Make sure to get your hands on a copy of this month’s Heritage Railway Magazine! The BHR has a feature from Juliet Eden, who took the fantastic photos showing both Portbury and Henbury in service.
BHR in Heritage Railway Magazine!
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Category Archives: M Shed
September Sun
A few snaps from the weekend’s operations. Really nice to have all three steam exhibits in operation. Lots of happy, friendly passengers, the sun shone, and steam was in the air.
TV Stars…
Never camera shy, the railway’s operational steam fleet made a cameo appearance on Channel 5’s ‘Emergency Bikers’ programme last week.
No Point!
The staff and volunteers have removed the point from the shed road, formerly used as the coal wagon siding. This has now been relayed with plain rail. The access road’s new formation will go straight on here and round the back of the olive shed.
A Clean Railway
One of the main aims of 2014 has been to tidy up the overall look of the railway. This has ranged from the restoration of the MOGO van, to weedkilling and cutting back branches.
Even the simple things such as picking up litter can make a huge difference. From the small area next to the river siding came enough rubbish to fill 2 large sacks.
Here is the river siding earlier this year:
Today:
The PBA brake van has also had a clean. The North side of the wagons, facing away from sunlight, can get very dirty and covered in moss.
Before:
After:
One of the biggest challenges of having a railway in the inner city is graffiti. Bristol has a proud history of famous graffiti and street artists, such as Banksy, 3D and Inkie, however it is less helpful when someone puts their tag on museum stock. Sometimes this could be due to the perception that the stock is out of use, or more generally, trains are daubed so that particular tag can be seen all around the country.
Regardless of the reasoning, the best response is to clean it off quickly, showing that the trains are in fact in use by the museum and that people care about their appearance.
The passenger train was tagged in April this year. This was cleared off almost straight away.
Bristol Council trialling new, safer cobblestones – Have your say
Adjacent to the yard at Whapping Wharf, Bristol City Council have been trialling a cobbled surface design.
Beautiful though they are, old cobblestones can be a hazard and difficult to navigate if you are on a wheelchair or pushing a pram. Instead of replacing the cobbles along this section of path with granite setts in a fan pattern, this method reuses the existing cobbles, sawn in half and relaid to the original pattern.
The council is holding a consultation on this, so the residents and visitors to Bristol can give their opinion on the matter. You can get involved (and read the Council’s reasoning behind the trial) at the following link:
https://www.citizenspace.com/bristol/city-development/sawn-setts-trial-1/consult_view
Here are a couple of photos of the ‘new’ cobbles alongside the old ones
Whapping Wharf Development
As the housing at Sugar Quay is going up…
… Other buildings are coming down. The former coal office (Latterly the office for the car park managers) has been demolished, along with the partially-collapsed roof of the building on the right.
See this photo from February 2013 for a comparison
Over on the shed road, the old goods platform has been renovated and the entire wall treated to new paint. The remnants of the platform roof have been removed.
Compare this last photo with the view back in 2009
Likewise, this view back toward the shed has changed so much, and is due to change again, as the access road is to be built and will need to cross the two yard tracks.
This shot of the Ruston, taken from the same location, is about a year old.
Come and drive ‘Portbury’!
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.
‘Henbury’, the square, and Sugar Quay
Henbury with a warming fire lit ahead of this bank holiday weekend’s services. Construction of the Sugar Quay development continues in the background, whilst in the foreground, the new square with map of Bristol inlaid, and new lighting overhead, is visible.
Locomotive No.3 – (Fox, Walker and Company No. 242)
A little known and lesser-spotted member of the M Shed Collection is Fox, Walker and Company 0-6-0ST Locomotive Number 242.
Built in 1874, it is the oldest of the three steam locomotives, being 43 years older than ‘Portbury’ (and 63 years older than ‘Henbury’!) and enables the museum to represent all the major engine builders in the Bristol area.
Fox, Walker and Company was taken over by Thomas Peckett in 1880 and became Peckett and Sons, the builders of ‘Henbury’ and her sisters.
242 was the first locomotive to arrive in the museum’s collection. It was donated by the National Coal Board in 1962, having previously worked at Mountain Ash Colliery in Wales, where it was No.3.
These two photographs were spotted for sale on ebay, unfortunately only the thumbnails were available to view online. They show 242 while still at Mountain Ash.
This photo is copyright Malcolm Williams and was found on steamlocomotive.info
It shows NCB Mountain Ash No.3 in detail before departing for Preservation.
Prior to the preserved BHR opening in 1978, she, along with ‘Henbury’ and ‘Portbury’, was to be found at Radstock Station. This was the hub of the initiative to re-open a section of the famous S and D route, spearheaded by the Somerset and Dorset Railway Trust. As previously mentioned, the SDRT moved to Washford station on the WSR in 1976.
Geoff Cryer took these pictures of 242 in the shed at Radstock in September 1975.
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- Copyright Geoff Cryer
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- Copyright Geoff Cryer
Source: http://www.geoffspages.co.uk/raildiary/radstock.htm and http://www.geoffspages.co.uk/monorail/gc01.htm
When the Radstock project was disbanded, Number 242 went to Bitton (on what is now the Avon Valley Railway) between 1977 and 1986, when she returned to Bristol and was stored in L Shed.
As preparations were made for Bristol Industrial Museum’s conversion into M Shed Museum, the locomotive was made ready to move to another secure location.
Larry the Loader tows 242 out of the workshop.
Photo courtesy Rob Skuse
Source: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.198379386934483&type=1
As for the future, at nearly 140 years old, there are no current plans to return 242 to steam. Her current storage space may be repurposed due to planned development, so a move might be on the cards. Watch this space…
