular highlight was the attendance by replica tall ship Galéon Andalucia. Very impressive!

Thanks to Katie, Dave and Bob for the photos!

Passenger Rides with an ex-PBA Diesel

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This weekend there will (hopefully) be the chance to ride behind an ex-PBA diesel shunter, in Norfolk!
From the Whitwell and Reepham Station Facebook Group. Photo Credit: Dan Knights
Operational notice! We have been dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s but this Saturday, we plan to haul the first passenger official passenger trains with D1171.
Part of our Vintage Transport Weekend. Diesel Saturday and steam Sunday.
D1171 was built by Hudswell Clarke in 1959 and delivered to the Port of Bristol Authority (PBA), being registered by the British Transport Commission (BTC) to operate over parts of the nation railway network as required in the Bristol area. Although delivered in 1959 it was built in 1958. PBA had many locos constructed by Hudswell clarke.
Initially working for the PBA at Avonmouth docks, she later worked at Portishead docks. The loco was then sold to British Fuels LTD moving to their coal handling facility at Princes Wharf in Bristol City Centre. Then moving to Filton site after the Wharf closed. Named Western Pride. D.1171 made her last trip along the BHR in May 1987, on an overnight move to the coal depot at Filton. Purchased privately in April 1989 with the long term intention of being moved to the Avon Railway at Britton. The loco never reached Bitton and was moved to the MOD site at Long Marston in September 1990 for storage and saw limited use. The loco was fitted with vacuum and was finally laid up due to a gearbox issue. The gearbox was fixed in 2006 and work was undertaken again to restore. But again sadly later stopped. She was eventually moved to Whitwell in 2017 where restoration has continued, including a new clutch and painting it back to its PBA guise.
D1171 is powered by a 204 hp Gardner 8L3 engine and is very similar to a Class 03/04.

Gromit Unleashed Returns!

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Last week Henbury once again took centre stage in kicking off Gromit Unleashed and delivered several brand-new sculptures from SS Great Britain Halt (opposite Aardman’s offices) to M Shed where they were unloaded by the dockside cranes. Aardman founder Nick Park once again took to the footplate!
The first Gromit Unleashed was wayy back in 2013.
Thanks to the M Shed volunteers who participated for sending in these photos.

Gromit Unleashed 3 is running across Bristol from 30th June – 31st August as part of the Grand Appeal.

Read more about the launch event here.

Pannier and Brake Van Photos

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A few operating weekends have passed with Henbury, but today we are looking back to when GWR No. 1369 visited. Paul Stanford sent in these photos of 1369 working on the brake van specials down the branch. Thanks Paul!
It’s not often that we get enthusiast photos from the New Cut branch so it’s great to be able to share them here.

YouTube user ‘Bovine of the Rails’ took these clips from that day:

‘Heritage in the 21st Century’ shared these clips from the photo charters run by 30742 Charters:

Henbury Pulling Passengers in the Port

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Youtube channel brunelheritage was on hand to record Henbury’s first day back in service. The sun shone for most of the weekend and passenger numbers were strong on both the train and ‘Pyronaut’, the museum’s fire-fighting boat giving tours around the harbour

More trackwork and first running weekend of the year

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Last weekend more preparation for the relaying of the New Cut branch to A Bond warehouse took place along with track maintenance ahead of the first running weekend of the year this coming Saturday and Sunday.

The sleepers were unloaded on to one of the flat wagons earlier in the week. The Coles Crane was to be used but needed to be on the East side of the wagon, so Larry was used to push the truck up the quayside and enable the Coles to couple up. The Coles then propelled the wagon up the branch to the siding alongside Cumberland Road bridge.

We put our cargo handling and crane direction training as seen at Docks Heritage Weekend to good use. Using the brothers (dual chain hooks) enables 2 sleepers to be loaded at a time and stacked neatly on the siding.

