St Philip's Marsh depot is a
railway 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 ...
located in the
St Philip's Marsh district 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
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. It was established as a steam locomotive shed in 1910 but this facility closed in the 1960s. A new diesel facility opened nearby at Marsh Junction in 1959). This has since been combined with a new shed which was opened in 1976 to maintain new
trainsets.
History
St. Phillip's Marsh steam shed
![Hugh llewelyn 6958 (7873308258)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Hugh_llewelyn_6958_%287873308258%29.jpg)
was the western terminus for 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 ...
(GWR) from
London Paddington
Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a London station group, Central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services pro ...
. The initial small locomotive service facilities expanded as other railway lines were opened. After the GWR absorbed 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 ...
in 1876, the latter's workshops at
Bristol Bath Road, which were adjacent to Temple Meads station, became the principal GWR locomotive repair and maintenance facility in the area.
In July 1910 a new shed was opened at St Philip's Marsh alongside a line which allowed through trains to avoid going through Bristol Temple Meads station. This new shed was mainly allocated freight locomotives including
0-6-0 Pannier Tanks which plied their trade mainly in either
Bristol Docks
Bristol Harbour is the harbour in the city of Bristol, England. The harbour covers an area of . It is the former natural tidal river Avon through the city but was made into its current form in 1809 when the tide was prevented from going out per ...
or at
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 ...
. Bath Road, which could not expand due to the proximity of the
River Avon, now serviced mostly passenger train locomotives
St Philip's Marsh shed was constructed to
Churchward's standard design with two-
turntable
A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...
s and a north light roof. The layout allowed for two additional turntables to the rear of the structure should they be required. Based on the pattern design set by
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 ...
, the rail level was above general ground level with the shed foundations sat on concrete piles. 28 roads radiated from each turntable, each road having its own inspection pit. There was a standard pattern twin-ramp coaling stage, but the repair shop was only a small two-road building, due to the closeness of Bristol (Bath Road). A boiler washing plant was added in 1924, and ash shelters 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 ...
.
After 1948 and under
Western Region of British Railways
The Western Region was a region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right on completion of the "Organising for Quality" initiative on 6 April 1992. The Region consisted principally of ex- Great ...
control, both Bath Road (82A) and St Philip's Marsh (82B) gained additional locomotives following 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. St Philip's Marsh closed to steam in June 1964.
The locomotive sheds were subsequently demolished and the site disconnected from the rail network west of Albert Crescent by the 1970s.
[Ordnance Survey. 1:10565/1:10000. 1967-9, 1973-6] The site of the locomotive sheds has been redeveloped as a fruit market.
Marsh Junction depot
![St Philip's Marsh - DMU shed (1)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/St_Philip%27s_Marsh_-_DMU_shed_%281%29.JPG)
A four-road diesel depot was opened in 1959. Diesel locomotives were serviced at Bath Road depot after it was rebuilt a few years later but diesel multiple units (DMUs) continued to be serviced here. From 1970 the depot was used for maintaining permanent way plant and most DMU work was transferred to Bath Road.
Half of the shed was extended in 2006 to give two roads long enough to accommodate three-car DMUs to be maintained (in 1959 DMU cars were only long).
Philips Marsh HST depot
A site north of the Avoiding Line was used for the construction of a new maintenance shed west of Marsh Junction depot. This opened in 1976 and had three roads, each capable of holding an entire
(or HST) trainset under cover. Open air sidings were available opposite the site of the old steam shed. In 2006
First Great Western
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-city ...
created a new maintenance shed adjacent to the HST sheds, and upgrading other site facilities, at a cost of £8million.
Present
![St Philip's Marsh - GWR 150247](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/St_Philip%27s_Marsh_-_GWR_150247.JPG)
St Philip's Marsh T&RSMD is owned by
Network Rail
Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...
, operating under code PM, and leased to the present-day
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 is used for the maintenance of their
trains which operate between London Paddington, Bristol and
South Wales
South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...
. Both
Class 43 power cars and
Mark 3 coaching stock are serviced here. It is also used to maintain their fleet of
British Rail Class 150 ''Sprinter'' DMUs which had previously been maintained (for the
Wessex Trains
Wessex Trains was a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by National Express that operated the Wessex Trains franchise from October 2001 until March 2006, when the franchise was merged with the Great Western and Thames Valley f ...
franchise) at
Cardiff Canton
Canton ( cy, Treganna) is an inner-city district and community in the west of Cardiff, capital of Wales, lying west of the city's civic centre. Canton is one of the most ethnically diverse of Cardiff's suburbs, with a significant Pakistani and I ...
.
References
Sources
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External links
*, St Philip's Marsh locomotive sheds
*, 1959 DMU sheds
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Philip's Marsh depot
Railway depots in England
Buildings and structures in Bristol