The GWR Bristol to Bath line through the years

Colin G Maggs MBE takes us through the creation of this railway in 1840 as the westernmost 12½ miles of the first Great Western Railway main line and highlights some significant moments in its first 125 years, and beyond.

Colin G Maggs MBE takes us through the creation of this railway in 1840 as the westernmost 12½ miles of the first Great Western Railway main line, and highlights some significant moments in its first 125 years, and beyond.

It was Bristol merchants who built the line to London, their city, the country’s second largest, being 110 miles distant from the capital but some 672 miles by sea. Rivers and the Kennet & Avon Canal combined to provide a shorter, albeit slow waterway, but at times of ice or drought, passage was problematic, thus as early as 1824 a railway to London was simply shouting to be made, the very latest form of transport considered essential.

After several false starts, the Great Western Railway Act received the Royal Assent on 31 August 1835. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, engineer to the GWR, appointed George E Frere as resident engineer to the Bristol end of the scheme (work on the 118 mile line would also begin in London) and the autumn and winter of 1835 saw the purchase of most of the required land between Bristol and Bath. March 1836 saw the first contract let – to construct the line between Bristol and Keynsham, William Ranger starting work the following month. In the interests of economy, the contract stated that stone for the construction of Avon Bridge, Bristol should come from the tunnels. In the event, Ranger proved to lack both capital and energy, and failed to keep to the timetable, time lost including the Monday, 23 April 1838 clash between 300 navvies, those engaged at No 3 tunnel to the west of Keynsham, mostly from Devon and the lower parts of Somerset, being set upon by men primarily from Gloucestershire. The rallying cry of onslaught was ‘Gloucester against Devon’, with the belief that the men of the latter were working under price. Various dangerous weapons were to hand, the insubordination continuing for several days and requiring military intervention, with several men dangerously hurt and one taken to the infirmary, although mercifully no one was killed.

The contract with Ranger included a clause that in the event of his work being unsatisfactory the GWR could seize his plant and take over the works, which occurred in July 1838, although a legal battle then ensued. Nevertheless, by August 1839 the GWR directors reported that good progress had been made on the works and some sections were ready for track-laying; 62lb/yard bridge rail on longitudinal sleepers. These were kyanised – saturated in bichloride of mercury solution for preservation; this was one of the last sections of track to use this process as creosoting was soon found to be superior.

It is worth noting that the first section of GWR main line had opened on 4 June 1838 between Paddington and Maidenhead; on 1 July 1839 it was extended to Twyford; and Reading was reached on 30 March 1840, thus giving a total distance of 35¾ miles, with a 20½ mile extension to Steventon poised to open on 1 June. Meanwhile, in May 1840 the GWR encountered another legal problem with its Bristol to Bath section, this time with the village of Newton St Loe. The GWR had diverted part of the Bristol to Bath turnpike road and in doing so blocked the direct route from Newton to Bath. The Newton waywarden gave notice that he would cut through the obstruction, which he did, and the lane remained open for a few weeks until the GWR filled the gap and constructed an 8ft high wall. The waywarden applied for another magistrates’ order and cut through to the main road, but the GWR blocked it once more. The Bath Chronicle on 2 July 1840 reported: ‘For some days a large force was employed by both sides, one party in cutting a channel through and the other filing it up. So great was the number of men employed by the GWR that, on April 8, a waggon got into the cutting and was half covered up before it could get through.’ Eventually the GWR tailed off the embankment in a satisfactory manner.

The work most in arrears was the skew bridge across the river Avon immediately west of the Bath station site. Difficulties arose with tenders for the ironwork and, with a view to faster completion, Brunel opted to construct it of laminated timber – each rib was made up of five horizontal layers of kyanised timber held together by bolts and iron straps; it was Brunel’s only bridge of this type.

While a further westbound extension was opened through to Faringdon Road from 20 July 1840, further west early August saw six of Daniel Gooch’s new ‘Fire Fly’ class 2-2-2s arrive in readiness for opening of the line from Bristol – Arrow and Dart were built by Stothert, Slaughter & Co in Bristol, while Fire Ball and Spit Fire arrived by sea. These locomotives gave rise to great enthusiasm – the Bath Chronicle on 27 August 1840 reported that ‘The sharp, shrill scream of the

steam whistle and the rapid beatings of the locomotive engine in its experimental and other trips – new sounds to our city – now give notice to our fellow citizens that the Railway between Bath and Bristol is on the eve of actually being opened’, and the Bristol Standard enthused of a Friday, 21 August sighting, ‘During the past week many splendid runs have been made on the line by the powerful engines already here. On Friday last we saw a locomotive, which had a large party of gentlemen, including Mr Brunel and some of the Directors, at a rate of 60 miles per hour from Bristol to Bath and on their return the distance was done in 16½ minutes, exclusive of stops.’

The line opened on 31 August 1840, the Bristol Standard reporting: ‘Precisely at half past seven the hoarding which had closed up the passenger entrance at the northern gate fell inwards, and formed a platform leading to a graveled path over which we were the first of the public who walked towards the booking office. Having paid our money we proceeded up a flight of stairs which led us to the passengers’ starting platform. The railway guards dressed in handsome liveries, were in attendance and with the utmost promptitude, passengers were shown into the carriages.’

The station at Bath was hardly started, so a temporary affair on the site of the later Westmoreland goods yard sufficed. The first down train left Bath soon after 9.30am, drawn by Arrow. It was over 30 minutes late due to a defective wheel on a second class coach, and then, after it had set off, the alarm was raised that one of its coaches was on fire! A stop was made at Twerton to examine the train and it was discovered that a wheel grating on the under part of the carriage was generating sparks; this design fault occurred to several trains during the day.

