Tag Archives: bristol

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!

Docks Heritage Weekend 2025

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On 4th and 5th October, M Shed hosted Docks Heritage Weekend (one of my favourite events of the year) with the support of Bristol Port Company and the Show of Strength Theatre Company.
This is the time when we bring the quayside back to life and give a flavour of what a working port looked like in the 1950s.
Featuring cranes lifting appropriate loads, the capstan in operation, boat trips, and this year we re-jigged things a little so that the steam engine was part of the quayside demonstrations as it shunted wagons around.
The Bristol lorry suffered a leaking radiator hose on Sunday morning which will need repairing, so Henbury did a bit more shunting on the second day. The freshly-painted MOGO van took pride of place.
The storyline of Mr. and Mrs. Purnell this year revolved around their tin wedding anniversary and involved a mop bucket and a tin of beans!
Thanks to Bob Edwardes and Adam White for taking some of these photos.

More MOGO overhaul progress

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Volunteers have been beavering away on the GWR MOGO van with the intention of getting it back on the quayside in time for Docks Heritage Weekend in October.
High quality marine ply has been purchased to replace the knackered old timbers. This has been cut and test-fitted to the van to drill bolt holes, then will be removed, sealed, primed and refitted for painting.
Thanks to Bob for the images

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….

MOGO in for Overhaul

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The GWR-designed G34 MOGO van No. 65814 is the next vehicle to be getting the L Shed treatment, following on from the overhaul of the Sulphuric Acid Tanker and ex-GWR O18 open wagon.

The MOGO (MOtor GOods) van was designed to carry motor cars and as such is fitted with end doors and a tailgate arrangement allowing cars to be driven in and through the van. The earlier G31 had planked sides but in the last years of the GWR before nationalisation, the design changed to plywood on the G34.

W65814 had a spruce-up in 2014 and 2015 but the years outside (and the efforts of some lil’ rascals) have taken their toll. As it’s regularly used for Docks Heritage Weekend and photo charters, it’s time to give it some love.

Last Sunday, Henbury positioned the van next to Crane 29 outside L Shed at the end of the working day. Then in the week, the quayside and running lines outside the shed were once again closed, wooden blocks dropped into the flangeways, and the Coles Crane was able to de-rail and then pivot the van around 90 degrees to be rolled into the shed.

The volunteers have wasted no time in emptying the van and stripping off the trashed plywood for renewal. Thanks to Chris and Bob for these images!

Harbour Festival 2025

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Harbour Fest was held on 19th and 20th July this year, as always it was a packed event with lots of visitors. The crowds mean taking additional safety measures such as volunteers on crowd control duty. Always a busy time but no mishaps, thanks to the volunteers and staff of the Working Exhibits.
Saturday night saw a BBQ for the workers, held aboard John King.
Pyronaut unfortunately sustained some damage due to another vessel. She required some emergency repairs to the handrails to be able to take part in the celebrations.
A particular highlight was the attendance by replica tall ship Galéon Andalucia. Very impressive!

Thanks to Katie, Dave and Bob for the photos!

Gromit Unleashed Returns!

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Last week Henbury once again took centre stage in kicking off Gromit Unleashed and delivered several brand-new sculptures from SS Great Britain Halt (opposite Aardman’s offices) to M Shed where they were unloaded by the dockside cranes. Aardman founder Nick Park once again took to the footplate!
The first Gromit Unleashed was wayy back in 2013.
Thanks to the M Shed volunteers who participated for sending in these photos.

Gromit Unleashed 3 is running across Bristol from 30th June – 31st August as part of the Grand Appeal.

Read more about the launch event here.

Pannier and Brake Van Photos

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A few operating weekends have passed with Henbury, but today we are looking back to when GWR No. 1369 visited. Paul Stanford sent in these photos of 1369 working on the brake van specials down the branch. Thanks Paul!
It’s not often that we get enthusiast photos from the New Cut branch so it’s great to be able to share them here.

YouTube user ‘Bovine of the Rails’ took these clips from that day:

‘Heritage in the 21st Century’ shared these clips from the photo charters run by 30742 Charters:

Henbury Pulling Passengers in the Port

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Youtube channel brunelheritage was on hand to record Henbury’s first day back in service. The sun shone for most of the weekend and passenger numbers were strong on both the train and ‘Pyronaut’, the museum’s fire-fighting boat giving tours around the harbour

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.