The Badminton railway line is a railway line opened in 1903 by the
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...
between the
Great Western Main Line
The Great Western Main Line (GWML) is a main line railway in England that runs westwards from London Paddington to . It connects to other main lines such as those from Reading to Penzance and Swindon to Swansea. Opened in 1841, it was the or ...
at
Wootton Bassett
Royal Wootton Bassett , formerly Wootton Bassett, is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, with a population of 11,043 in 2001, increasing to 11,385 in 2011. Situated in the north of the county, it lies to the west of the major ...
in
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
and
Patchway
Patchway is a town in South Gloucestershire, England, situated north-north west of central Bristol. The town has become an overflow settlement for Bristol and is contiguous with Bristol's urban area, along with the nearby towns of Filton and Bra ...
and
Filton
Filton is a town and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England, north of Bristol. Along with nearby Patchway and Bradley Stoke, Filton forms part of the Bristol urban area and has become an overflow settlement for the city. Filton Church d ...
, north of
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
, England. Forming the eastern section of the
South Wales Main Line
The South Wales Main Line ( cy, Prif Linell De Cymru), originally known as the London, Bristol and South Wales Direct Railway or simply as the Bristol and South Wales Direct Railway, is a branch of the Great Western Main Line in Great Britain. ...
, it shortened the distance between South Wales and London for heavy mineral traffic and for express passenger trains, and relieved congestion on the line through
Bath.
It was engineered to high standards with gentle gradients and large radius curves, and was correspondingly expensive to construct. It is about 30 miles in length.
The line is part of the principal route between South Wales and London, and today carries a heavy main line passenger service. All intermediate stations were closed in the 1960s, but in 1971
Bristol Parkway station
Bristol Parkway, on the South Wales Main Line, is in the Stoke Gifford area in the northern suburbs of the Bristol conurbation. It is from London Paddington. The station was opened in 1972 by British Rail, and was the first in a new gener ...
was opened, and remains the only passenger station on the line.
Electrification
Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source.
The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histor ...
of the line is (2017) in progress.
Before the Badminton line
![Badminton line](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Badminton_line.png)
On 30 June 1841 the Great Western Railway company opened its first main line between London and Bristol.
[Robertson and Abbott give 31 May 1841 but this must be a mistake.][Christiansen consistently refers to the GWR main line as "the L&B line", for "London and Bristol".][E T MacDermot, ''History of the Great Western Railway: volume I: 1833 - 1863, part 1'', published by the Great Western Railway, London, 1927, page 131][Rex Christiansen, ''A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain - volume 13 - Thames and Severn'', David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1981, ] By this means the capital and one of the most important seaports were connected by a trunk railway line. The line was well laid out, passing through
Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...
and Bath. Its engineer was
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel (; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was a British civil engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history," "one of the 19th-century engineering giants," and "one ...
.
[Kevin Robertson and David Abbott, ''GWR The Badminton Line: A Portrait of a Railway'', Alan Sutton Publishing Limited, 1988 reprinted 1997, ][Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith, ''Swindon to Newport'', Middleton Press, Midhurst, 2004, ]
At the early date when the design of the line was being finalised, Brunel was not confident of the ability of the steam engines of the day to ascend significant gradients pulling a load, and the solution appeared to be to concentrate the stiffest climb in a limited distance, and to make the remainder of the route as near to constantly level as possible. The short, steep sections could, he believed, be worked with stationary steam engines hauling the trains up by rope. Accordingly, Brunel designed the main line with two such inclines, in
Box Tunnel
Box Tunnel passes through Box Hill on the Great Western Main Line (GWML) between Bath and Chippenham. The tunnel was the world's longest railway tunnel when it was completed in 1841.
Built between December 1838 and June 1841 for the Great W ...
and at Wootton Bassett.
[Wootton Bassett was retitled ''Royal Wootton Bassett'' in 2009.][MacDermot, volume I, part 1, page 23] In fact by the time the railway was being built, the capacity and reliability of steam engines had advanced considerably, and the stationary steam engines were never installed, but the legacy of the two steep inclines remained.
[
Even as the Great Western Railway main line was being built, the momentum of building railway lines in connection with it was building up. The Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway was promoted to build a line from ]Swindon
Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...
to Gloucester
Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...
and Cheltenham
Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...
,[MacDermot, volume I, part 1, page 163 onwards] and the South Wales Railway
The South Wales Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd De Cymru) was a main line railway which opened in stages from 1850, connecting the Great Western Railway from Gloucester to South Wales. It was constructed on the broad gauge. An original aspiration was to ...
was formed to build on from near Gloucester to Milford Haven
Milford Haven ( cy, Aberdaugleddau, meaning "mouth of the two Rivers Cleddau") is both a town and a community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is situated on the north side of the Milford Haven Waterway, an estuary forming a natural harbour that has ...
. This was with a view to capturing the transatlantic maritime trade as well as communication with Ireland.[E T MacDermot, ''History of the Great Western Railway: volume I: 1833 - 1863, part 2'', published by the Great Western Railway, London, 1927, page 556 onwards]
The Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway was absorbed by the Great Western Railway before the line was opened, and the South Wales Railway amalgamated with the GWR in 1863. The network was built on the broad gauge, and this led to difficulty in competing for coal traffic from South Wales to London and the South Coast of England, as most of the coal was extracted in the South Wales Valleys, which were generally connected by narrow (standard) gauge railways.[The principal exception was the ]Vale of Neath Railway
The Vale of Neath Railway (VoNR) was a broad gauge railway company, that built a line from Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare to Neath, in Wales, chiefly to transport the products of the Merthyr iron industries to ports on Swansea Bay.
The railway focus ...
. The physical transshipment of the mineral was laborious and expensive, and many producers preferred to use coastal shipping instead.[MacDermot, volume I, part 1, pages 580 - 582][
When the Taff Vale Extension line of the ]Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway
The Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway was a railway company formed to connect the places in its name. When it sought Parliamentary authorisation, it was denied the southern section, and obliged to use the Monmouthshire Railway between P ...
was fully operational, and then taken over by the GWR, coal could be transferred on narrow (standard) gauge track to London and Southampton
Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
via Hereford
Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...
.[D S M Barrie revised Peter Baughan, ''A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: volume 12: South Wales'', David St John Thomas, Nairn, second edition 1994, ]
As the South Wales coal business increased exponentially, there was thus a residual hostility to the Great Western Railway, and this continued after conversion of the track gauge in 1873, when at last the GWR could freely convey coal on the most direct routes available.[D S M Barrie, ''The Taff Vale Railway'', Oakwood Press, Tisbury, second edition 1950 reprinted 1982]
The Severn Tunnel
It was not until 1886 that the Severn Tunnel
The Severn Tunnel ( cy, Twnnel Hafren) is a railway tunnel in the United Kingdom, linking South Gloucestershire in the west of England to Monmouthshire in south Wales under the estuary of the River Severn. It was constructed by the Great Western ...
was operational, on 1 September 1886 for goods and on 1 December 1886 for passenger trains.[An experimental mineral train had passed through the tunnel on 9 January 1886.][ Before that date the shortest route for minerals and passengers from South Wales was via Gloucester and Swindon. Now that the Severn Tunnel was available, that traffic could run via Bristol (or the short avoiding line known as Dr Days Curve) and Bath. This was a considerable improvement, but the route through Bath became heavily congested, now carrying much of the South Wales traffic and all of the Bristol and West of England traffic.][MacDermot volume II, page 362][MacDermot, volume II, page 410]
London and South Wales Railway
In South Wales, dissatisfaction with the Great Western Railway continued to be a factor. It was effectively a monopoly for the trunk haulage of coal to London and Southampton (as far as Salisbury; Southampton was an important bunkering port for the transatlantic shipping trade, and Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most dens ...
was a major home port for the Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
.)
The Barry Railway Company had been exceptionally successful in South Wales in building ambitious and well-laid-out lines to its modern and well-equipped port. this emboldened those associated with it, and with coalowners who used it and were pleased with the alternatives it offered, to put together a scheme for a London and South Wales Railway. This was announced in November 1895. It was to build a new line from Cogan Cogan is a surname of Gaelic origin (not to be confused with the surname Kogan of Russian-Jewish origin). Notable people with the surname include:
*Alma Cogan (1932–1966), English singer
*Andrew Cogan, 17th-century agent of the English East India ...
via Cardiff
Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...
and skirting Newport on the north side, crossing the River Severn
, name_etymology =
, image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG
, image_size = 288
, image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle
, map = RiverSevernMap.jpg
, map_size = 288
, map_c ...
at Beachley
Beachley is a village in Gloucestershire, England, near the border with Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located on a peninsula at the confluence of the rivers Wye and Severn, where the Severn Bridge ends and the smaller secondary bridge over the ...
by a new 3,300 yard bridge, then via Thornbury, Malmesbury
Malmesbury () is a town and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England, which lies approximately west of Swindon, northeast of Bristol, and north of Chippenham. The older part of the town is on a hilltop which is almost surrounded by the upp ...
and Lechlade
Lechlade () is a town at the southern edge of the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England, south of Birmingham and west of London. It is the highest point at which the River Thames is navigable, although there is a right of navigation that contin ...
, to make a junction with the Metropolitan Railway
The Metropolitan Railway (also known as the Met) was a passenger and goods railway that served London from 1863 to 1933, its main line heading north-west from the capital's financial heart in the City to what were to become the Middlesex su ...
near Great Missenden
Great Missenden is an affluent village with approximately 2,000 residents in the Misbourne Valley in the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, England, situated between the towns of Amersham and Wendover, with direct rail connections to London Mar ...
. At 163 miles in length, the scheme was costed at £5,688,252. At the same time, the Vale of Glamorgan Railway promoted a Bill for a new line westward from Ewenny
Ewenny ( cy, Ewenni) is a village and community (parish) on the River Ewenny in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales.
Over the years the village has grown into the neighbouring village of Corntown to such an extent that there is no longer a clear boundar ...
via Porthcawl
Porthcawl (, ) is a town and community on the south coast of Wales in the county borough of Bridgend, west of the capital city, Cardiff and southeast of Swansea. Historically part of Glamorgan and situated on a low limestone headland on the So ...
and Port Talbot
Port Talbot (, ) is a town and community in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, situated on the east side of Swansea Bay, approximately from Swansea. The Port Talbot Steelworks covers a large area of land which dominates the south ...
to join the Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway
The Rhondda and Swansea Bay Railway was a Welsh railway company formed to connect the upper end of the Rhondda Fawr with Swansea, with the chief objective of transporting coal and other minerals to Swansea docks. It was incorporated in 1882, but ...
at Aberavon
Aberavon ( cy, Aberafan) is a town and community in Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales. The town derived its name from being near the mouth of the river Afan, which also gave its name to a medieval lordship. Today it is essentially a distri ...
.[B G Wilson, ''The London & South Wales Railway'', in the Railway Magazine, October 1956][D S Barrie, ''The Barry Railway'', Oakwood Press, Usk, reprinted 1983, ]
For at least a decade, the Great Western Railway had indicated that it might build a cut-off line to shorten the route from the Severn Tunnel to London, but it had not done so. Barrie says, "Beyond all reasonable doubt, the real object of the London & South Wales promoters was to force the Great Western Railway to carry out its South Wales Direct Line, and to make certain concessions to the South Wales coal trade."[
Now the GWR saw the real possibility of a competing line being built, and hastily put together a Parliamentary Bill for its own direct line. Both schemes were submitted for the 1886 Parliamentary session. The promoters of the London and South Wales Railway, no doubt seeing that their objective had been achieved, withdrew their Bill.][
]
The GWR Bill
Accordingly, the Great Western Railway promoted a Bill in the 1896 session for a line from Wootton Bassett to Patchway. At 30 miles in length the line would reduce the South Wales to London journey by ten miles. It would also by-pass the Box
A box (plural: boxes) is a container used for the storage or transportation of its contents. Most boxes have flat, parallel, rectangular sides. Boxes can be very small (like a matchbox) or very large (like a shipping box for furniture), and can ...
and Wootton Bassett inclines, and relieve the heavy congestion between Bathampton
Bathampton () is a village and civil parish east of Bath, England on the south bank of the River Avon. The parish has a population of 1,603.
The Kennet and Avon Canal passes through the village and a toll bridge links Bathampton to Bathea ...
and Bristol. This last was so difficult that quadrupling the line had been considered, "an impossibly costly proceeding" according to MacDermot.[
The Act for the South Wales and Bristol Direct Railway was passed on 23 July 1896.][Robertson and Abbott say 7 August 1896. MacDermot simply says 1896.][
]
Construction
A contract for the main part of the construction was let to Pearson & Son Limited on 21 October 1897, in the amount of £986,000.[Frederick J Husband, ''The South Wales and Bristol Direct Railway: II'', in the Railway Magazine, April 1902]
The major work was the Sodbury tunnel, which was constructed from seven vertical shafts as access to the sites of the ends of the tunnels had not been excavated at first. The contractor used a remarkable number of steam locomotives in the work: 50 were in use at one time or another (but not simultaneously), reflecting the volume of earth that was moved.[ Excavated material amounted to five million cubic yards.][Frederick J Husband, ''The South Wales and Bristol Direct Railway'', in the Railway Magazine, March 1902]
Opening
The first section of the line was opened to goods traffic on 1 January 1903, and from Badminton to Patchway and Filton, also for goods traffic, on 1 May 1903.[ On 26 June 1903 Colonel H. A. Yorke of the ]Board of Trade
The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for International Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...
made an inspection of the line over two days; BoT approval was a requirement before the operation of passenger trains was permitted. Yorke approved the line but insisted on a general speed restriction of for three months. Use of the Westerleigh
Westerleigh is a clustered village and civil parish (which includes Henfield) in South Gloucestershire, England, it contains sources of the Frome and has an endpoint of the Frome Valley Walkway. It is north of the M4, south of Yate and nort ...
loops by passenger trains was refused for the time being as the junctions were not ready.[
The entire route of was opened to passenger traffic on 1 July 1903.][Rex Christiansen, ''A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain - volume 13 - Thames and Severn'', David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1981, ] A large marshalling yard was built at Stoke Gifford, with ten sidings capable of holding 500 wagons. [ From Stoke Gifford a spur ran to Filton, towards Bristol. Intending that the line should be suitable for heavy mineral traffic from South Wales as well as express passenger trains, the steepest gradient was made at 1 in 300, and no curve of less radius than one mile; this was achieved by some heavy earthworks as well as four large viaducts, one near Somerford over the Avon and the Malmesbury Branch, and three near Winterbourne. The ]Chipping Sodbury Tunnel
Chipping Sodbury Tunnel is a railway tunnel that is situated on the South Wales Main Line in England. It runs under the Cotswold Hills some west of Badminton railway station and Chipping Sodbury Yard.
The tunnel was built between 1897 and 1 ...
() was built under the ridge of the Cotswolds between Badminton and Chipping Sodbury, and the Alderton Tunnel
The Alderton Tunnel sits on the South Wales Main Line
The South Wales Main Line ( cy, Prif Linell De Cymru), originally known as the London, Bristol and South Wales Direct Railway or simply as the Bristol and South Wales Direct Railway, is ...
() at Alderton east of Badminton.[Cooke gives the length of Sodbury Tunnel as .] Stations were built at , , , , , , and , and water troughs laid near Chipping Sodbury.[MacDermot, volume II, pages 425 and 426][ The stations at Little Somerford, Badminton, Chipping Sodbury and Coalpit Heath were constructed with four tracks, with platforms on the outer two, to enable through fast trains to overtake slower trains.][''The Great Western Railway's New Route to South Wales'', in the Railway Magazine, May 1903]
The new line shortened the distance between London and South Wales by ten miles and was considerably easier to work over, enabling an acceleration of the express trains by 25 minutes, and allowing much greater loads to be carried by the coal trains from Stoke Gifford. (The gradients in the Severn Tunnel remained the limiting factor there.)[
The original Parliamentary Bill for the line proposed a branch to the Severn and Wye Joint Railway, which would have run more or less parallel with the Bristol and Gloucester line of the ]Midland Railway
The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It am ...
. The proposal was withdrawn by arrangement with the Midland Railway, and it was agreed that a short spur connection could be made at and another south of , to connect it with the joint railway, and exercise their old running powers from 1846 and 1848 over the intervening of the Midland line. The two spurs referred to opened for goods traffic on 9 March 1908.[
On 1 July 1903, four South Wales expresses each way were altered to use the Badminton Line: the best of these reached Newport in 2 hours 33 minutes compared with 2 hours 57 minutes formerly. On 4 August 1903 a first part of the old Up ]Flying Dutchman
The ''Flying Dutchman'' ( nl, De Vliegende Hollander) is a legendary ghost ship, allegedly never able to make port, but doomed to sail the seven seas forever. The myth is likely to have originated from the 17th-century Golden Age of the Du ...
from Bristol was altered to leave Temple Meads at noon and run over the Badminton line to arrive at Paddington at 2 o'clock, the speed for the being . This was the first regular two-hour train between London and Bristol.[
]
Mineral railways at Coalpit Heath
From 1832 a horse-operated tramway, part of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Railway, was constructed to connect coal pits in the vicinity of Coalpit Heath with the River Avon near Keynsham. By the time of the construction of the Badminton line the tramway had been converted to a standard gauge railway, and the Badminton line passed over it by a bridge. A siding connection was made to Coalpit Heath station.[
]
Locations
Westerleigh loops
The loops at Westerleigh, connecting the Badminton line with the Midland Railway at Yate, had been opened to goods trains concurrently with the Badminton main line itself. The GWR wished to use the loops to operate an independent service between Bristol and Gloucester, using running powers over the Midland Railway. However the Midland argued that the running powers, so far as the Westerleigh and Yate connections were concerned, only applied to traffic for the Severn and Wye line. They insisted that any Bristol to Gloucester through trains should use their Mangotsfield
Mangotsfield is an urban area and former village in the unitary authority area of South Gloucestershire, in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, England, to the north-east of Bristol.
The village was mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086 ...
line from Bristol, incurring higher charges for use of the line. The issue went to arbitration and then to litigation, but the loop lines were out of use while the dispute continued. It was finally resolved in 1908 when they were reopened for goods trains, on 9 March. On 20 October they were inspected for passenger operation by Colonel Yorke and on 2 November 1908 the first use by a through passenger train took place.[
During ]World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
the east loop was closed to save staff, from 18 December 1916 to 18 February 1919. Traffic on the east curve was never heavy, and it was closed from 10 July 1927. However, during World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
there were concerns that main routes might be blocked by enemy action, and the curve was reopened as an emergency alternative route. This included the provision of a new Westerleigh East Junction signal box; the curve was available from 16 August 1942 until final closure on 4 January 1950.[
]
Badminton station
A covenant was signed between the Duke of Beaufort and the Great Western Railway undertaking that four passenger trains would make calls at Badminton station every day, and in addition any train must stop there if a first class passenger desired to alight.[
]
Avonmouth
The Stoke Gifford
Stoke Gifford is a village and parish in South Gloucestershire, England, in the northern suburbs of Bristol. It had around 11,000 residents at the 2001 census, increasing to 15,494 at the 2011 census. It is home to Bristol Parkway station an ...
direct line from Avonmouth
Avonmouth is a port and outer suburb of Bristol, England, facing two rivers: the reinforced north bank of the final stage of the Avon which rises at sources in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Somerset; and the eastern shore of the Severn Estuar ...
was opened on 9 May 1910, running from Holesmouth Junction at Avonmouth to Stoke Gifford. This gave direct access for industrial mineral traffic to the West Midlands via Honeybourne.[Christiansen, page 41]
Malmesbury branch
The Malmesbury branch had opened on 17 December 1877, running from Dauntsey
Dauntsey is a small village and civil parish in the county of Wiltshire, England. It gives its name to the Dauntsey Vale in which it lies and takes its name from Saxon for Dantes- eig, or Dante's island. It is set on slightly higher ground in ...
station on the Great Western Railway main line. When the Badminton line was built, it crossed over the Malmesbury branch a short distance west of Little Somerford.
In 1932 the branch was altered to run into Little Somerford station instead of Dauntsey. The branch connection ran alongside the Badminton line for some distance to reach the station. The altered passenger service started on 17 July 1933. The original route to Dauntsey was closed, but part of it was retained as a stub for wagon storage for some years.[
]
Bristol to Gloucester route modified
By the 1960s the route for the majority of through passenger trains between Bristol and Gloucester was the former Midland Railway route through Fishponds. Very few through passenger trains used the former GWR alternative, through Filton and Westerleigh, except during busy periods at summer weekends. However it was decided to close the Fishponds line and divert all such traffic on to the Filton route, and this was done on 3 January 1970, from which date all such trains used the part of the Badminton line between Filton and Yate.[
]
Bristol Parkway station
All the South Wales to London trains and all the Bristol to Birmingham trains now passed through Stoke Gifford, and it was proposed to build a new station there. As an out-of-town location, it would be attractive to motorists in the Greater Bristol area, who might drive to the station and park, continuing by rail. Accordingly, the station was known as Bristol Parkway, opening on 1 May 1972.[Robertson and Abbot give 1 July 1972; this may have been a formal or ceremonial opening.] Parking was free for some years.[M E Quick, ''Railway Passenger Stations in England Scotland and Wales—A Chronology'', The Railway and Canal Historical Society, 2002][
]
Line closure for upgrade
Due to a backlog of rectification work for deteriorating track formation, the line between Wootton Bassett Junction and Westerleigh Junction was closed from 5 May to 6 October 1975, to enable extensive upgrading of the infrastructure. London to South Wales ran via Bath.