Acknowledged as the fastest engine, on one trip Arrow drew a train from Bath to Bristol in 13 minutes, and steam was shut off at the entrance to Bristol No 2 tunnel, letting the train coast for a distance of 1¾ miles. All the opening day trains were crowded, the up trains departing Bristol on the hour between 8am and 8pm. A total of 5,880 passengers were carried that day, with £476 taken in fares, which compared favorably with the £226 taken when the GWR opened between Paddington and Maidenhead. Takings comprised: Bristol £223-17s-1½d; Keynsham £21-14s-0d, and Bath £230-19s-0d.

In 1840 the service offered between Bath and Bristol was ten trains each way daily, the fastest taking 25 minutes for the 11¾ miles, including a stop at Keynsham. With the

opening of Saltford and Twerton stations, from 16 December, an extra train was added in each direction. The six-wheel first class coaches had four compartments, and each of these was sub-divided by a central partition that could each contain four passengers. The second class coaches were similar, roofed but open at the sides above waist levels, so the wise did not seek a seat by the door if it was raining. Each of the six compartments held 12 passengers. When partially concealed by a doorway, the ‘splashers’ of the 4ft diameter wheels protruding above the coach floors of both classes could cause an unwary passenger to make an undignified exit, especially if they happened to collide with a pillar close to the platform edge, such as was found at Bath or Bristol. The first engines in the area were 2-2-2s of the ‘Fire Fly’ and ‘Sun’ classes – the latter with 6ft diameter driving wheels instead of 7ft. Alarmingly, ‘Sun’ class Antelope burst one of its boiler tubes at Twerton on 12 June 1841.

Construction progress from the east had seen two more sections of railway completed – Faringdon Road to Hay Lane on 17 December 1840, and Hay Lane to Chippenham on 31 May 1841, so only the 13 miles from Chippenham, through Box to Bath remained to be completed. That grand event occurred on 30 June 1841, which also saw third class passengers carried for the first time, and the number of trains between Bristol and Bath was increased to 15. At Bath and Bristol, in an attempt to offset stagecoach losses, omnibuses and coaches acted as feeders to the railway.

Third class coaches were open trucks with one concession to comfort – drainage holes in the floor so that passengers did not have to paddle in wet weather, albeit the holes were a mixed blessing as they caused a draught. Most trains were allowed 30 minutes for the journey. A note in the timetables stated that London time was kept at all stations, which was about 11 minutes before Bristol and Bath time; due to the inconvenience of local time being different from railway time, Greenwich time was adopted at Bristol on 14 September 1852.

One of the first excursions in the district was a train from Bristol to Paddington at £1-1s-0d – half the normal fare – on 29 September 1842. Proving popular, it carried 700-800 passengers and had to be double-headed; and fares of regular services were under scrutiny too.

The passing of Gladstone’s Regulation of Railways Act on 9 August 1844 required all companies operating passenger services to run at least one train each way calling at all stations and at a fare not exceeding a penny a mile. Unfortunately, not everyone knew of this provision. On 14 March 1845 John Jonathan, a wire worker aged about 50, travelled to Bath in an open third class coach on the 10.10am train from Bristol. In an effort to keep warm he had worn two pairs of trousers, two waistcoats, two body coats, and a woollen scarf, but on arrival at Bath was frozen stiff and unable to leave the coach without assistance from porter John Fennell. After the train left, Fennell assisted him down the stairs to street level. Before crossing Dorchester Street John Jonathan collapsed and was taken to a chemist’s, where he died. As finances were too slender for them both to travel by train, Mrs Jonathan had walked from Bristol and on arrival was told of her husband’s death. The jury brought in a verdict ‘That his death was accelerated by the inclemency of the weather to which he was exposed in a third class carriage of the Great Western Railway Company, the weather being unusually severe for March.’ Ironically, a closed third class carriage had been included in the rake of coaches.

When the main line between Bristol and London was fully opened, in June 1841, goods traffic was probably handled by ‘Leo’ class 2-4-0s, while ‘Premier’ class 0-6-0s appeared in 1846 and became the basic design for subsequent goods engines. In the same year an enlarged ‘Fire Fly’ 2-2-2, Great Western, emerged and ran from London (Paddington) to Exeter in 3 hours 28 minutes, compared with the five hours taken by a ‘Fire Fly’. It was subsequently found to have too much weight on the front axle, so its frames were lengthened and made a 4-2-2. In 1847 similar but slightly larger engines were built, forming the ‘Iron Duke’ class. In size and power they were the largest engines in the country, working the principal Paddington-Bristol expresses and burning about 35lb of coke a mile.

Travelling to see the Great Exhibition in 1851 gave some their first experience of a railway journey, one excursion in August carrying 1,400 passengers in 28 coaches! Fourday returns cost 8s-8d or day returns 5s-0d, the later allowing no luggage. Another milestone was achieved on 1 February 1855 when the world’s first exclusive postal train ran between Paddington and Bristol, drawn by a ‘Fire Fly’ 2-2-2 – the service did not carry passengers until June 1869, when one first class carriage was attached. From 1871 the ‘Iron Duke’ 4-2-2s were replaced by new engines of the same design but with a weatherboard to offer crews a certain amount of shelter. Locomotives of the class that left the works in 1873 had iron-roofed cabs to offer even more protection but in service these rattled severely and so in 1876 wooden roofs became standard.

