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 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.
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
It’s the first day of the Xmas Steam Up weekends tomorrow, so Portbury and the Fairbairn Steam Crane should be in action on the dockside.
This week, the lovely people from the Helston Railway in Cornwall have been back for more rail and sleepers. Here they are loading up (Photo from the Helston Railway Facebook page, click the link for more).
In May 2014, a shunting move to get rolling stock out of the Smeaton Road shed and into the rebuilt ‘Barn’ saw Fox, Walker and Sons No.242 (NCB No.3) out in the open air. This loco had new bearings fitted before the rebuild of M Shed in 2006, so is a rolling chassis and can be moved around.
The photos also give an indication as to the condition of the loco, and the scale of any restoration that might take place.
These pictures were taken by Michelle Scoplin of the Create Centre and appear here with her kind permission.
The Avonmouth Docks system utilised a large motive power stud, mainly consisting of locomotives constructed in Bristol by Avonside or Peckett. In 1939, there were some 28 steam locomotives in the fleet.
The steam fleet included (But was not limited to):
S1 ‘Hudson’ (Avonside 1724 of 1915) – 0-6-0ST
S2 ‘William’ (Avonside 1725 of 1915) – 0-6-0ST
S3 ‘Portbury’ (Avonside 1764 of 1917) – 0-6-0ST
S4 ‘Percy’ (Avonside 1800 of 1918) – 0-6-0ST
S5 ‘Brian’ (Avonside 1799 of 1918) – 0-6-0ST
S6 ‘Fyffe’ (Peckett 1721 of 1926) – 0-6-0ST
S7 ‘Ashton’ (Peckett 1878 of 1934) – 0-6-0ST
S8 ‘Westbury’ (Peckett 1877 of 1934) – 0-6-0ST
S9 ‘Henbury’ (Peckett 1940 of 1937) – 0-6-0ST
S10 ‘Hallen’ (Peckett 2035 of 1943) – 0-6-0ST
S11 ‘Bristol’ (Peckett 2036 of 1943) – 0-6-0ST
S12 ‘Clifton’ (Peckett 2037 of 1943) – 0-6-0ST
S13 ‘Redland’ (Peckett 2038 of 1943) – 0-6-0ST
‘Lionel” (Peckett No.466 of 1889) – 0-6-0ST
‘Henry’ (Peckett 1264 of 1913) – 0-6-0ST
‘Strathcona’ (Peckett No. 1243 of 1910) – 0-6-0ST
The ‘S’ prefix was added to the loco numbers by the early 1960s as diesel traction was introduced, as well as the addition of the distinctive red and white striped bufferbeams.
At first a small batch of Hudswell Clarke diesels were purchased, of which D1171 ‘Western Pride’ (Later sold to Western Fuel Co., now preserved) was one. Another, No.23 ‘Merlin’ is preserved at the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway in Yorkshire, although currently out of use awaiting overhaul.
ex-PBA No.23 ‘Merlin’ (D.2003) on the KWVR (Helena via Wikipedia)
In 1965 a fleet of Sentinel shunters came to the port. Finished in smart blue livery, they were direct replacements for the steam locos, which were withdrawn shortly afterward.
The Sentinels worked right up until the closure of the Avonmouth Docks Railway system in 1983.
Sentinel PBA 39 is now preserved on the nearby East Somerset Railway, and has recently been restored to its original PBA livery. Also on the East Somerset Railway is PBA 42, also known as ‘Eric’, which went on to work for La Farge in Westbury, before being preserved in 2007, and is currently awaiting restoration.
PBA 39 on the ESR (T. Dalton)
The photographs on this page (Unless otherwise stated) were taken by Jack Faithfull and purchased from the Rail Correspondance and Travel Society’s website. They appear here for research purposes only and may not be used for profit or gain without permission.
Some of the surplus track lifted during the remodelling of both ends of the line was collected by the volunteers at the Helston Railway in Cornwall.
This line is based at Trevarno, and they operate two Ruston diesel shunters very similar to the one based on the BHR.
The below photos appear here reposted from the Helston Railway’s Facebook Page.
At the Foxfield Railway’s 2008 gala, Portbury paid a visit and was given the chance to attack the famous 1-in-19 to 1-in-26 Foxfield Bank, the climb away from Foxfield Colliery itself.
Youtube user ‘Pennysteam’ was there to capture the event (If you like railway videos, be sure to subscribe to pennysteam as their footage is spectacular)
Part 1:
Part 2, Portbury ascends the gradient again at around 5.20:
With just 3 operating weekends left in the season, here are a few photos from today’s workings. The weather was good for the most part, with only one trainload of passengers getting the full ‘goods’ experience during a heavy shower!
Coming off the pit with steam to spare
There was a march organised for Saturday evening to raise awareness for cancer on the dockside
Ominous clouds
Newly-repainted Thekla in the distance
Raising steam at M Shed
The day’s work done
Note the new sleepers installed when this section of track was relaid
Coaling up
Larry empties the last of the coal into 34’s bunker
Creeping back to the shed
Ready for another day
Here’s a bonus .gif of Portbury heading to the shed after a hard day’s work.
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