Avonside ‘Portbury’ arrived at Beamish Museum today, shown by this photo and video shared on the Museum’s facebook page
Portbury Arrives at Beamish
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Tag Archives: steam
Photos from Xmas Steam-Up!
The Xmas steam up event was a success, with all tickets selling out. Rich Skuse and Zoe Robinson were among the lucky people to try their hand at driving ‘Portbury’ and the Steam Crane.
Rich has kindly allowed these photos to be reproduced here!
Helston Railway returns, and Christmas is around the corner…
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).
The Fox, Walker sees daylight
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 Coles crane is moved out first as part of the shunt
With the crane out of the way, the Ruston couples up
‘For Sale’ – very funny!
Pinholes in the tank give an idea as to the thickness of the metal
The view from the Ruston’s footplate as it drags the Victorian locomotive out
Gently eased out on to the running line
Out on the New Cut – the furthest the loco has been in a long time
TBT – Henbury Makes History – Coal Trains in 1981
As previously mentioned on this blog, in 1981, the Western Fuel Co.’s diesel shunter Western Pride was in need of an overhaul. This locomotive was used to shunt wagons on the dockside and into the WFC compound, as well as trip workings along the New Cut to Ashton Meadows sidings, from where a BR loco would take the wagons onto the main line.
So it was that Henbury was hired as the first preserved steam loco to pull scheduled goods trains for British Railways (BR having stopped using steam traction in 1968). She crept onto the Western Fuel Co.’s site at 7am on Monday 28th September 1981 and worked for the next three weeks hauling coal trains of up to 450 tons.
This cinefilm was captured by Bob Edwardes and appears here with permission.
Points of particular interest include running on the main line to Bristol Bath Road engine shed to use the turntable (creating quite a contrast to the BR Blue mainline diesels at Bristol Temple Meads!) and double heading with the PBA Rolls-Royce Sentinel No. 41 (10220) that took over duties from Henbury.
Taking loaded wagons up to the Wharf (John Stanford)
October 1981, in between shunting moves (John Stanford)
About to go under Vauxhall Bridge (John Stanford)
Bringing the trucks into the yard (John Stanford)
The Engines of Avonmouth
Port of Bristol Authority Avonmouth Shed, Avonsides S4, S5 and Pecketts S11 and another present, 21/7/63 – Railphotoprints.com
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
‘Hudson’ (Avonside Engine 1724 of 1915) at the Port of Bristol Authority, Avonmouth Docks 13/8/49
‘William’ (Avonside Engine 1725 of 1915) at PBA, Avonmouth 5/4/58
No. S3 ‘Portbury’ (Avonside Engine 1764 of 1917) at the Port of Bristol Authority, Avonmouth 21/7/63
‘Percy’ (Avonside Engine 1800 of 1918) at PBA, Avonmouth 5/4/58
No. S4 ‘Percy’ (Avonside Engine 1800 of 1918) at the Port of Bristol Authority, Avonmouth 21/7/63
‘Brian’ (Avonside Engine 1799 of 1918) at PBA, Avonmouth 5/4/58
No. S5 ‘Brian’ (Avonside Engine 1799 of 1918) at the Port of Bristol Authority, Avonmouth 21/7/63
‘Fyffe’ (Peckett 1721 of 1926) at PBA, Avonmouth 5/4/58
‘Ashton’ (Peckett 1878 of 1934) at PBA, Avonmouth (side view) 5/4/58
No. S7 ‘Ashton’ (Peckett 1878 of 1934) at the Port of Bristol Authority, Avonmouth 21/7/63
‘Westbury’ (Peckett 1877 of 1934) at PBA, Avonmouth (side view) 5/4/58
‘Westbury’ (Peckett 1877 of 1934) at the Port of Bristol Authority, Avonmouth Docks (side view) 13/8/49
No. S8 ‘Westbury’ (Peckett 1877 of 1934) at the Port of Bristol Authority, Avonmouth 21/7/63
‘Hallen’ (Peckett 2035 of 1943) at PBA, Avonmouth 5/4/58
No. S10 ‘Hallen’ (Peckett 2035 of 1943) at the Port of Bristol Authority, Avonmouth 21/7/63 (Courtesy RCTS/Jack Faithfull)
No. S11 ‘Bristol’ (Peckett 2036 of 1943) on an RCTS rail tour at the Port of Bristol Authority, Avonmouth 21/7/63
No. S11 ‘Bristol’ (Peckett 2036 of 1943) on an RCTS railtour at the Port of Bristol Authority, Avonmouth 21/7/63
‘Clifton’ (Peckett 2037 of 1943) at PBA, Avonmouth 5/4/58
No. S12 ‘Clifton’ (Peckett 2037 of 1943) at the Port of Bristol Authority, Avonmouth 21/7/63
Peckett S12 ‘Clifton’ (Copyright Geoff Plumb)
No. S13 ‘Redland’ (Peckett 2038 of 1943) at the Port of Bristol Authority, Avonmouth (side view) 21/7/63
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.
PBA 34 on the dockside,1973 (Courtesy John Stanford)
Sentinel 0-6-0 No. PBA 39 and PBA 40 at Avonmouth docks 14/5/82 (Courtesy Kevin Hughes/RCTS)
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.
Last Operating Weekend of 2014
This Saturday and Sunday are the last two days of operation on the BHR for the 2014 season, and possibly the last services to travel to Butterfly Junction in its present form before the remodelling in anticipation of the Metrobus route construction.
Come down and take a ride!
TBT – Portbury takes on Foxfield Bank, 2008
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:
Autumn Sun (and rain!)
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.
TBT – Beware of Trains
It’s the 11th July 1993. ‘Portbury’, resplendent in blue, is being prepared for the day’s work. Note the industrial buildings behind, now the site of apartments.
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Photo courtesy Gillet’s Crossing/Wikipedia Commons