The line between Bristol and Bathampton had a standard gauge rail added to the broad gauge in June 1874, contemporary with the narrowing of the broad gauge lines to Salisbury and Weymouth. The first standard gauge trains ran from Swindon to Bristol on 21 June 1874, and necessarily they ran via Trowbridge as the main line between Thingley Junction and Bathampton was still only broad gauge. With the end of the broad gauge in sight, Armstrong’s 0-6-0STs, which appeared in 1876, were the first GWR convertibles, some of those on passenger duty being altered to 2-4-0T to allow freer running. Early in 1876 third class coaches had just one lamp to illuminate seven compartments, and while the lighting problem could be solved by a trip to the station bookstall to purchase a lamp fitted with rubber suckers to stick to the window, a problem not so easily solved was that of space. A letter writer to the Bath Chronicle complained of a compartment, ‘So narrow was it that to find room for one’s knees was a mathematical problem of some difficulty’. In December 1877 two six-wheel sleeping cars commenced running between Paddington and Penzance. Initially, each had two sleeping compartments, one for seven men and the other for four ladies, but these arrangements were disliked and replaced, in 1881, by six two-berth compartments offering more privacy.

Although the Severn Tunnel was opened in 1886 it was not until early 1887 that the Paddington-South Wales trains were diverted via Bath and Bristol, instead of around via Gloucester. The last public broad gauge train from Bristol proved to be the up mail service that left at 12.45am on 21 May 1892 and was hauled by ‘Rover’ class 4-2-2 Bulkeley.

Inevitably, given the importance of the main line through Bath to Bristol, practically all classes of standard gauge GWR engine worked over the line at one time or another, especially before the Castle Cary to Cogload Junction cut-off was fully opened in May 1906 as a shorter route to and from the West Country. In 1894 Dean’s ‘Armstrong’ class 4-4-0s appeared and worked the heavier expresses, while it was G J Churchward’s re-boilering of ‘Atbara’ No 3405 Mauritius in 1902 that paved the way for the ‘Cities’. The January to April 1902 timetable shows 36 trains each way between Bristol and Bath, with 12 on Sundays. Non-stop down trains were allowed 22 minutes, and stopping trains 35 minutes; up figures were 17 and 30 minutes respectively.

Two-cylinder 4-6-0 No 100 (later No 2900) William Dean appeared in February 1902, which was followed by two other prototypes, Nos 98 and 171, which effectively led to the ‘Saint’ class (built between 1905 and 1913) to take over the principal expresses. One of the first ‘foreign’ engines to appear on the line was in about 1903 when Great Central Railway 4-4-2 No 192 worked a train from Manchester to Plymouth, a 174 mile trip each way. The October saw the delivery of French four-cylinder de Glehn Compound 4-4-2 No 102 La France for evaluation trials under G J Churchward; the slightly larger Nos 103 President and 104 Alliance followed in 1905, and all worked through Bath. In the event Churchward chose to build a Simple engine with the de Glehn cylinder arrangement and produced a masterpiece that was the basis of all subsequent large GWR passenger engines – No 40 (later No 4000) North Star appeared in 1906 for comparison with the French Atlantics, but was converted to a 4-6-0 in 1909, as were the 13 production ‘Saints’ that were originally 4-4-2s, and the erstwhile No 171, which became No 2971 Albion and then The Pirate and served as an Atlantic between October 1904 and July 1907.

By 1909 no less than 50 trains ran each way daily between Bath and Bristol, and day trips could be adventurous – during that year one ran from Bath to Ireland, leaving Bath at 6.32pm on Friday evening and returning the following day. Fares to Wexford were 8s-3d, Dublin 12s-0d, Waterford 10s-0d, and Cork and Killarney 12s-6d, with 11 hours enjoyed at the latter location. By this stage the ‘Stars’ were in production, and these seamlessly led to Charles Collett’s ‘Castles’ from August 1923. The standardization practice set in motion by Churchward across the locomotive fleet remained in an evolved form under Collett, but for much of the 1930s some variety was forthcoming once the traditional practice of Southern Railway/GWR locomotive changes at Salisbury on the Portsmouth-Bristol-Cardiff route ended on some services. This saw SR locomotives pass through Bath on weekday evenings with a regular service to and from Bristol (Temple Meads) – Drummond ‘T9’, ‘D15’ and ‘L12’ 4-4-0s were all recorded, and the latter part of the decade saw Maunsell ‘U’ class Moguls similarly used.

At various times Great Western Railway slip coaches ran into Bath after being detached from down trains. Circa 1925 two coaches were slipped at Bath at 1pm from the 11.15am Paddington to Weston-super-Mare service. After passengers had stepped out, two

shunting horses drew the coaches into one of the two centre roads before they were taken onwards to Bristol; they returned from there to London. These services were withdrawn during World War II.

As many men went off to join the military services, women filled their jobs – an advertisment for women porters at Bristol (Temple Meads) received 250 applicants. In addition to their normal jobs, railwaymen were given the task of being on a firewatching rota so that in the event of incendiary bombs falling, they could either remove the danger with a shovel, douse the flames with a stirrup pump, or summon the fire brigade. Other railwaymen during their ‘spare time’ joined the Home Guard and were on duty patrolling goods yards, bridges and tunnels against attack by either German saboteurs or paratroops. When not working, fire watching, or on Home Guard duty, many of the men were likely to be found working on a lineside allotment growing vegetables to eke out the food ration.

Soon after the evacuation of Dunkirk in June 1940, when the threat of invasion was very real, station nameboards were removed – as were sign posts – in order to make it more difficult for invading forces to identify where they were. Being a vital railway centre, Temple Meads did not escape unscathed as it was a prime German target, and several locations on the railway to Bath also suffered. The first Luftwaffe raid was on 25 June 1940 when passenger coaches and an ambulance train were damaged at Temple Meads, while a bomb fell on Cross Post bridge west of Twerton tunnel, blocking both the road and railway, three of the transverse girders having to be replaced. On 24 November 1940 Temple Meads station received three direct hits, blocking several lines. Similar damage was caused on 2 December, and just four days later the 7.10pm service to Salisbury received a direct hit as it departed platform 6, killing 15 passengers and seriously injuring 23 others. The driver of Churchward 2-6-0 No 4358 was killed and his fireman seriously

injured. Meanwhile, in the same raid a bomb fell close to the eastern portal of Bristol No 2 (or St Anne’s Park) tunnel, damaging a coach of a Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff express and affecting the water supply of the distant locomotive sheds.

