Category Archives: Current Locomotives

TBT – Portbury to Portbury – 2001

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Way back in 2001, the previously-mothballed rail link to Portbury had been renovated and was due for re-opening. The opportunity was taken to run a special 3-coach train hauled by the museum’s own loco ‘Portbury’ from Parson Street Station (Where the Portishead branch leaves the Great Western Main Line) to the new terminal at Portbury dock.
A full write-up of this historic event written by Paul Stanford can be read on the Avon Valley Railway’s website here:
http://semaphore.avonvalleyrailway.org/html/avonside.html

Here are two videos on YouTube documenting the event, one taken from the leading carriage of the special train.

‘The Bug’ – Ruston 0-4-0DM

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‘The Bug’ is the nickname for the green Ruston & Hornsby diesel shunter based on the railway.

The loco is not fitted with vacuum brakes so cannot haul passenger trains, but is one of the most useful bits of kit on the railway, along with Larry the Loader and the Self Propelled Crane. As a diesel loco, the time required to start up is a fraction of the that required to bring a steam engine up to working pressure, you just switch it on and go! This means it can be used to shunt wagons and locos about on non-operating days.
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0-4-0 refers to the 4 coupled wheels, and the DM stands for Diesel Mechanical, meaning the engine drives the wheels through a mechanical transmission, rather than hydraulic or with electric traction motors as found on most modern locos.

The Headlight and Makers' Plate

The Headlight and Makers’ Plate

Shunting two vans off the inspection pit

Shunting two vans off the inspection pit

Shunting the two operational steam locos into the shed

Shunting the two operational steam locos into the shed

The locomotive, like most of the rolling stock in the museum’s collection, has a local connection. For many years it worked at the British Gas site in Hallen Marsh near Avonmouth, and it was there that these two photos were taken.
These photographs are linked here from the Bristol Rail Archive site and are the property of Mike P.
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The loco was donated to the museum by British Gas in 1995. It was subsequently repainted green with red motion and bufferbeams, and given a fictional shedplate (82 was the Bristol area shed code under BR).
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Henbury’s Last Day

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It’s the second day of the Bristol Harbour Festival, and compared to Saturday’s thunderstorms, the weather is positively delightful.

Peckett ‘Henbury’ comes out of traffic today as her 10-year boiler certificate is due to expire. She’s been a long time stalwart of the Bristol Harbour Railway from the very beginning.

These images are from ‘Henbury’s second to last operating day, and appear here with the kind permission of Juliet Eden. You can see more of Juliet’s fantastic photos on her website: http://julieteden.com/mdashshed

Portbury on ‘Driver for a fiver’ (Juliet Eden)
Henbury (Juliet Eden)
On the quayside (Juliet Eden)

Driver for a fiver

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A little animated gif of Henbury propelling the passenger train past Portbury, on ‘driver for a fiver’ duties, in the yard.

You still have the chance to drive Portbury on the next two operating weekends this year! After that, Henbury’s boiler ticket will expire and she will be withdrawn, with her stablemate taking over passenger duties.

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TBT – Steam meets diesel on the wharf

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Source: http://bristol-rail.co.uk/wiki/File:Wapping_Railway_Wharf7.jpg
Copyright Mike Radford

In this photo found on the Bristol Railway Archive, ‘Henbury’ complete with full yellow end and bufferbeam, meets ‘Western Pride’ on Whapping wharf circa 1981.
The diesel loco is standing on what is now the long siding in the yard. This photo also illustrates the industrial backdrop of the early days of the Harbour Railway, quite a contrast to the contemporary view.

Come and drive ‘Portbury’!

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This bank holiday weekend, both ‘Henbury’ and ‘Portbury’ were in operation, with ‘Henbury’ on regular passenger duties, while her Bristol-built stablemate was to be found in the yard, where members of the public could have a go at driving it!

Pictures courtesy of Adrian Croshaw

This coming Fathers Day (Sunday 15th June), ‘Portbury’ will be on driver experience duties once more, as part of the ‘Fathers Day: A Grand Day Out’ offer from M Shed. At just £35, you can treat Dad to driving both a steam loco and two of the dockside cranes!

On Friday, ‘Henbury’ had prepared the yard by shunting most of the stock into the New Cut siding.

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