Blue skies and blue locomotive today, as Peckett 0-4-0ST ‘Kilmersdon’ is at work on passenger trains for the first services of 2015. The SS Great Britain and New Cut branches are in operation, come down to the docks for a ride!
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’ 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.
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)
In this first look at the changing face of the Butterfly Junction area, you can see the extensive clearance of foliage that has taken place. Surveyors have been working in the area over the past few weeks.
Further down the line, the area around the Cumberland Road Bridge siding has also been cleared. The spare wagon wheelsets have been moved out of the way. The plans for the bridge indicate that the path here will be raised up to platform height in order to meet the new bridge.
The recent closure of the Chocolate Path (now re-opened) was to allow ground testing for a new bridge over the New Cut, adjacent to the railway.
The pedestrian and cycle bridge will run from the Cumberland Road Bridge, across the River Avon, and up to the junction between Camden Road and Coronation Road on the South side of the river.
Betterbybike has more information on the planned bridge.
Here are some early impressions of how the bridge might look.
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.*
*This is not true, just a joke!
The planned Metrobus route, formerly the line to Ashton Meadows sidings, has been tidied up.
This includes the line over Ashton Avenue Bridge (Rails are still extant on this section)
The clearance has exposed the old permanent way huts, some sleepers, and electrical boxes.
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.
Joseph Stuart captured this footage:
Please note that the Chocolate Path (alongside the A Bond branch line and New Cut) will be closed from 9th Feb 2015 for 4 weeks.
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.
These photos appear here with Paul’s permission
Bristol Harbour Railway Blog 