Rail nostalgia will get your gift shopping right on track

JUST in time for Christmas for the railway buff in your life, those lovely people at Yate-based 1st Take, producers of heritage and nostalgia films, have just brought out a new DVD all about Bristol’s railway stations, the old, the new, and many which no longer exist.

1st Take have been working with local railway historian Mike Oakley to produce a film which takes us on a tour of Bristol’s stations, including those which are no longer there, using modern film, rare historic photographs and archive film.

Mr Oakley, who has written a number of books on West Country railway stations, is your guide.

We start at Temple Meads, and end, appropriately enough at Parkway, where they’re now electrifying the line to London.

In between, it looks at all the others, many of which have, or used to have, quite distinct roles.

Stapleton Road, for instance, was for a long time the main Bristol station for South Wales and south coast trains not calling at Temple Meads.

It was also an exchange point for passengers on the Clifton Down to Avonmouth line who wished to change to South Wales trains.

Suburban stations were often mainly there for travel to and from workplaces a few miles further out, for instance Robertson’s Jam Factory in Brislington, Avonmouth Docks and Filton aircraft works.

Other stations were important for leisure travel – Clifton Down (for the Zoo) or Severn Beach (for, well, Severn Beach). And naturally we visit Bitton Station, now the home of the Avon Valley Railway.

We thought we’d take you on a quick rattle around the stations of yesteryear, with some photos from the film supplied by 1st Take, plus a handful of our own recent finds from the Post archive.

NB: At BT we always get slightly nervous when writing anything about old trains and railways as there are lots of readers out there who know more than we do.

So we’d like to stress that any mistakes are ours alone, and not the responsibility of 1st Take or Mr Oakley …

All photos courtesy of Mike Oakley/1st Take unless stated otherwise.

» ‘Bristol Railway Stations’ is available now, price £14.95, and should be available from local outlets including Waterstones (Galleries and Cribbs Causeway), Bristol Tourist Information Centre (Harbourside), Avon Valley Railway, Shirehampton Post Office, Staple Hill Post Office, Winterbourne Post Office and Sandy Park Post Office (Brislington). For more information or to order online, see www.1st-