What if the Birmingham-Bristol line remained independent?

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Fair enough, but the question was about pre-nationalisation arrangements. 

I think from what I have read that you would still have been able to get from Bristol to Birmingham via the GWR

 

e.g. the BR (W) timetable for 1949 (1 year after nationalisation), shows a Wolverhampton to Penzance sevice via Stratford & Bristol.

It  seems unlikely that it would not have existed pre-war.

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, melmerby said:

I think from what I have read that you would still have been able to get from Bristol to Birmingham via the GWR

 

e.g. the BR (W) timetable for 1949 (1 year after nationalisation), shows a Wolverhampton to Penzance sevice via Stratford & Bristol.

It  seems unlikely that it would not have existed pre-war.

 

OK. With my 1902 mindset I hadn't considered what route south of Stonehouse Junction the Great Western's Bristol TM - Birmingham SH, introduced in 1908 following the opening of the North Warwickshire line. This has been discussed previously; IIRC a double junction was put in to enable the Great Western trains to take the Midland route - but was that all the way to Bristol or only as far as Yate?

Edited October 28, 2021 by Compound2632

[TheSignalEngineer]

Originally GWR trains ran from Lansdowne Junction to Yate then via Westerleigh Junction. Before WW1 there was only one daily express passenger train IIRC which was the Wolverhampton to Penzance. There were about four dated trains which only ran on a few days in summer. At Nationalisation there was a Wolverhamton - Penzance, Wolverhampton - Bristol and a Birmingham - Taunton on the GWR. There were some GWR trains from Birmingham to Cardiff which ran from Lansdowne Junction to Gloucester Central and of course some GWR trains from the Swindon direction to Cheltemham

 

Some cross running did happen in the 1950s to provide route knowledge where GWR men worked via Fishponds on one train and Midland men worked via Stapleton Road on another. When it came to Summer Saturdays when I first travelled that way in the 1950s it seemed pot luck as to which way you would be booked in and out of Bristol.