The changing face of Bristol

[JZ]

The placement of that signal on the main line is a bit strange - unless it was a light loco, anything held there would foul all sorts of junctions...

It protects Patchway Junction. Most movements that way have priority. My train has just come up from Temple Meads and a Cardiff bound train would be going through Patchway at the moment it was taken. Trains held would generally be held at Parkway.

[modfather]

ahhh hello new job - roll on June and a chance to get hands on with an 800!

[101]

Actually that one doesn't protect Patchway Jct, the next one does. That's an additional signal put in about 6 or 7 years or so ago, at the same time extra signals were installed on the other leg of the triangle towards Filton.

[JZ]

Actually that one doesn't protect Patchway Jct, the next one does. That's an additional signal put in about 6 or 7 years or so ago, at the same time extra signals were installed on the other leg of the triangle towards Filton.

Only work a train over there once in a blue moon. And I'm not at the pointed end. Must put in for a route refresh.

[ForestPines]

My question of three weeks ago has been answered, I suspect.  The reason the space between the main line platforms at Stapleton Road was filled in was to create an area to store some very large chunks of concrete, presumably parts of the structure of the new Easton Road bridge.

 

 

The part that's newly filled in is the part on the far side of the access path - the part on the near side was filled in a few years ago and has been used as a work base several times since.

 

I notice there's still a poster up for the open day at St Phillips Marsh at the start of this month!

Edited May 27, 2016 by ForestPines

[Vanders]

Oh they're replacing the structure on Easton Road? That explains it. Thank lord I'm not working over that way any more; I used Easton Road daily to get to the office.

[ForestPines]

The road's been completely closed for almost four months now for the bridge reconstruction. It's not due to reopen until November.

[ForestPines]

And here is the gap where the old Easton Road bridge used to be...

 

 

(viewed from the ex-Midland trackbed).

[Andy Kirkham]

Only once a week does the Severnside refuse train run in (for the time being) daylight and today it passed Redland (and my house) at about 17:30.

637J 1311 Southall T.C. to Severnside Sita, passing Redland. September 25, 2016. by Andy Kirkham, on Flickr

 

A couple of months ago I got this shot at Temple Meads:

A pair of Class 37s at Temple Meads with nuclear flasks from Hinkley Point. July 6 2016 by Andy Kirkham, on Flickr

 

Not a great picture in itself, but it makes an interesting comparison with this one from 46 years previously!

MAY 70 19. Puxton-Aberthaw fly ash train, Temple Meads 1970 by Andy Kirkham, on Flickr

 

Unfortunately I didn't have the 1970 picture with me for reference, so I was depending on my memory for the choice of viewpoint. It seems I should really have been standing nearer to the end of the platform and closer to the edge.

Edited September 25, 2016 by Andy Kirkham

[Tim V]

And a similar view of Redland in February 1987. Has it been painted?

[Pobrien]

Redland Station in 1964

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bristolsteam/6881866917/in/photolist-dcHsHb-bu8ngT-9HikSp-etwZYa-cKpB5A

[talisman56]

Differences in Redland, 1987 and 'today'.

 

1) Evidence of a lick of paint applied at some time (the door on the gable end is definitely 'bluer', canopy is various shades of blue instead of uniform black).

2) Evidence of renewal (or repair and clean) of the building roof.

3) Additional support posts for canopy.

4) Attentions of local graffiti 'artist(s)' (how did he (they) get up there?)

5) Greenery encroachment over (site of?) disused platform and trackbed.

Edited September 26, 2016 by talisman56

[Andy Kirkham]

I hadn't realised the canopy supports were new. I wonder if they are second-hand ones from elsewhere. At one time they'd just have pulled the canopy down.

 

Also artwork has been applied the boarded-up windows. They are images from Victorian photographs, each with some anachronistic addition, such as an iPod.

 

At some stage the building served as a clubhouse for the Bristol Railway Circle which did a good deal of renovation, then had to leave because BR/Railtrack/Network Rail made the rent unaffordable. An upholstery business occupies the building now.

 

A young lady sells coffee here on weekday mornings, something unimaginable a few years ago, and a testament to the traffic growth in recent times. I look forward to the introduction of the "Metro" service - half-hourly with alternate trains running through to Portishead and Bath.