On 3 January 1941 incendiary bombs fell on Bristol (Temple Meads) station; it was thought that all were extinguished, but one, overlooked behind the tower clock, started a fire that burned out the booking offices. On 16/17 March 1941 the refreshment room on platform 4 was damaged. Several months later a very different drama played out on 9 October 1941 when an RAF twin-engine Westland ‘Whirlwind’ fighter aircraft crashed in the goods yard at Saltford, embedding itself in the weighbridge pit and killing the pilot; a rabbit’s foot found in the cockpit had failed to bring him luck.

Bombs struck the line between Twerton tunnel and Bath in no fewer than nine places during the three Baedeker raids on

25/26 April 1942. Some 100ft of the 30ft-high viaduct wall on the up side at Twerton was demolished. The down line was temporarily supported on longitudinal sleepers to achieve re-opening on 28 April, with crossovers inserted each side of the breach so that, for a short distance, up traffic could work over the down line; subsequently, 15 May 1942 saw a temporary bridge opened to carry the up line across the gap. Westmoreland goods depot and the small locomotive depot also received damage, and 60ft of the east end of the down platform at the nearby Bath station was also destroyed; for a few hours all four tracks were blocked.

Due to the short length of the platforms at Bath, the 16-coach Paddington-Bristol expresses needed to draw up twice. In the blackout a sailor, towards the rear of a long train from Portsmouth Harbour that exceeded the platform lengths, stepped out on to the bridge balcony. Taking a further stride, he fell into the river and was dragged down by the weight of his kit. Fortunately the mishap did not have a fatal ending, but, heeding the warning, a fence was erected along the parapet to prevent repetition.

World War II also had its effect on locomotive stock as the War Department had requisitioned 100 GWR ‘Dean Goods’ 0-6-0s – they were replaced by 40 class ‘2F’ and ‘3F’ 0-6-0s from the London, Midland & Scottish

Railway, and some of these, more familiar at that company’s Green Park terminus in Bath, appeared on the Great Western route through Bath. Meanwhile, the Stanier ‘8F’ 2-8-0 of the LMS was adopted as the standard heavy freight locomotive for the war effort and Swindon Works was required to build LMS Nos 8400-79, all of which were on loan to the GWR and visited the line. In addition, 175 of the United States Army Transportation Corps ‘S160’ 2-8-0s built in the USA for the US Army and temporarily allocated to the GWR arrived between January 1943 and February 1944. Ambulance trains were generally headed by London & North Eastern Railway Holden ‘B12/3’ class 4-6-0s, which were equipped with the necessary Westinghouse braking equipment and were light enough to travel over most lines in the country. They were frequently seen in the area in the summer of 1944, following D-Day.

Post-war, the first slip coach working arrived at Bath on 6 May 1946, the slip portion of the 9.05am Paddington-Temple Meads usually of at least three coaches; they were useful for Admiralty personnel travelling to visit offices relocated to Bath during the war. Just as World War I saw Britain’s railways under state control and post-war change come about through the Railways Act of 1921, the subsequent conflict and state of the nation’s ‘Big Four’ railways led to the Transport Act of 1947, with the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission known as British Railways, the nationalised railway. Of course, much seemed not to change, at least initially, but new branding and liveries, and then the British Railways Standard classes, were exceptions – the first Standard class to appear on the Bristol to Bath line was the ‘7MT’ class ‘Britannia’, the author seeing No 70017 Arrow on a running-in turn on 10 August 1951. Appropriately, those initially allocated to the Western Region bore names of broad gauge engines, with the original Arrow used on the opening day between Bristol and Bath more than 110 years previously.

Dieselisation came in earnest on 6 April 1959 when stopping trains between Swindon and Weston-super-Mare, Bristol-Westbury and Weymouth passed over to three-car diesel-multiple-units, and during that year Swindon-built diesel-hydraulic B-B ‘Warship’ class locomotives headed Bristol (Temple Meads) to London (Paddington) expresses. At this stage there were two titled trains operating through Bath as they plied between Bristol and London, traditionally with either a Collett ‘King’ or ‘Castle’ class 4-6-0 for haulage, the latter being more likely in later steam-hauled years (pre-1959). ‘The Bristolian’ began operation in 1935 to mark the centenary of the original Act of Parliament and didn’t stop at Bath, with the

up train not even passing through, and ‘The Merchant Venturer’, which ran from 3 May 1951, called at Bath and continued to run on a summer-only basis until September 1961. However, briefly there were three titled trains. Inaugurated on 3 October 1960, ‘The Bristol Pullman’ was a great innovation and unusual for several reasons. Firstly, Pullmans had been rare on the GWR and Western Region. Secondly, instead of being hauled by a traditional locomotive, ‘The Bristol Pullman’ had a diesel-electric power unit at each end of the train and so did not need an engine to be run-round at the end of a journey. Thirdly, the train’s livery was blue and white – a startling change from both the standard maroon of ordinary coaching stock and the umber and cream of traditional Pullmans. Between Bristol and Bath a supplementary charge of two shillings (first class) and one shilling (second class) was payable in addition to the usual fare. Sadly, although the riding quality of the Swiss-designed Shirer bogies was splendid with continental-length coaches, it failed to give a good ride with the shorter bodies of the British stock.

