Category Archives: Coles Crane

Have-A-Go Week, 29’s Overhaul, A New Pontoon and a Spot of Gardening

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HAVE-A-GO!
Last week (13-17th October) was ‘Have-a-Go’, where people can book a session of 20 minutes 1-on-1 tuition on driving the steam locomotive on the quayside as well as 20 minutes of driving the electric crane. We don’t know of anywhere else in the UK that does this combination so it’s a fun experience. Happy to report that this week was a sell-out success!
Thanks to Bob Edwardes and Paul Stanford (who got the experience as a wedding anniversary gift, lucky!) for these photos. Paul is a lifelong railway worker who has written extensively about the railways of Bristol and the South-West. His latest book, From Chocolate to Cider charts over 180 years of family railway history.

A NEW PONTOON AND A SPOT OF GARDENING
Two large concrete pontoons have been a regular feature of the harbourside for decades. One of them formerly had a boathouse atop it. More recently, The Matthew has been using a pontoon for safe loading and mooring of their ship, whilst the other was repurposed as a community garden. The latter has fallen out of use (especially since Covid) and is now to begin a new life at M Shed. The ability to load boat trips at deck-height, coupled with no longer needing to raise and lower the gangplank steps for every sailing, will be a great help.
Bob Edwardes and James Stanley captured the Harbour Master’s boats bringing the pontoon to its new home on 8th October. Note that the derricks were cut off to enable it to pass under Bristol Bridge and Redcliffe Bridge.

There is A LOT of soil on this pontoon, which is no longer needed. Some of this will be re-used in a project at SS Great Britain platform. Since the points leading to the defunct double-track section were taken out some years ago, a lot of people have been using the trackbed as a shortcut or dog-walking area. This isn’t ideal when there are trains departing the station (trip hazards etc.) so a raised bed is being constructed from surplus sleepers and timbers.
The first steps were made here during an operating weekend, with the crane and Larry bringing supplies over for the volunteers to work on.

29’S OVERHAUL

Crane 29 has been a long-term restoration project, having been something of a parts donor to get the others running again in the early 2000s. Bruce and the crane gang have been working hard to get it back into use.
Recently this involved some close-up work on the bearings and jib, for which the man-cage was a great help, Crane 30 doing the honours. As you can imagine this job requires a calm day with very little wind, quite unlike what we experienced over Docks Heritage Weekend!

Bringing Back the Branch

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A few blog posts recently have covered the acquisition of loads of second-hand concrete sleepers. This is all in aid of bringing the New Cut branch back in to use.
It’ll soon be 10 years since the track was lifted at Butterfly Junction to make way for the Metrobus Guided Busway.

The return was delayed as in early 2020, the ongoing subsidence of the New Cut wall came to a head as the wall, the Chocolate Path and the Railway all collapsed into the Cut.


The wall has since been fixed, but then came the refurbishment of Vauxhall Bridge (halfway down the branch) which requires a large amount of scaffolding blocking the track.

The current railhead at the new section of wall, with a fenced-off Vauxhall Bridge in the background.

The aim is to be ready to commence tracklaying and sleeper replacement as soon as possible, to return trains to the station at ‘A’ Bond warehouse.
To this end, volunteers and staff, along with Larry the trusty loader, have been working down at A Bond to position the platform and track, sort through the materials and work out what is re-usable and what needs refurbishment. Hauling track out of the undergrowth is part of the challenge!
The platform has been shot-blasted and repainted to protect it.
Thanks to Chris and Katie for these photos.

Hopefully this work shows a statement of intent to the public that the branch is on its way back.

Back on the Wharf, a huge amount of hedge trimming and lineside clearance has taken place along the curve to Cumberland Road Bridge, requiring use of the Coles Crane and cage, seen here returning to the shed at the end of a running day.

The next step was the clearance of the ash pile next to the pit, which was getting rather tall. This required use of the grab and the Vincent wagon. The ashes are being used to create a walking route for trackworkers and shunters alongside the running line, where there was previously very limited clearance. Ash paths were a staple of the steam-era railway environment as there was so much of it around. More sorting and moving of sleepers and chairs was also done. The crane’s new clear acrylic roof and windscreen are very useful for this work.

More to come as work progresses….

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.

Henbury Holiday, Coles Controls and Toad TLC

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Henbury is currently on vacation down at the South Devon Railway. Unfortunately it missed its guest appearance at the winter gala partially due to a weeping washout plug. Hopefully the SDR engineers can work their magic on it while its at Buckfastleigh.
Bob Edwardes and I got some photos of Henbury and the SDR fleet over the course of the gala,

Back at M Shed, the Coles has been having issues with its control switches. Tis was traced to eroded contacts. These were replaced with NOS contacts (never throw anything away) and after some fettling, seems to have worked, with the crane being able to move again.

The TOAD’s refurbished springs are due back soon, and the shed space will be required, so there have been a few work sessions at cleaning up the underside (which may not have been touched in decades). Plenty of scraping, grinding, brushing, rust treatment and onto primer. Some volunteers almost managed to get more paint on themselves than the van…
There was also maintenance to do on Larry the Loader and John King the tug.
Thanks to Katie and Bob for the photos!

Last Operating Weekend of 2024 (Sunday)

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That’s it! Another season of passenger operations finished. Now the winter maintenance can begin.

This includes getting the tank of the Sulphiric Acid Tanker rubbed down and repainted. The chassis is still in good condition but the tank has suffered a bit from flaking paint and rust bubbles.
The Coles Crane was used to bring the tanker out of the yard and set it down on to Henbury at the end of the working day. The steam loco then propelled it onto the quayside to be pressure-washed. Earlier in the day we did a test lift to ensure the crane would be able to slew it into the warehouse.

Henbury was then ashed out (the plates in the ashpan were removed at the same time) and taken back to the shed as the light faded.

Thanks to Katie Richards for the photos.

Docks Heritage Weekend is back – 9th & 10th October

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The active fleet seen outside the shed today as ‘Portbury’ warms up ahead of DOCKS HERITAGE WEEKEND making a comeback after the pandemic.

Activities at M Shed
Trips on electric crane No.31 (charges apply)
Trips on the John King tug (charges apply)
Cargo handling demonstrations with Crane 30 and the electric capstan
Dramatic interludes from Show of Strength Theatre Company exploring characters from the docks’ past, Saturday and Sunday, 11am – 4pm
Visit the Fairbairn steam crane
Trips to see a stationary steam locomotive (charges apply) – Portbury is rostered for this
Visit the Bristol Port Company stand
See a Bristol Steam Navigation Company display
Events at SS Great Britain
Pre-booked free tours of the Albion Dock
Brunel Institute will be open (free) between 11am to 3pm on both days for visitors to drop in to meet a curator and see some of the collection objects celebrating Bristol’s docks heritage
Victorian street games on Brunel Square on Saturday
Shanty Festival performances on Brunel Square on Sunday
‘Mr Brunel’ will be on Brunel Square both days
Photography festival ‘Opening Up’ on Brunel Square both days
Activities at Underfall Yard
Demonstrations of traditional blacksmithing skills
Appreciate engineering in miniature with model steam engines and workshops
Discover the tools of yesteryear with the Tools and Trades History Society
Try your hand at nautical knots
Watch the pumps that powered a port running throughout the weekend
See our magnificent machinery workshops in action
Enjoy songs of the sea performed by several sea shanty groups as part of Bristol Shanty Festival (Sunday only).

See you there!




https://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/m-shed/whats-on/docks-heritage-weekend/