Category Archives: Locomotives and Stock

Steam trains running this Easter Weekend!

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It’s the first BHR operating weekend of the year, with 3 days of steam-hauled train rides planned.

Saturday 4th April

Sunday 5th April

Monday 6th April.

Visiting Bristol-built Peckett 0-4-0st ‘Kilmersdon’ will be providing motive power.

 

Kilmersdon working a charter train at the BHR in the 1990s (Author unknown)
Kilmersdon working a charter train at the BHR in the 1990s (Author unknown)
(Geof Sheppard, C/O Wikipedia)

‘Kilmersdon’ was built by Peckett in 1929 and numbered 1788. It worked at the NCB’s Kilmersdon Colliery in Somerset and now belongs to the Somerset and Dorset Railway Trust.

She has previously visited the BHR and worked photo charters, and was a former stablemate of ‘Portbury’ and ‘Henbury’ at Radstock.

TBT – GWR 813 at Ashton Meadows

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It’s been a while since I’ve done any Throw Back Thursday posts, but with summer just around the corner, there are more to come!

This is a photo from a charter in 2001, during the last days of Ashton Meadows sidings (note the overgrown bushes). The loco is GWR 813, a unique survivor built in 1901 for the Port Talbot Railway in Wales. The 813 fund have given permission for this photo to be reproduced here.

To find out more about GWR 813 or help fund the group’s restoration projects, click here.

(Courtesy GWR 813 Fund)

(Courtesy GWR 813 Fund)

Toad in the works

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The ‘Toad’ brake van is receiving some attention this winter. The rather tired door is being renewed, and the van has been jacked up, the springs removed, and packing wood in place.

Pictured here is the former harbour plug, used from 1804-1935 when it was replaced by one made of rubber. The harbour needed to be drained fully to allow the plug to be removed, restricting navigation for 2 days.*
IMG_8613

*This is not true, just a joke!

Portbury on Valentine’s Day

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Paul Jarman has posted this image on Beamish Transport Online, it is the work of Dave Hewitt and shows Portbury with a rather lovely wooden-bodied coach and Tram 196 in operation on Valentine’s Day.
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Joseph Stuart captured this footage:

Portbury at Beamish – In Steam

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Paul Jarman of Beamish Transport Online has posted updates on Portbury’s arrival at Beamish. Shunted off the lorry siding by departing hire loco ‘John Howe’ (An Andrew Barclay 0-4-0ST), Portbury was in steam the next day and immediately put to work shunting the yard at Rowley station.

(Paul Jarman)
(Paul Jarman)
(Paul Jarman)
(Paul Jarman)
(Paul Jarman)
(Paul Jarman)
(Paul Jarman)

These photos appear here with Paul’s permission

Photos from Xmas Steam-Up!

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The Xmas steam up event was a success, with all tickets selling out. Rich Skuse and Zoe Robinson were among the lucky people to try their hand at driving ‘Portbury’ and the Steam Crane.

Rich has kindly allowed these photos to be reproduced here!

The Fox, Walker sees daylight

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In May 2014, a shunting move to get rolling stock out of the Smeaton Road shed and into the rebuilt ‘Barn’ saw Fox, Walker and Sons No.242 (NCB No.3) out in the open air. This loco had new bearings fitted before the rebuild of M Shed in 2006, so is a rolling chassis and can be moved around.

The photos also give an indication as to the condition of the loco, and the scale of any restoration that might take place.

These pictures were taken by Michelle Scoplin of the Create Centre and appear here with her kind permission.

The Coles crane is moved out first as part of the shunt
With the crane out of the way, the Ruston couples up
‘For Sale’ – very funny!
Pinholes in the tank give an idea as to the thickness of the metal
The view from the Ruston’s footplate as it drags the Victorian locomotive out
Gently eased out on to the running line
Out on the New Cut – the furthest the loco has been in a long time

TBT – Henbury Makes History – Coal Trains in 1981

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As previously mentioned on this blog, in 1981, the Western Fuel Co.’s diesel shunter Western Pride was in need of an overhaul. This locomotive was used to shunt wagons on the dockside and into the WFC compound, as well as trip workings along the New Cut to Ashton Meadows sidings, from where a BR loco would take the wagons onto the main line.

So it was that Henbury was hired as the first preserved steam loco to pull scheduled goods trains for British Railways (BR having stopped using steam traction in 1968). She crept onto the Western Fuel Co.’s site at 7am on Monday 28th September 1981 and worked for the next three weeks hauling coal trains of up to 450 tons.

This cinefilm was captured by Bob Edwardes and appears here with permission.

Points of particular interest include running on the main line to Bristol Bath Road engine shed to use the turntable (creating quite a contrast to the BR Blue mainline diesels at Bristol Temple Meads!) and double heading with the PBA Rolls-Royce Sentinel No. 41 (10220) that took over duties from Henbury.

Taking loaded wagons up to the Wharf (John Stanford)
October 1981, in between shunting moves (John Stanford)
About to go under Vauxhall Bridge (John Stanford)
Bringing the trucks into the yard (John Stanford)