24th February 2023

A computer generated image of the new St Erth Footbridge
Dennis Flood
by Courtesy of RailUK

Hayle 75
Roger Winnen

Class 52 D1069 Western Vanguard with the 11.00 Penzance to Paddington crosses Hayle Viaduct.. 15th March 1975. Copyright Roger Winnen Many thanks to Guy Vincent for indentifing this Western.

Thanks to developments no longer can you get this view. Many thanks Roger.
​

Unique - last day pictures on the 
Portishead Branch
Michael Bussell

Saturday 5th September 1964 saw the last passenger trains to run on the Portishead branch line into Bristol Temple Meads. (More than half a century later the residents of ‘Posset’ – as the town is affectionally known locally – and particularly its commuters who work in Bristol, still await the restoration of this valuable public transport link.)
I made a misty journey from Portishead to Ashton Gate and back on that last morning, and photographed what was by then an unstaffed station. Later in the day I returned to Portishead station to watch the last train depart as both darkness and rain were falling – not an ideal time for me to take photos, then lacking a ‘flashgun’ for my camera.
As with so many branch lines, much more has been published since the line closed than was written about it when open. ‘Reflections on the Portishead Branch’ by Mike Vincent (Oxford Publishing, 1983) was succeeded rather more recently by ‘The Bristol to Portishead Branch with the Bristol Harbour Railway and Canon’s Marsh Branch’ by Colin G Maggs (Oakwood Press, Locomotion Papers 247, 2020), its lengthy title acknowledging that a line branching off at Ashton Gate, the first station on the Portishead line, was built in 1906; it headed east across the River Avon and the so-called ‘Floating Harbour’ to carry goods traffic to and from the city quays and the GWR Canon’s Marsh Depot.
Here are my photos of Ashton Gate and Portishead on that last day.

Ashton Gate

1 A misty and deserted Ashton Gate station looking south. The open-lattice girder platform footbridge is unusual, while the platforms – a mixture of hard surfacing and grass – are still gas-lit. The station served the nearby Bristol City Stadium, and saw busy times during home football matches. Copyright Michael Bussell.

2. Another view a northward panorama has the Harbour lines behind the up platform fence. Behind the down platform, there was a siding for the Ashton Vale Iron Co Ltd from 1909 to 1942. Copyright Michael Bussell

3. Another view from slightly further south. On the left can be seen the 1906 goods traffic lines leading to the Harbour and Canon’s March Depot. To the right, a path leads up from the ‘down’ platform to the modest (and in 1964 disused) station office at road level. The bridge immediately beyond it carries the busy A370 Bristol to Weston-super-Mare road. The station nameboard on the right is slightly out-of-date, as the ’Platform’ appellation was officially dropped in 1928! Copyright Michael Bussell.

4. A typical GWR diminutive corrugated iron ‘pagoda’ waiting shelter on the ‘up’ platform. Copyright Michael Bussell.

Portishead

The loco having brought the penultimate train in pulls forward to the buffers and commences the run round. Copyright Michael Bussell.

A view forwards from the train still at the platform. The loco appears to be taking water at a column in the sidings area. Copyright Michael Bussell.

The pannier tank loco, having watered, heads back towards the station past the water tower (whose size recalls that rail-borne freight traffic to and from Portishead, with a busy dock and later two power stations, once warranted numerous sidings and generous fuelling facilities for locomotives – not least the coal trains from Somerset collieries that complemented coal shipped across the Bristol Channel from South Wales). The loco having taken water at the large tank on the tower now returns to head the final train out of Portishead to Bristol Temple Meads. Copyright Michael Bussell.

The train starts to pull out of Portishead Station, whose passenger facilities had been relocated only ten years earlier, with a new station building and platforms. This was made necessary when a second, oil-fired, electricity power station was built on the site of the original passenger station next to an earlier, coal-fired, power station on the north side of Portishead Dock. (Both power stations are now long gone.) The two water columns on the platforms would seem to have been disconnected, otherwise why would the pannier tank loco have needed to take water elsewhere, as in the photo above? Copyright Michael Bussell.

The last train departs into the rain and gloom. Copyright Michael Bussell.

This gas lamp will not be needed again. (And would now be very ‘collectable’.) Copyright Michael Bussell

Many thanks Michael - your pictures form a valuable record.
​

Ashton Gate and Portishead 

Two slightly more recent pictures at Ashton Gate and Portishead may make it easier to position Michael's Photographs.

It's the 18th November 1968 and we're aboard the Cheddar Valley Railtour en route to Portishead. We've just passed Aston Gate Signalbox - the lines to Wapping Wharf drop away to our right and ahead lie the platforms of Ashton Gate. Copyright Keith Jenkin.

Portishead station on 18th November 1968. From the Cheddar Valley Railtour. Copyright Keith Jenkin.