South Wales Direct Line

History and Working

P D Rendall

• Publisher: Crowood
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781847977083
• Topic: Tecnología e ingeniería
• Subtopic: Transporte ferroviario

A history of Great Western Railway's direct line from London to South Wales, from the early 1900s onwards. With a focus on those who worked the line, South Wales Direct Line - History and Working includes the 'Badminton' line route, and all the stations and junctions between Patchway and the Severn Tunnel - an ideal resource for anybody with an interest in this important British railway. Topics covered include how the line developed, from the opening of the London-Bristol line in 1841 to the building of Brunel's Severn Tunnel; duties of those who staffed the stations, signal boxes and goods yards; the upgrade of 1975: how the South Wales Direct Line became the first dedicated high-speed (125mph) rail line and finally the future of the line: upgrading to high-speed electric trains in 2017. Route and station maps are included as well as hundreds of colour and black & white photographs. Superbly illustrated with 209 colour and black & white photographs.

CHAPTER 1

A Brief History of the Line

In 1841, the Great Western Railway opened the line between London and Bristol in its entirety. The lucrative market of South Wales and its coalfields was still to be tapped and with the opening up of South Wales it was hoped that the opportunity would be created to seek traffic from the Irish markets and beyond via the development of ports in Wales. To attract this valuable traffic could only sensibly be done by means of a railway, but the River Severn stood as a watery and seemingly insurmountable barrier between England and Wales. Unless the Severn could be crossed in some way, it would seem that the way by rail into England from the Principality of Wales could only be via Gloucester. To go by rail to Bristol and London via Gloucester was not only a long way round, but the Midland Railway was already making inroads into that area. There was little option for the GWR but to look at ways of crossing the River Severn.

However, a river was but a small problem to surmount for a company that could boast none other than the famous Isambard Kingdom Brunel amongst its founders. To this end, various ideas for the river crossing were sought and an abortive scheme for a rail-connected ferry boat crossing was proposed in 1845. In 1856, a new scheme was put forwards: to build a railway line from Bristol to a place on the east bank of the river at New Passage, near Pilning in Gloucestershire. This proposal was more successful and an Act of Parliament was passed bringing into being the Bristol and South Wales Union Railway.

The new, single line was to run from a junction just outside Bristol Temple Meads (close to what is today Dr Day’s Junction) and run through the outskirts of Bristol to the east bank of the River Severn at New Passage. To do so, it would have to climb steeply out of the city to Filton and Patchway. From Patchway, the new line would descend through a tunnel and steadily down to its terminus. It would involve serious engineering works to dig a deep cutting at Horfield and to create embankments between Patchway and Pilning. The new tunnel would be 1,246yd (1,139m) long. A new timber landing stage would need to be built at New Passage to enable steamers to dock. The whole new line would be 11½ (18.5km) miles long. Corresponding works would be carried out on the Welsh side.

From its opening in 1863, the line was operated by the Great Western Railway. Steamers were worked by a contractor, John Bland, on behalf of the GWR. However, whilst providing a much-needed link between London and South Wales via Bristol, the river crossing had its limitations; there was mainly only passenger traffic and some small freight. The service was not reliable, as the treacherous high rise and fall of tides in the Severn (40ft [12m] and the second highest rise and fall of tide in the world) proved difficult for ships and provided uncomfortable journeys for passengers. It was obvious that a different method of crossing the river was needed. Voices clamoured for a railway tunnel and an Act of Parliament was passed in 1872, granting authority for work to commence on a tunnel.

Work started on the Severn Railway Tunnel in 1873, a year after work had commenced on another river crossing, the Severn Railway Bridge, further up the river towards Gloucester. This bridge was backed by the Midland Railway and was intended to link the Midland’s interests in Gloucestershire with the Severn and Wye Valley Railway, the latter having a junction at Lydney with the Great Western line from Gloucester. However, it was only a single track and as the new Severn Tunnel would be double track, the bridge was not seen as any threat to the GWR’s ambitions in South Wales.

The rail bridge was completed in 1879 and was followed in September 1885 by the official opening of the 4-mile, 628yd-long (7km) Severn Tunnel. With the opening of the tunnel, the B&SWUR line, which had been single, was now doubled throughout with a new, 1-mile-long (1.6km) tunnel at Patchway for what was now the Up line between the Severn Tunnel and Patchway. The Up line was also constructed on easier gradients to that of the old line, resulting in the new line running at a different, lower, level between Pilning and Patchway.

