Bristol Bath Road depot was a railway

traction maintenance depot The motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is the place where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained when not being used. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine shed ...

in central

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, which was in use from 1852 until 1995.

History

The

Bristol and Exeter Railway The Bristol & Exeter Railway (B&ER) was an English railway company formed to connect Bristol and Exeter. It was built on the broad gauge and its engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It opened in stages between 1841 and 1844. It was allied with ...

opened workshops at Bath Road in January 1852. 35 locomotives were built in the workshops between 1859 and 1876. Part of the site was an engine shed with six tracks. It was rebuilt under the Loans and Guarantees Act (1929) in 1934 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 ...

. The site's scale meant that although the depot was to be the major repair and maintenance point for the Bristol divisional area, the shed was restricted to a steel-frame straight 8-road with northernlight roof pattern form, as opposed to the GWR standard-pattern turntable model like

Old Oak Common Old Oak Common is an area of Hammersmith, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, West London. Together with neighbouring Park Royal, the area is intended to become the UK's largest regeneration scheme, the scale of which has led to ...

. Secondly, as the depot was so close to

Bristol Temple Meads Bristol Temple Meads is the oldest and largest railway station in Bristol, England. It is located away from London Paddington. It is an important transport hub for public transport in the city; there are bus services to many parts of the city ...

, it was required to keep the depot in full operation while construction took place. The twin-ramp coal stage was of standard GWR pattern but used concrete beams and brick piers to restrict ramp width. The divisional repair shop was to the far north of the site, close to the River Avon. There were two standard-pattern over-girder turntables on site, one to the rear of the shed, and one to the northeast of the repair shop. Bristol Bath Road 2 Locomotive Depot 2066775 4d0e51a3

Bristol Bath Road 2 Locomotive Depot 2066775 4d0e51a3

While Bath Road handled passenger traffic locomotives, St Philip's Marsh depot on the eastern throat handled freight types. Post nationalisation, under

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

both Bath Road (Code: BR) and St Philip's Marsh gained additional allocation from the closure of the local

London Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally ...

sheds. By 1950 it had an allocation of 93 locomotives, half of them classic GWR 4-6-0s, and most of the others 2-6-2Ts for running local and regional passenger traffic. However, as it was located on a main national route, with an equally large-scale shed on the opposite throat of the station, Bath Road was one of the first sheds to be closed to steam locomotives from September 1960. Rebuilt as a diesel depot, it retained one of the turntables. The depot ceased all operation on 28 September 1995, when its last operator

Great Western Trains Great Western Railway (GWR) is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup that operates the Greater Western passenger railway franchise. It manages 197 stations and its trains call at over 270. GWR operates long-distance inter-cit ...

transferred all operations to St Philip's Marsh T&RSMD.

Modern redevelopment

In 2011, the railway-level depot site was named as part of the

Bristol Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone Bristol Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone is an enterprise zone in Bristol, England, focused on creative, high-tech and low-carbon industries. Covering an area of , it is based around Bristol Temple Meads railway station, which is being redevelope ...

, where reduced taxes and planning controls would encourage development of new businesses. It was hoped that around 40 businesses would provide employment for 4,000 people within five years. The site was also considered to become the location for the Bristol Arena, a new 12,000 seater entertainment venue, with construction expected to start in late 2016 and set to open in 2018. Development of the Arena was repeatedly delayed, and at the end of 2018 the plans to build it here were dropped; the future for the site remains unclear.

References

*Rail Atlas Great Britain & Ireland, S.K. Baker

History

Modern redevelopment

References

Further reading