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Bristol and north Somerset Railway remains from the bus...
As at 1st April 2025 21:06 BST
1.4.2025 - All running AOK
 
Bristol and north Somerset Railway remains from the bus...
Posted by Mark A at 12:47, 21st March 2025
 
Returning from Bristol yesterday on the bus, and going the long way round had me wondering if any coffeeshop forum people had any recollections of the B&NS railway when it was a going concern. Myself, in the 1990s, I recall seeing the ruin of Brislington's station from Talbot Road, very visible but I never attempted to visit it or take a photo.

Given that the passenger service folded in 1959, that might be too long ago for memory.

The... is it the 522 bus... in the direction of Radstock gives the impression, when it leaves Bristol, of climbing interminable hills (and descending a fair few) but at the top of several of the climbs, some relic or other from the old line, looking rather improbable given the hill that the bus has just climbed. The bridge taking the line beneath the Chelwood roundabout vanished several years ago when the roads were reworked there...

If it's not a post closure embankment slip, it appears that LIDAR data from north of Pensford might still show the site of the 1968 washout that ended the line's use for freight.

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18.6&lat=51.37632&lon=-2.55033&layers=258&b=LIDAR_DTM_1m&o=39

All rather a long time ago, and a line that had a complicated and checquered story to both its creation and its demise. Curious that just a few hundred metres of it and at least one (obscure) structure are still in rail industry use, photo below.

Mark


 
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