With that done and the wagon returned to the yard, in the afternoon the team were jacking and packing sleepers on the running line by the steam crane, as well as slewing the rails to ease the curve either side of the rail join. This required multiple jacks and a lot of sweat!

HENBURY will be in steam tomorrow morning so come on down and enjoy a train ride in the sunshine.

Henbury, back at work already

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Henbury was steamed up this week and put to work straight away, shunting the well wagon and flat loaded with sleepers up the branch. The Coles Crane unloaded all these ‘new to us’ concrete sleepers on to Cumberland Siding.
Just visible in one of the photos is the new lid for the coal wagon. These are to prevent unwanted access, protect the contents of the wagon and are designed to resemble wagon sheets whilst also being sturdy enough to resist the elements in the long term.
Thanks to Chris for these photos.

Volunteers and staff are working hard to get this done on top of regular maintenance. At the same time, the other well wagon was unloaded of redundant and life-expired wooden sleepers. Jobs like this go to show how much the wagon fleet is still needed by the railway to continue operating, so they are not just museum pieces, they are also working items of rolling stock.
This has freed up the two well wagons to receive another two lorry loads of concrete sleepers and chairs in the next few weeks.

March comings and goings

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There have been arrivals and departures at the BHR recently.
We said goodbye to pannier 1369 after three very successful events (two photo charters organised by 30742 Charters and one brake van running day). 1369 was a popular engine with visitors and it was nice to crew something different for a change. It’s back to its home at the South Devon Railway, from where ‘Henbury’ also returned. It had been hoped for the Peckett to star at the SDR’s winter gala but sadly this was not to be due to mechanical issues.
The rigours of continuous running over a long period are quite different to shunting up and down the quayside.
Thanks to Bob Edwardes for the photos of the two green locomotives swapping places, Larry and the Coles Crane doing the honours of shunting on the quayside.

In the same week, two wagons were readied to receive a load of concrete sleepers, recently purchased for the upcoming task of track renewal, especially on the New Cut Branch (currently blocked half way due to repair work at Vauxhall Bridge).
Thanks to Bruce for the photos of the loading process taken from the drivers cabin of the crane!

Hoping to share some of the wonderful photos and videos that people took over the course of No. 1369’s stay soon!

Brake Van Rides with Pannier 1369 – 1 day only!

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If you’d like the chance to ride behind GWR Pannier Tank No. 1369 on the Bristol Harbour Railway, there will be a one-time chance to do so.
To celebrate RAIL200, on Friday 14th March 2025, 1369 will be running short trips with the newly-outshopped Toad Brake Van up to Vauxhall Bridge and back on the branch. There may be the opportunity to dismount at Vauxhall Bridge and take photos.
Places are limited to 10 people per trip and the price is £10 per person for 1 round trip (cash or card, payable on the day).
Spaces are on a first-come, first-serve basis on the day and the first trip will be at 11am. There will be approximately 4 trips on the day (depending on demand and staffing).
1369 will be returning to the South Devon Railway soon so this may be the only chance to travel behind it and a rare opportunity to ride on the New Cut Branch.
Please note that as the Toad is the only passenger vehicle on this service, it will be difficult to provide wheelchair access due to the width of the doors.

Last chance to have your say on Western Harbour development

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The public consultation for the proposed Western Harbour redevelopment of Cumberland Basin and its surrounding area closes on 9th March, so there are only a few days remaining to have your say on the current proposals.

Western Harbour Website

Link to consultation

How does this affect the Bristol Harbour Railway?
The current proposals do make a point of reinstating the railway along the New Cut (closed since the development of Metrobus on the site of Butterfly Junction). However, the proposed end of the line stops short of the BHR’s intended new terminus (for which ballast has been laid but trains are yet to run to) alongside the bonded warehouse.
The BHR’s storage shed ‘the barn’ and the buildings around it are to be demolished under the new proposals in favour of apartment blocks.
A link to the proposal video is below: