The changing face of Bristol

[Gilbert]

11 minutes ago, Trainshed Terry said:

 

That would make a great base board for a O gauge layout.

 

I shall get my coat.

 

Terry.

Hi Viz I trust.....

[Cowley 47521]

15 minutes ago, Trainshed Terry said:

 

That would make a great base board for a O gauge layout.

 

I shall get my coat.

 

Terry.

Or the whole of the south west peninsula in N gauge!

Mmm….

[DK123GWR]

2 hours ago, Cowley 47521 said:

Or the whole of the south west peninsula in N gauge!

Mmm….

I think NR and the TOCs should support you in that, and kit it out with entirely prototypical signaling, with the trains responding to it as though they had a real driver, with realistic acceleration and braking profiles. Then when members of the public are stood on the platform mouthing off at station staff because their train's delayed, they take them upstairs.

"Why don't you show us how you would handle this situation?"

 

At least it'll give them something to do while waiting for their train.

[Kris]

https://www.bristol247.com/news-and-features/news/work-starts-to-build-bristols-first-railway-station-in-almost-a-century/?fbclid=IwAR2aptMBlnXlHOI0CRZ-DFuIlp-WHqXlwULxCzXbPE1yGL_OLCxZrmmPkyE

[rodent279]

18 minutes ago, Kris said:

https://www.bristol247.com/news-and-features/news/work-starts-to-build-bristols-first-railway-station-in-almost-a-century/?fbclid=IwAR2aptMBlnXlHOI0CRZ-DFuIlp-WHqXlwULxCzXbPE1yGL_OLCxZrmmPkyE

Wasn't Parkway a new station?

[Michael Hodgson]

15 minutes ago, rodent279 said:

Wasn't Parkway a new station?

Is it technically in Bristol then?

My dad used it to commute to London from Chepstow because nothing much stops at Severn Tunnel Junction.

[JZ]

23 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Is it technically in Bristol then?

My dad used it to commute to London from Chepstow because nothing much stops at Severn Tunnel Junction.

Bristol Parkway and Filton Abbey Wood are in South Gloucestershire.

[rodent279]

4 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Is it technically in Bristol then?

My dad used it to commute to London from Chepstow because nothing much stops at Severn Tunnel Junction.

Yes, fair point, they are in South Glos. You get my drift though ...

[Michael Hodgson]

I remember using Bristol Parkway shortly after it first opened.  A very basic station, really bleak windswept place with little shelter when the wind was in the North - if you arrived in plenty of time and had to wait, it made sense to stay in your car until the train was due!

[Northmoor]

1 hour ago, Michael Hodgson said:

I remember using Bristol Parkway shortly after it first opened.  A very basic station, really bleak windswept place with little shelter when the wind was in the North - if you arrived in plenty of time and had to wait, it made sense to stay in your car until the train was due!

I remember how long that original "temporary" building lasted; the Parkway concept was new so BR probably weren't sure how successful it would be.  And it certainly was (especially after the 125s were introduced; pound-for-pound, Bristol Parkway may be the most successful station opened by British Rail.

[Michael Hodgson]

The most impressive structures were the clocks on the platforms!

Train announcements weren't the clearest.

[rodent279]

5 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

I remember using Bristol Parkway shortly after it first opened.  A very basic station, really bleak windswept place with little shelter when the wind was in the North - if you arrived in plenty of time and had to wait, it made sense to stay in your car until the train was due!

Little more than a collection of glorified mobile classrooms if I remember rightly? At least, that's what they seemed like. They must have done the job though.

[Mulgabill]

10 hours ago, rodent279 said:

Little more than a collection of glorified mobile classrooms if I remember rightly? At least, that's what they seemed like. They must have done the job though.

 

An example of 12" : Ft Kit bashing, it was extended, without being to clever at covering the join!

 

Also gave me many evening out with my girlfriend watching, sat in the car, a view that included

Hymeks and Westerns, free of charge. Those were the days.

 

Oh and she's still around, we progressed to evening picnics at Severn Tunnel Junc, after we were

married, and the Hydrualics had gone.

 

TONY

[Tim V]

A picture from 2003, the background is full of buildings now.

And under the canopy on the old parcels platform, in an area that was always full of vehicles was this sign from the past.

 

[JZ]

21 minutes ago, Tim V said:

And under the canopy on the old parcels platform, in an area that was always full of vehicles was this sign from the past.

 

Now the staff locker rooms.

[KeithMacdonald]

On 05/02/2022 at 17:59, Michael Hodgson said:

if you arrived in plenty of time and had to wait, it made sense to stay in your car until the train was due!

 

Colleagues also recommended car-sharing with the least-valuable car available. In a hope that the car would still be there, and in one piece, whenever you got back. At the time, I drove a scruffy old Peugeot, and in three years it was never touched. My wife drove a BMW 3-series, and the very first day she parked it, the windows were smashed to nick anything inside.

[101]

18 hours ago, KeithMacdonald said:

 

Colleagues also recommended car-sharing with the least-valuable car available. In a hope that the car would still be there, and in one piece, whenever you got back. At the time, I drove a scruffy old Peugeot, and in three years it was never touched. My wife drove a BMW 3-series, and the very first day she parked it, the windows were smashed to nick anything inside.

 

Yes it was well known for thefts, and at night time when working trains you often saw cars driving around the (pitch dark) car park with no headlights - they probably didn't realise their brake lights still worked and gave them away! 

I also had my car broken into there, and a jacket stolen, but they didn't do any damage as I was driving a Mk2 escort at the time and any old key would open the door!

[Downendian]

Ah all this reminiscing about the old Bristol Parkway… I spent too many hours there in the 1970s shortly after it was built. Although I’ve posted these here before in this thread (my copyright), photos have since appeared in two publications, with my permission plus elsewhere without! Anyhow for old times sake here they are again, May 1972 I think shortly after opening judging by the BR flag at half mast (death of the Duke of Windsor late that month).

The building was very basic but nice and warm, somewhere to thaw out before hearing the dreaded porters “are you train-spotting? Then geddout…”

neil

[Tim V]

I went there around that time but took no photos - it just wasn't photogenic!

[rodent279]

So if BPW opened in 72, would Westerns have called there on service trains? I guess Warships wouldn't though?

[Downendian]

Yes many times, both on South Wales trains 1C63 being a daily Western turn as late as 1976, plus multiple workings North (e.g. 1E21) normally changing locos at Gloucester but sometimes all the way to BNS. I don’t recall seeing Warships on service trains at Parkway, nor is there photographic proof. However, blue Pullman sets certainly did - I saw it a couple of times, reverse blue grey of course.

Neil,

[Downendian]

As this rather excellent 1973 shot of D1015 attests, 1C63. Paul Townsend on Flickr 

A really evocative reminder to me of my spotting days, but the Tytherington stone trains were even more spectacular  departures from Stoke Gifford yard with a 52 on the front.

 

[rodent279]

35 minutes ago, Downendian said:

As this rather excellent 1973 shot of D1015 attests, 1C63. Paul Townsend on Flickr 

A really evocative reminder to me of my spotting days, but the Tytherington stone trains were even more spectacular  departures from Stoke Gifford yard with a 52 on the front.

 

I cycled up the road on the far right this evening! No wizzos in sight though

[Rivercider]

9 hours ago, Downendian said:

As this rather excellent 1973 shot of D1015 attests, 1C63. Paul Townsend on Flickr 

A really evocative reminder to me of my spotting days, but the Tytherington stone trains were even more spectacular  departures from Stoke Gifford yard with a 52 on the front.

 

Nice photo.

 

The Thornbury branch re-opened as far as Tytherington Quarry in 1973, there were five or six trips each way over the branch by the late 1970s. It is interesting to speculate that had the stone traffic started just two or three years earlier then Warships would almost certainly have been used on them, as they were from the Mendip quarries.

 

cheers  

[flex2wees]

Not sure if it’s been discussed here but theres a rumour at work that the Coal Hoppers at Avonmouth BBHT have been sold. On site down there today and progress has started on the conveyor belt with approximately half of the lower end gone!