In addition to the track formation work, crossovers for reverible operation were installed, and special arrangements were made for the permanent way staff's refuges in Alderton and Chipping Sodbury tunnels. This included handrails "to prevent he track workersbeing drawn out of the recess by the turbulence caused by a passing High Speed Train". The High Speed Trains were to be introduced on the line in the following October.[Mitchell and Smith give dates in 1986 in the caption to image 32 (Swindon to Newport, Middleton Press, Midhurst, 2004, ISBN 1 904474 30 6); this is obviously a mistake; it happened in 1975 prior to the introduction of High Speed Trains.][''Five Months Closure for engineering Work'', Railway Magazine, April 1975, page 159][''Foundations for High Speed'', Railway Magazine, October 1975, page 485]
Slip coaches
From May 1923, two down Fishguard trains slipped coaches for Temple Meads at Stoke Gifford. There was no passenger station there, and the slipped vehicles were taken on to Temple Meads by a train specially run to Stoke Gifford for the purpose. The trains concerned were the 8.45 am and the 8.0 pm from Paddington to Fishguard, and the slipped portions reached Temple Meads at 11.3 am and 10.20 pm respectively.[C E J Fryer, ''A History of Slipping and Slip Carriages'', Oakwood Press, Headington, 1997, ]
In Table 10, Fryer shows one slip at Stoke Gifford in 1932 for Bristol Temple Meads; and two in 1938, one of which continued to Taunton
Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...
and the other to Weston-super-Mare
Weston-super-Mare, also known simply as Weston, is a seaside town in North Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. It includes the suburbs of Mead Vale, Milton, Oldmixon ...
.[
]
The Bristolian
To mark the centenary of the Great Western Railway, the company inaugurated an express train named The Bristolian in 1935. The westward route from London to Bristol was conventionally via Bath, but the return journey was over the Badminton line. The timing was 105 minutes each way non-stop.[Keith Farr, ''Castles of the West'', in the Railway Magazine, August 1998]
Station closures
The area served by the line was sparsely populated, and after World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
patronage of the intermediate stations fell away. On 3 April 1961 they were closed to passenger trains, with the exception of Badminton. Most of the intermediate goods services were withdrawn in the period from 1963 to 1965.
The closure of Badminton station was delayed by the undertaking given to the Duke of Beaufort when the line was authorised, that four trains would call daily, but closure finally took place on 3 June 1968.[
Stoke Gifford yards were closed on 4 October 1971.][
]
Topography
Gradients
From Wootton Bassett Junction the line fell generally at 1 in 300 to Little Somerford, then climbing at the same gradient to Badminton. After that the line fell at 1 in 300 through Sodbury Tunnel and on to Stoke Gifford.[
]
Station list
* ''Wootton Bassett Junction'';
* Brinkworth; opened 1 July 1903; closed 3 April 1961;
* Little Somerford; four track station; opened 1 July 1903; closed 3 April 1961;
* Hullavington
Hullavington is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, just to the north of the M4 motorway. The village lies about southwest of Malmesbury and north of Chippenham.
The Fosse Way, a Roman road, forms the western boundary of the par ...
; opened 1 July 1903; closed 3 April 1961;
* Badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...
; four track station; opened 1 July 1903; closed 3 June 1968;
* Chipping Sodbury; four track station; opened 1 July 1903; closed 3 April 1961;
* Coalpit Heath
Coalpit Heath is a small village in the parish of Westerleigh, South Gloucestershire, England, south of Yate and east of Frampton Cotterell in South Gloucestershire.
Background
Due to the expansion of Coalpit Heath and the neighbouring vill ...
; four track station; opened 1 July 1903; closed 3 April 1961;
* Winterbourne; opened 1 July 1903; closed 3 April 1961;
* Bristol Parkway; opened 1 May 1972; still open;
* ''Stoke Gifford Junction;''
* ''Patchway Junction''.[M E Quick, ''Railway Passenger Stations in England Scotland and Wales—A Chronology'', The Railway and Canal Historical Society, 2002][R A Cooke, ''Atlas of the Great Western Railway, 1947'', Wild Swan Publications Limited, Didcot, 1997 ]
Notes
References
{{reflist
Rail transport in Bristol
Rail transport in Wiltshire
Railway lines opened in 1903
Railway lines in South West England