Until the 1960s and 1970s, the railway was very competitive, the price for a day return from Bath Spa to Temple Meads in 1963 being 3s-0d, compared with a bus return of 3s-6d, while Lodged Park to Temple Meads was only 2s-9d and a passenger had the option of returning to Bath Spa. Despite this, the postwar era showed declining receipts from freight and local passenger traffic, and this led to closures – Saltford to goods from 1 September 1959, Keynsham to goods from 29 November 1965, Bristol East Depot on 7 August 1967, and the complete closure of St Anne’s Park and Saltford stations on 5 January 1970. ‘The Bristol Pullman’ ceased on 4 May 1973, by which time ordinary Mk IID coaches had airconditioning, rode more comfortably than ‘The Bristol Pullman’ cars, and did not charge a supplement.

Akin to the erstwhile ‘Bristol Pullman’ in terms of its operation, the Temple MeadsPaddington High Speed Train (HST) service was launched on 4 October 1976 and by the 1980s long-distance commuting was increasingly common. These trains have proved to be long standing, lasting in re-engined form at full length until recent times, but also of note from the last years of British Rail was the 30 May 1994 introduction of a Carmarthen-Bristol-Bath-SalisburyWaterloo service to connect with Eurostar trains, as well as a Waterloo to Manchester (Piccadilly) service via Bath and Bristol. In a new era of privatization of the railways a fleet of trains was once again branded ‘Great Western’ from 4 February 1996, with Filton Abbey Wood station opening just over six weeks later, on 19 March, the station serving new government offices to which some officials from the Ministry of Defence at Bath were transferred, new train services from Bath being introduced to satisfy this traffic.

The reversal of station closures is increasingly an expensive business and for some years a pressure group has been making a case for re-opening Saltford station, but space for a car park could be a problem, as could finding ‘time’ for another stop, the line being very busy. Today, the only intermediate stations between Bath and Bristol are Oldfield Park (opened in 1929) and Keynsham, which dates back to 1840. The desire to fit electrified AC overhead wires and yet keep the charm of the older structures of a 180-year-old line has been a headache for Network Rail but, after much preparatory work, that job has been indefinitely deferred since November 2016.

Churchward ‘Star’ class 4-6-0 No 4028 arrives at Bristol (Temple Meads) from Weston-super-Mare with the up ‘Merchant Venturer’ to London (Paddington) in the train’s debut year, 1951, when the guild of Bristol merchants that backed the need for a railway between Bristol and London in the 1830s, and countless other improving and philanthropic activities for the city since perhaps the 13th century, was honoured by the naming of a titled train, which appropriately was inspired by the Festival of Britain event to promote British trade. Using a rake of brand new British Railways Mk I stock, the summer-only train was routed via Bath and long out-lived the festival on the South Bank, returning each summer through to 1961. The train has just passed under Bath Road, which gave its name to the engine shed that is just in view on the left. The locomotive dates from September 1909, and although un-named between November 1940 and its final withdrawal in November 1951, it has a history of namings – King John (until July 1927), The Romanian Monarch (until November 1927) and then Romanian Monarch. The issues were the creation of a ‘King’ class, a grammatical change of heart, and then wartime sensibilities. The up train departed Weston-super-Mare at 4.35pm and enjoyed a locomotive change at Bristol, a ‘Castle’ class 4-6-0 traditionally being used on the main leg.

J Harris An engraving by J Harris, self published as ‘South east view of the Great Western Railway terminus, Bristol’, records the building, circa 1842, with the station frontage and length of the premises listed as 148ft and 420ft respectively. Facing out on to Temple Gate, the departure side is through the left-hand arch, with the arrival side on the right. The tower surmounted by a flag staff is a water tank for hydraulic lifts, the platforms being in the upper storey of the building beyond the arrival archway. Notice the disc and crossbar signal on the extreme right.

George Meason The GWR trainshed at Bristol, circa 1850, with a ‘Fire Fly class 2-2-2 just arrived. At coach roof level on the left is a sign ‘Up Train From Exeter’. One of the men in the centre of the view has a three-link coupling over his shoulder. Pre-dating photography, it is engravings and lithographs such as this that record the earliest days of this railway, this particular example appearing in The Illustrated Guide to the GWR. Isambard Kingdom Brunel was the engineer for both the GWR and the Bristol & Exeter Railway, hence they were both built to his broad gauge of 7ft 0¼in, allied and ultimately amalgamated, trains from the west initially reversing into the Bristol terminus due to its alignment towards London, Bristol was linked to Bridgwater from 14 June 1841; to Taunton from 1 July 1842; to Beam Bridge from 1 May 1843; and to Exeter from 1 May 1844. So Bath was the first destination from Bristol, by GWR from 31 August 1840, followed by Bridgwater (B&ER), and then the GWR line through to London was completed on 30 June 1841.

George Meason Looking north from Beechen Cliff circa 1850, the railway and its position in relation to the ancient city of Bath is beautifully illustrated. To the bottom left is St Mark’s church, with Brunel’s laminated wooden-built Skew Bridge across the river Avon to its immediate right, this bringing the railway in from Bristol, and indeed a train for Bristol is departing from the station. Boasting an impressive trainshed, the railway’s course through the station runs on a sweeping arc at an elevated height above the streets, and the river Avon is immediately crossed again to the east of the station, by St James’ bridge, with Sydney Gardens beyond. Easy to pick-out within the cityscape is Bath Abbey, which was founded in the 7th century and most recently rebuilt in the 16th century, although major restoration work was now due.