Trains were soon running between the developing South Wales ports and Bristol, then onwards to London. The line from the Severn Tunnel to Bristol soon became busy with passenger traffic and large volumes of coal traffic, as well as traffic from other industries. The result was that although the building of the tunnel had speeded up services between Wales and the capital, the extra traffic soon became a problem on the line between Bristol and Swindon. With the increasing need for express trains to run between South Wales and London, the main line was soon operating to capacity. It was realized that there was now a need for a more direct route to the Severn Tunnel; one that would avoid Bath and Bristol.

Plans were drawn up for a shorter, more direct route with easier gradients. This line was to leave the existing Swindon to Bristol line at Wootton Bassett, then join up with the original Bristol and South Wales Union line at Patchway, near Bristol. From Patchway, the line would continue as before to the Severn Tunnel. There would also be a spur to the B&SWUR at Filton, creating a triangle and allowing trains using the new line to run to Bristol as well as South Wales.

There were to be new stations along the route, serving local communities. The line would descend at a gradient of 1 in 300 from Wootton Bassett to Little Somerford, and then rise at 1 in 300 from the Avon Valley up to Badminton. From Badminton, the line would drop at 1 in 300 to Stoke Gifford, where there would be the triangular junction to Filton and Patchway. A small marshalling yard for freight traffic was to be constructed at Stoke Gifford.

Two tunnels would be required to take the new line through the Cotswold Hills: one at Alderton, between Hullavington and Badminton; and one between Badminton and Chipping Sodbury. There was to be a triangular junction at Westerleigh, between Chipping Sodbury and Coalpit Heath, and this would connect the new line to the Midland Railway at Yate, enabling trains to run to and from the Bristol–Gloucester line, over which the GWR had running powers.

The new direct line would cut 10 miles (16km) off the journey to South Wales, relieve the congested line through Bath and speed up services when the line was opened.

Accordingly, the Great Western Railway company laid a bill before Parliament, in which it proposed to construct the new railway line from a junction with the Swindon–Bristol line at Wootton Bassett, near Swindon, to Patchway, just outside Bristol. The new line was to have seven new stations; additionally, three existing stations would be rebuilt. Services between London and South Wales would be made quicker and the bottleneck at Bristol avoided.

The bill received assent and work began on construction of the new railway. The Dowager Duchess of Beaufort performed the ceremony of ‘cutting the first sod’ in a field near Old Sodbury in 1897, which signified that work on the new line had commenced.

The embankment that so upset Mr Robinson. A BR Standard Class 5 4-6-0 heads west from Coalpit Heath with a train of empty fuel tankers for Avonmouth Docks. WILF STANLEY

In spite of difficulties, which included bad weather and unexpected geological problems, the earthworks, bridges and new station buildings were completed in time to be inspected by the Directors of the Great Western in July 1901. Two years later, on 1 January 1903, the GWR started running freight trains between Wootton Bassett and Badminton and, on 1 May 1903, between Badminton and Patchway. Although the works were complete, passenger trains could not use the line until it had been inspected by the Board of Trade. On 26 June 1903, the Board’s Inspector, Col. Yorke, inspected all the stations and signalling works on the line. He found all to be in order and the line was opened to passenger traffic on 1 July 1903.

Most people in the districts through which the new works of the line passed seemed contented enough with the new railway; after all, it provided some jobs and people could use the stations to travel to other places. They could also send and receive their goods and livestock. Not everyone was happy though; Bristol writer W.J. Robinson, who wrote for the Bristol Times and Mirror mostly on local history and ecclesiastical buildings, chose a series of articles in which to vent his spleen upon the new railway. These articles were published in 1914 as a series of books entitled West Country Churches.¹ In the article on Coalpit Heath and its church, Robinson wrote:

It [Coalpit Heath] is noted for the cultivation of plums, and in early spring the plum trees, when clothed in their snowy blossoms, produce a very beautiful effect, giving a special charm to the place, which resembles on a small scale the celebrated Vale of Evesham.

Though the original beauty of parts of the parish has been marred by the unsightly embankment of the railway, and many of its rich meadows have been converted into a stiff and monotonous mound of considerable height which completely shuts off the view …

It is interesting to note that whilst painting a picture of pastoral bliss about Coalpit Heath, Robinson completely fails to make reference to how the village got its name and makes no mention of the various collieries scattered in and around the district that can hardly have enhanced its appearance.

The South Wales Direct line also gets a further taste of Mr Robinson’s dislike for it in his description of the parish of Stoke Gifford: ‘The picturesque little village of Stoke Gifford, about four miles from Bristol … unmolested in its peaceful repose, save that the railway, with its attendant noise and clatter, has come within its boundaries … ’

Although the above was written in the years preceding the publication of West Country Churches, and therefore around seven or eight years after the railway had been opened, Robinson’s distaste is clear; he could almost, in 2014, be writing about the proposed HS2 line.

The new line brought jobs to the areas through which it passed and gave promotional advantages to people currently employed by the Great Western elsewhere on its network. It also brought changes and business opportunities to the various communities upon which it had an impact. Owned and operated by the Great Western Railway from its opening to nationalization in 1948, the line swiftly proved its worth and saw many famous trains during the days of steam operation – the ‘Red Dragon’, ‘The Bristolian’, ‘South Wales Pullman’ and ‘Capitals United Express’ were among them. With its junction to Filton and thence to Bristol, the line also became a diversionary route for the other main line via Bath. Later, in 1910, a further junction, that to Avonmouth, was added at Stoke Gifford, linking the South Wales Direct line to Avonmouth Docks.

World War II saw many of the line’s facilities expanded and a new marshalling yard with signal boxes built between Chipping Sodbury and Westerleigh. Post-war, the line was part of the route for many expresses between London and the Principality, but local services were little used even before the age of the car. The pendulum of the swinging sixties only swung towards closures of stations and withdrawal of the local trains, even before Richard Beeching got his hands on British Railways (BR).

However, the line did not die and in the 1970s was upgraded to become the first dedicated High Speed 125mph line in the country; it even got a new station – Bristol Parkway. Steam- and diesel-hauled excursions now use the line and the twenty-first century has seen the commencement of works for electrification of the line all the way to South Wales.

The new line was one of the first twentieth-century railways to be built and is still in use today as the high-speed line to the West and South Wales. During its 110-year life to date it has undergone a few modifications here and there and has been bridged by the M4 motorway (both over and under) in several places. Once staffed by many men (and women), the line today employs few regular staff, mostly at Bristol Parkway station and Stoke Gifford Civil Engineering sidings, but it was, for many, the place where they had not so much a job as a way of life. In order to illustrate how the line used to be worked, we need to look at some of the people who actually worked on the line, those whose jobs, whilst sometimes small, kept the whole together.

CHAPTER 2

The People who Worked the Line

The Superintendent of the Line

From the start, the line came under the jurisdiction of the Great Western Railway’s Superintendent of the Line, Charles Kislingbury. Mr Kislingbury had come to live in the Cotham area of Bristol, having been previously living in Pontypool, Monmouthshire. His son, John, was Assistant Locomotive Superintendent of the Great Western. Kislingbury was responsible for setting out the duties of the men he was employing to man the stations, goods yards and signal boxes. The following duties are mostly taken from documents written by Charles Kislingbury and issued to each new station at the time of the line’s opening in 1903.

The Station Master

The station master was responsible for everything that happened at his station. The duties of porters, booking and other clerical staff, signalling and goods yard staff all fell under his supervision, as did those of wagon drivers and, latterly, motor drivers. He had to know the various timetables, both passenger and freight (where appropriate) and regulations appertaining to the safe and proper working of his station. To him fell the duty of taking command of emergency working arrangements in the event of derailment or other problems, so he also had to know the requisite signalling regulations.

Additionally, the station master had to know the various rates for carriage of goods and parcels and be acquainted with all the local locations where the railway company’s posters and timetables were displayed.

DUTIES OF THE STATION MASTER

The duties of a station master on the South Wales Direct line were laid out in the individual Station Log Books, personally handwritten by Charles Kislingbury, the Superintendent of the Line, and issued to each station:²

To see that each member of the staff fully understands the whole of the duties allotted to him, that each man is capable of performing such duties, that a list of such duties is from time to time posted so as to be easy of access and that the men may have such list continually before them. To visit daily each signal box under his supervision and see that all current notices and instructions are on hand and properly preserved, understood and carried out by the staff, and to examine and sign the ‘Line Clear’ book at each cabin at the time of such visit. To meet all passenger trains during the time he is registered on duty.

To inspect, not less than once daily, all rooms, offices, water closets and urinals and see that they are in every respect clean and that the latter are kept flushed during the day. To see that all legal notices, time tables etc. are carefully and conspicuously exhibited and renewed from time to time as required and that no other notice than that authorized by the Company is exhibited at the station. To see that the distribution of gratuitous time books and time tables is duly and properly made at t...