Diesel shunter by road

[whole diary]

[swrural]

I hope this is not pedantic -St Philips or St Philips Marsh.  They are about a mile apart and both locations are capable of stalling an engine I think.  The one at the first location is near the old wagon repair works where the original MR^▸ (Midland Railway) line branched off.

[TonyK]

Ooh, you got me there, swrural. The depot in Albert Road, by the fruit market, is the one.

[swrural]

Ooh, you got me there, swrural. The depot in Albert Road, by the fruit market, is the one.

Well hopefully not too pedantic then, as the spotters who read this can be saved a helluva long walk for nothing!

Ah, Albert Road.  My late F.I.L. was a driver with the Corporation at the depot there and lived in Lewis St.  However, all the Marsh people were re-housed in the fifties to the edges of the city.  The said Bristol CC bought some very expensive snow clearing machines from Switzerland (like the one in the Bond film that chews up his attacker and spews red snow).  The problem was that, in '63, the snows were so bad that the drivers could no longer reach the depot from way out at Brislington.  Previously they had but a short trudge down the road.

They were useless anyway, he told me, because they were designed to shift dry alpine snow whereas the British variety simply clogged up the machines.

Hope that was of interest.  There used to be literally hundreds of steam engines at SPM^▸ (St Philip's Marsh (Bristol depot)) but, then, just a few boys on bikes would visit.  Now, they have phalanxes of snappers and video fiends turn up, just for one engine!

[TonyK]

I live within earshot, which is not a problem at all. Occasionally, I will hear a very short toot of a horn in the wee small hours as a train leaves the depot to take up position for the first trip of the day, but generally, they make less noise than the A4 Bath Road.

In terms of rail vehicles being transported by road, I can recall seeing 3 of the carriages from the train that derailed at Newton Abbot on low loaders, turning left out of West Town Lane onto the A4, en route to St Phillips Marsh. Quite a surreal sight on a weekday afternoon, but I think the damage was such that they could not have been taken by rail in anycase.

[The SprinterMeister]

The shunter at Long Rock gets regular use in connection with the sleeper stock from the Night Riviera.

Correct. In fact after the accident at Mexico Crossing (far end of Long Rock) propelling the sleepers to and from the station is frowned upon.

The 08 has been out of action for a couple of months, looks like its back again.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Purely for the benefit of our newer readers, and for ease of future reference, the sad accident at Mexico Crossing is discussed at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=9571.0 

[GBM]

The SprinterMeister - why is propelling frowned on? I'm not aware of any public crossings between the station and the depot at Longrock.  The public crossing at Longrock is after the depot, towards St Erth.