The railway and diesel tug ‘John King’ were operating over the Chazza Cozza weekend, with the train suitable carrying flags and bunting for the occasion.
Of course the skipper of ‘John King’ had been revising their morse code for a 12:00 sound-off!
Youtube channel ‘Stef’ posted this interesting video of the line from Portishead to the junction at Portbury, passing the site where the locomotive now known as ‘Portbury’ once worked.
Also visible is the loop that was used for steam specials to Portishead back in 1985.
‘Henbury’ was out and on the quayside line this weekend. Despite a late start on Saturday due to the awful weather in the morning, things brightened up considerably!
Thanks for Beth for sharing these photos of the weekend’s running.
Fenwick was built in 1911 as Peckett Works Number 1221 and worked at Canons Marsh Gas Works.
Thanks to a heads-up from fellow volunteer Bob, I acquired this photo from eBay which is dated on the back as 11th August 1949 and shows Fenwick between duties with the mighty gasometer in the background.
Peckett 0-6-0ST ‘Henbury’ was out on test last week, the annual boiler exam is just around the corner, so there was a need to test the operation of the vacuum ejector beforehand. Last season ‘Portbury’ supplied the vacuum but with that loco now out of service for overhaul, Henbury needs to be able to operate solo.
Thanks to Beth for the photo.
Thanks to Paul Atkinson for sending me the link for this, it’s a really interesting piece of reference material.
I’ve scanned in the booklet and it can be downloaded for your perusal here.
It’s available on the reference page here.
Last Sunday (30th October) was the final operating day of the 2022 season for the working exhibits. Pyronaut was givng rides in the harbour and Portbury was working its final shift before being withdrawn for the upcoming 10-year overhaul.
… And that was it! ‘Farewell Portbury’ chalked on the smokebox door, ashed out over the pit, fire dropped, then back on shed. I couldn’t resist putting the Patrick nameplates (in honour of a friend) back on for a quick photo.
The team have wasted no time in starting the stripdown for overhaul, making the most of a gap in the weather this week. Thanks to Beth for these pics.
Last weekend saw the annual Docks Heritage event where we try to give a flavour of cargo handling and other activities for the public to see. Sadly we were sans actors this year but the volunteers put in a good shift in demonstrating the exhibits, including rides in Pyronaut, crane 31, and loading demos with crane 30 along with a few shunting actions using the capstan.
Thanks to Emily for these pics.
Portbury was also on the quayside for people to have a look in the cab. At the end of the day it was seen shunting the stock back into the yard.
Bristol Harbour Railway Blog 