Edited September 27, 2016 by Andy Kirkham

[Andy Kirkham]

Here's the coffee vendor I mentioned above https://thecoffeetrike.co.uk/

Edited September 28, 2016 by Andy Kirkham

[ForestPines]

Does anyone else recall the article in Railway Modeller in the mid-80s about building a model of Redland station in then-current condition, as an exemplar of a semi-derelict station building? From memory I think it was likely the Dec '85 issue, but I could be wrong there.

 

Incidentally, St Marks Road is now closed to road traffic for the Filton 4-Track project, so that the currently-unused span of the railway bridge can be renovated ready for reuse. No sign of any work starting on the Stapleton Road viaduct yet though!

[talisman56]

Just been through a cab video which included a trip up to Filton on the current two-line configuration - with the slew of the existing lines over to the formation of the two removed lines at the top of the bank just before Filton Abbey Wood station, there's a bit of track formation work to do there before the re-quadrupling can be completed.

Edited September 30, 2016 by talisman56

[Rivercider]

Just been through a cab video which included a trip up to Filton on the current two-line configuration - with the slew of the existing lines over to the formation of the two removed lines at the top of the bank just before Filton Abbey Wood station, there's a bit of track formation work to do there before the re-quadrupling can be completed.

Has there been any work to the structure of the embankment in the Ashley Hill area?

 

Back in the early 1980s there was a bank fire on the (west) up side, somewhere north of Ashley Hill. I understand the embankment was partly built from colliery spoil and contained coal dust, so the bank fire burned slowly underground for weeks if not months, I wondered if it created a void.

I thought at the time it was one of the reasons that when two tracks were taken out of use the two remaining tracks

were slewed to the east side of the embankment away from the fire site,

 

cheers 

Edited September 30, 2016 by Rivercider

[The Stationmaster]

Has there been any work to the structure of the embankment in the Ashley Hill area?

 

Back in the early 1980s there was a bank fire on the (west) up side, somewhere north of Ashley Hill. I understand the embankment was partly built from colliery spoil and contained coal dust, so the bank fire burned slowly underground for weeks if not months, I wondered if it created a void.

I thought at the time it was one of the reasons that when two tracks were taken out of use the two remaining tracks

were slewed to the east side of the embankment away from the fire site,

 

cheers 

 

It wasn't mentioned in the financial case for the de-quadrification - the saving was mainly down to avoided track renewals and savings on bridge maintenance.

[Rivercider]

It wasn't mentioned in the financial case for the de-quadrification - the saving was mainly down to avoided track renewals and savings on bridge maintenance.

Hi Mike,

 

I assumed the bank fire was just co-incidental to the de-quadrification scheme, which may have already been planned when the fire broke out.

I remember travelling over the line during autumn or winter when the fire was burning and seeing steam or smoke rising.  There was a speed restriction applied to, at least, the Up Filton Relief, due to subsidence.

I know the Relief Lines had to be used at the bottom of the bank due to the condition of the bridge at Stapleton Road. At the time I wondered if the decision of where to slew the two remaining lines to the east side of the formation was influenced by the bank fire and the damage it may have done,

 

cheers

[Vanders]

If you're sentimental (?) for the old Post Office building, now's the time to say your final goodbye's! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-38139249

[JZ]

Here's the coffee vendor I mentioned above https://thecoffeetrike.co.uk/

And very good it is too. Sometimes order one for my return journey. She deserves to do well and she's there in all weathers.

If you're sentimental (?) for the old Post Office building, now's the time to say your final goodbye's! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-38139249

The end of little Chernobyl.

[jonny777]

And is this a photo of the building under construction, or just under repair in 1969?

 

 

[37114]

It will live on for a long time yet:

 

[Fat Controller]

And is this a photo of the building under construction, or just under repair in 1969?

 

 

d115 bath road 12:7:69 copy.JPG

I spent a very entertaining fornight at Christmas 1974 (or was it '75; whichever was the year with the Park St bomb) working on the 'South-West Distribution Frames', more-or-less level with the cab roof of the Peak. I recollect large areas of the building being semi-derelict inside, as the PO had installed ALF sorting gear without union agreement, so it just sat there unused.

[Andy Kirkham]

And very good it is too. Sometimes order one for my return journey. She deserves to do well and she's there in all weathers.

 

Sadly the Coffee Trike is now in abeyance; Keira is moving away from Bristol and her last day was on Friday.