John Marshall Collection/ Kidderminster Railway Museum With the merits of broad gauge versus Stephenson’s narrow (4ft 8½in) gauge thrashed out and the ever-increasing railway network hindered by transhipment where these met, sea change came when the Railway Regulation (Gauge) Act of August 1846 stated that all new railway construction, with the exception of south-west England and certain lines in Wales, had to be to the standard gauge – henceforth, practically, the broad gauge had a limited future. A milestone event was the completion of the last ‘Iron Duke’ renewal or ‘Rover’ class 4-2-2 Tornado in July 1888 as the last new GWR broad gauge locomotive. It is seen here on Bristol shed. Boasting 8ft driving wheels, 24 ‘Rovers’ were created from 1871; the first three may well have re-used parts from withdrawn locomotives, but the subsequent engines were new. Tornado would ultimately be credited with 192,203 miles, its time limited to less than four years of service before the GWR’s main line system was entirely standard gauge.

V R Webster/Kidderminster Railway Museum Interconnectivity with neighbouring railways led the GWR programme of narrowing the gauge, and inevitably operational practicality saw the need to cater for both gauges on some routes, at least in the short term, such as between Bristol, Bath and Bathampton when the route south from there to Westbury became standard gauge in June 1874, nearly 18 years before the main line was likewise ‘narrowed’. This April 1891 scene records an up broad gauge main line train from Bristol nearing Bathampton behind former Vale of Neath Railway 2-4-0 No 14. The coaches are convertible stock, so their gauge would be changed in the future. The mixed gauge was created by adding an extra rail to the baulk road of the main running lines, and a narrow (standard) gauge line, probably a siding, is on the right. The locomotive was completed by Vulcan Foundry in December 1856, was added to GWR stock a decade later, and would see use until June 1872.

R S Carpenter Photos As early as 1876 George Armstrong and William Dean, in the locomotive departments at Wolverhampton and Swindon respectively, were looking to balance the current and future needs of a network of GWR main lines made up of two gauges, and this gave rise to ‘convertible’ engines that could have their gauge changed in line with evolving requirements. GWR No 1205, seen on 4 April 1891 at Bristol (Temple Meads), was one of 20 Armstrong ‘Standard Goods’ 0-6-0s that went through this process twice. They were completed at Swindon Works between May and October 1876 as ‘narrow’ gauge locomotives, but between February 1884 and June 1888 were newly-outshopped with broad gauge axles, and thus the wheels were now outside of the frames, as seen. The use of available broad gauge tenders on locomotives with a narrow width cab gave them an unusual look, and in due course all saw the reversal of the process in 1892 for continued work after the end of the broad gauge, with No 1205 back to 4ft 8½in gauge from the September.

J Randford Collection/Kidderminster Railway Museum A circa 1906 view at Bath station records ‘3521’ class 4-4-0 No 3540 facing Bristol and berthed in the centre road with a stopping train, its crew posing proudly for the camera. This class has an extraordinary history, with Nos 3521-40 built in 1887-89 as standard gauge 0-4-2Ts, while Nos 3541-60 date from 1888/89 as broad gauge ‘convertible’ 0-4-2STs, with the latter modified to 0-4-2T in 1890/91 and then converted to standard gauge in 1892. The tinkering continued until by 1899 the 40 engines were all 0-4-4Ts with a tendency to derail, and so a programme of conversion to 4-4-0s ensued – No 3540 was duly outshopped in September 1900, and subsequently it had a boiler upgrade in 1910 (to Standard No 3), was superheated from November 1912, and then served in that form until finally withdrawn in November 1927.

William Dean was Locomotive Superintendent to the GWR from 1877 through to his retirement in 1902, by which time his poor health led to an increasing involvement from his engineering colleague G J Churchward, who would succeed him. They clearly worked together and No 100, named Dean in June 1902 to honour the retiring locomotive engineer, showed the way ahead. It is seen in original form on Bristol’s Bath Road locomotive shed sometime between June and November 1902, when the nameplates would be changed to read William Dean. The domeless parallel boiler with raised Belpaire firebox seen here was later replaced by a taper boiler, while superheating was added in 1910. In a sense, this was a test bed for the evolving ideas of Churchward in terms of long-term top link power for the GWR, and after two more prototypes, and evaluation of the 4-6-0 in relation to the Atlantic wheel arrangement, the two-cylinder production ‘Saints’ were the next (albeit ongoing) phase. William Dean became No 2900 in 1912 and ultimately served until 1932.

SLS Collection While the Brunel’s Bristol terminus of 1840 fitted the era, it was not long before its operational limitations were met and a joint station capable of meeting the increasing needs of three railways – the GWR, Bristol & Exeter and Midland – was being considered, albeit the pictured two platform station did have to suffice for more than 37 years. Of course that was entirely in the broad gauge era, while this view records the subsequent standard gauge lines that were laid, hence there is rather more room between them. Although captured on film in a quiet period during GWR days, such was the rise in traffic that investment in Bristol’s railway infrastructure – passenger, goods and locomotive facilities – was barely able to match rising demands, and that situation pertained through to the 1930s. It would be many years before this historic trainshed would see its last train.

Calling at Bath with an up service is French-built 4-4-2 No 102 La France, its elegant lines unlike anything previously seen on the GWR. Impressed by the de Glehn Compounds of the Chemins de Fer du Nord, Churchward commissioned this Atlantic primarily to evaluate the benefit of compounding, but it also had Walschaerts’ valve gear. Built for the GWR by Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques (Works No 5409), delivery was in October 1903. With the builder’s plate moved from cab-side to splasher to allow the GWR brass number and a name to be added, other changes are the GWR chimney and tender, and the black livery was replaced by green in 1905. La France had two low pressure inside cylinders to power the front driving wheels, while the high pressure outside cylinders drove the rear set. As part of its evaluation, La France worked alongside the ‘Atbara’ and ‘City’ class 4-4-0s on the best express work. In the event, it was felt that, economically speaking, the French locomotives – two more followed in 1905 – did not offer a vast improvement over Churchward’s own prototype, No 171 Albion, which was converted from 4-6-0 to Atlantic for direct comparison, and so adopting compounding was not in the frame, albeit other lessons were learned and taken forward. Meanwhile, No 102 remained in GWR service through to October 1926.

Awaiting departure from Bristol (Temple Meads) is the now celebrated (and preserved) ‘City’ class 4-4-0 No 3440 City of Truro. The date is circa 1906-08 and its (now) famous run on the up Ocean Mails from Plymouth Mill Bay to London (Paddington) was back in May 1904, but train-timer Charles Rous-Marten, riding on the train and most likely stunned by his calculation of a speed of 102.3mph down Wellington bank, was effectively still barred from spreading the news of such a ‘dangerous’ speed. It would be the 1920s before anything more than hints of a three-figure record could be found. Despite their undisputed speed capabilities, the ‘City’ class were double-framed engines of a earlier time but with early practical improvements by Churchward, and with the better adhesion of six-coupled locomotives now clearly evident, especially with train weights building, the days of 4-4-0s on the very best work were numbered and they ultimately would succumb to the abilities of the ‘Saints’ and the four-cylinder ‘Stars’. The Bath Spa slip coach has been detached from a Paddington to Bristol express and is in the control of the guard when captured in this mid-1930s view, two vehicles following at a respectable distance behind the train from which they were released. Careful application of the brake will ensure a silent and serene arrival in the platform. Brake hose design ensured that they remained coupled only when they hung down in a loop, so when the guard operated the apparatus to unhook the carriage coupling, the hoses were pulled into a straight line and gently separated. Valves then shut off the pipe and an auxiliary air reservoir, similar to that on the engine, provided a reliable and safe means for the guard to bring the carriage to a halt.

SLS Collection The old and the new parts of Bristol (Temple Meads) station are seen in an undated view, but most likely in Edwardian days given that a taper boiler 4-4-0 appears to be awaiting departure from Brunel’s original terminus, the smaller structure to the right of the signal box. The photographer is at the east (London) end of the station, not far from the railway’s crossing of the Floating Harbour. From right to left, the clear running line on the far right leads to the harbour branch, with barely a suggestion of the goods lines of the massive but unseen Temple Meads goods depot to its right. The Brunel trainshed, by this date in slightly extended form, has two trains awaiting departure, and to the left of the signal box is the Joint station. Designed by Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt, the new trainshed dwarfs its predecessor with a span of 125ft, its 1 January 1878 opening increasing capacity to seven platforms, although space gained in the 1892 conversion to standard gauge then found room for an additional island platform. Later expansion would come from adopting land unseen to the left, but that would be a protracted process.

Author’s Collection

Author’s Collection Churchward ‘4300’ class 2-6-0 No 4358 outside Bristol East signal box; it was working the 7.10pm service to Salisbury on Sunday, 6 October 1940 when a bomb exploded beside the locomotive, killing the driver and severely injuring the fireman. Another bomb struck the second coach, resulting in 15 lives being lost and serious injury for 23 other passengers. Dating from April 1914, incredibly this locomotive would be returned to service, ultimately being withdrawn on 11 August 1959 from Gloucester (Horton Road) shed.

Author’s Collection Travelling in the up direction on the down line, Collett ‘King’ class 4-6-0 No 6001 King Edward VII cautiously hauls an inspection car across the damaged portion of Twerton viaduct soon after the Baedeker bombing raids of 25/26 April 1942. The down line would officially re-open on Tuesday, 28 April thanks to temporary repairs that allowed single-line working to take place, the installation of new crossovers aiding the efficiency of the operation, but as yet the situation in regard to full reopening was still being evaluated.

Author’s Collection In the aftermath of the Luftwaffe raid of 24 November 1940, wreckage of destroyed Great Western coaching stock is found in Dr Day’s Siding, their wooden bodies burned and lost. This is at the triangle of lines less than hlaf a mile east of Temple Meads station, these carriage sidings effectively on the inside of the west-to-north curve taken to reach Dr Days Junction and Filton, and variously east from there for Stoke Gifford and Badminton, straight ahead for the Severn Tunnel, or west for Henbury and Avonmouth. The distant wagons in view are in Kingsland Road sidings, which are south of the triangle’s west-to-east spur, the core Bristol to Bath main line.

Transport Treasury In one of the platforms built in the 1930s to the east of the Wyatt trainshed at Bristol (Temple Meads), bringing the total platforms up to 15, on 30 July 1954 we find BR Standard ‘Britannia’ Pacific No 70024 Vulcan on an up passenger service. New to Laira shed in February 1952 and remaining a Plymouth-based engine until transfer to Cardiff (Canton) in December 1956. As it was intended to be a Western Region member of the class it carries the name of one of the earliest broad gauge locomotives of the GWR – Vulcan was a 2-2-2 built by Charles Tayleur & Co, Vulcan Foundry, Newton-le-Willows (maker’s No 51); it was delivered to the GWR on 25 November 1837 and would finally cease work in April 1868, albeit converted to become a tank engine after 1846. In due course, the ‘Britannia’ fleet on the Western Region found new haunts, Vulcan reaching Aston, in Birmingham, on 10 September 1961, and so the broad gauge naming connection gradually faded from widespread knowledge.

Kidderminster Railway Museum Collection With Bristol (Temple Meads) in the background, in the first spring of a new era, that of the nationalised railway, on 14 March 1948 a massive track relaying operation is ongoing outside the modern brick and concrete-built Temple Meads East signal box, the projecting bay of its first floor operating room just in view on the right. It was one of three power boxes installed in the 1930s to cope with a newly-enlarged station and using colour light signals; East box alone had 368 miniature levers. A double scissors crossover has been completed at the side of the railway and, after being bodily skidded transversely by 160ft using manpower, it is now being slowly moved forward into position, hauled by wire ropes attached to two engines that are not shown in view, these working abreast on parallel tracks. Note the hand signals to the engine drivers.

R C Riley/Transport Treasury Although Bristol had Bath Road engine shed, ex-GWR and dedicated to passenger workings (with St Philips Marsh covering freight work), it is worth mentioning that much of the crack motive power of the expresses that passed along the Bath line was actually London-based. A regal example is Collett ‘King’ class 4-6-0 No 6015 King Richard III, which is seen passing St Anne’s Park station, a suburban stop less than two miles from Temple Meads, with an up express on 20 September 1955. Based at Old Oak Common shed, it remained there until dieselisation saw it seeking out work from Wolverhampton (Stafford Road) from May 1962.

R J Leonard/Kidderminster Railway Museum In terms of heavy freight, for several years the Bath line saw the regular use of Collett ‘7200’ 2-8-2Ts Nos 7202 and 7205, the former being seen here at Fox’s Wood troughs, between St Anne’s Park and Keynsham & Somerdale; the locomotive’s ATC shoe can be seen just clearing the troughs. These massive tank engines were based at Severn Tunnel Junction and were regularly booked on duties to Westbury and Salisbury. On this occasion, 9 March 1956, the head of the outward working has three loaded cattle wagons. No 7202 began life as Churchward ‘5205’ class 2-8-0T No 5277 in August 1930 but a downturn in coal traffic saw many of its class surplus to requirements, which led to Collett opting to lengthen them to create a class of long range tank engines with huge coal capacity – 54 were built between 1934 and 1939; they were rated ‘8F’ by BR.

Westinghouse Archive/Kidderminster Railway Museum The GWR ordered gas turbine electric locomotive No 18100 from Metropolitan-Vickers but it was delayed by World War II and so did not appear until 1951. Painted in black livery with a silver stripe and numerals, in the mid1950s it saw regular use on ‘The Merchant Venturer’ and is seen here arriving at Bath with the down duty, which traditionally departed Paddington at 11.15am. While a 3,000hp Co-Co running on aviation kerosene was certainly looking to the future when ordered, a power over economy philosophy was its downfall, being withdrawn in this form in early 1958, by which time the Modernisation Plan was formed and being acted out, albeit the Western Region was plying its own path. Note the wagon turntable to the right of the signal post, it was still still in use to access the up side goods yard at the station. Opposite, pannier tank No 7752 is in the bay.

Michael Mensing/Colour-Rail.com/DE209 BR Swindon-built diesel-hydraulic ‘Warship’ class B-B No D809 Champion arrives at Bristol (Temple Meads) with train 1204, the 8.45am London (Paddington) to Bristol (Temple Meads) ‘Bristolian’ in September 1959. Initially sped up for the introduction of diesels, this service was decelerated by five minutes, back to the old steam timings of 105 minutes, from 14 September 1959. The disc code indicates an express, class 1 train and the GWR pattern reporting number board provides the detail. New in August 1959 to Laira shed, Champion would only serve until October 1971, by which time the Western Region’s commitment to diesel-hydraulic rather diesel-electric traction was no longer supported by the British Railways Board.

Colour-Rail.com/323133 Against a rising tide of dieselisation, Collett ‘Castle’ class 4-6-0 No 4080 Powerham Castle, new to Old Oak Common shed in March 1924, looks to be in good external condition as it awaits departure from the London end of Bristol (Temple Meads) in 1960. The year saw it based at Newton Abbot, Shrewsbury and Cardiff (Canton) in search of work, and gallantly it soldiered on between new homes through to 10 August 1964, when withdrawn after about six weeks at Southall.

Kidderminster Railway Museum Collection With a history dating back to December 1922 when outshopped from Swindon as a Churchward ‘Star’, going on to be rebuilt as a Collett ‘Castle’ in July 1939, it is fair to say that the choice of well-travelled ‘Rebuilt Star’ No 5085 Evesham Abbey as motive power on the occasion of the last booked steam run for the up ‘Bristolian’ said much about the locomotive – it was ultimately credited with running in excess of 2.1 million miles when withdrawn in February 1964. Seen at Bristol (Temple Meads) on 12 June 1959, the milestone occasion, the 4-6-0 sports the post1956 version of the headboard, in chocolate and cream and adorned with the crests of both London and Bristol. Interestingly, the down working passed through Bath, but the up train headed for London via the Badminton route.

Russell Leitch/Colour-Rail.com/DE1588 A reminder that despite the arrival of modern diesel engines, the carriages that they hauled were still heated by steam. At the Exeter end of Bristol (Temple Meads) station the crew of BR Swindon-built ‘Warship’ class No D838 Rapid top up the water tank for the train heating boiler in February 1963, as the ‘Big Freeze’ associated with that winter continued all around. The chain hanging from the water column bag perhaps gives a clue as to how the paint has been damaged on the side of the locomotive.

R C Riley/Transport Treasury Bristol (Temple Meads) station was also host to London Midland Region services arriving in the city over the former Midland Railway route via Mangotsfield and Fishponds, with trains from the Midlands and from Bath (Green Park), where they met services from the Somerset & Dorset line. The terminus platforms were favoured for these and on Friday, 19 October 1962 Bescot-allocated LMS ‘Black Five’ class 4-6-0 No 44766 is probably underway with a train back to the Midlands, while BR Standard ‘3MT’ 2-6-2T No 82040 is likely lined up to work a local service to Bath (Green Park). The rather underwhelming single-track Midland terminus nearer the city centre at Bristol (St Philip’s) had been used by local services but, with the commercial activity that surrounded it heavily bombed in World War II and not rebuilt, it closed from 15 September 1952. In due course, Dr Beeching’s proposals hereabouts earmarked the withdrawal of services to Bath via the Midland route, which eventually occurred from 7 March 1966. This and other losses eventually led to the decommissioning of the Brunel trainshed.