Avonside Locomotive Works

The Avonside Locomotive Works was a locomotive manufacturer on Filwood Road, Fishponds, Bristol, England. A nearby locomotive builder was Peckett and Sons located on Deep Pit Road between Fishponds and St George.

The original Avonside Engine Company was based in St Philips, Bristol, and founded in 1837 as Henry Stothert and Company. This firm had got into financial difficulties and was liquidated in the 1880s. A new company was formed using the Avonside name as the Avonside Locomotive Works, initially at St Philips, before the company moved to Fishponds in 1905. The capital for the new factory in Fishponds was provided by Ronald Murray, and the facility was set up to build 16 locomotives a year. The company used the shunting line into Fishponds railway station and onto the Midland line in order to get their engines onto the mainline and onto their customers.

The company carried on the previous firm's policy of concentrating on smaller engine types of various gauges, and saw some success in exporting their locomotives all over the world as far afield as South America. One such customer was the Guaqui–La Paz Railway in Bolivia. Other engines built for overseas included a Heisler locomotive, developed for use on sugar estates in hot climes. Closer to home, locomotives were supplied to the War Department in 1915, fitted with Parsons four-cylinder internal combustion engines. The 0-4-0 type was popular, Cadburys of Bournville ordered a 0-4-0T in 1926 and the Great Western Railway were supplied with six 0-4-0Ts in the 1920s.

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