| Tugwell |
| Type and origin |
| Power type |
Steam |
|
|
|
| Career |
| Number in class |
3 |
| Numbers |
1–3 |
|
| Type and origin |
| Power type |
Steam |
| Career |
| Number in class |
3 |
| Numbers |
1–3 |
| Bristol |
|
|
|
|
| Career |
| Number in class |
6 |
| Numbers |
4–9 |
|
| Career |
| Number in class |
6 |
| Numbers |
4–9 |
| Dreadnought |
| Type and origin |
| Power type |
Steam |
|
| Specifications |
Configuration:
|
|
| • Whyte
|
0-6-0 |
| Gauge |
7 ft 1⁄4 in (2,140 mm) |
|
Driver dia. |
5 ft 0 in (1.524 m) |
| Loco weight |
26 long tons 0 cwt (58,200 lb or 26.4 t) |
| Cylinder size |
16 in × 21 in (406 mm × 533 mm), dia × stroke
|
|
| Career |
| Number in class |
2 |
| Numbers |
10–11 |
|
| Type and origin |
| Power type |
Steam |
The Bristol and Gloucester Railway was a railway company opened in 1844 between the cities in its name. It was built on the broad gauge, but it was acquired in 1845 by the narrow (standard) gauge Midland Railway, which also acquired the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway at the same time.
Legal and practical difficulties meant that it was some time before through narrow gauge trains could run on the line; that only became possible in 1854 with the conversion of most of the line to mixed gauge and the opening of the Tuffley Loop.
Even then the station at Gloucester was awkwardly sited, until in 1896 a through station was opened; it later became known as Gloucester Eastgate station.
The Tuffley Loop and Eastgate station were closed in 1975. Part of the original line near Bristol was closed in 1970, trains being diverted over a route through Filton. However the remainder of the route is in service currently as part of the busy Bristol – Birmingham main line.
In 1809 the Gloucester and Cheltenham Railway was authorised. In reality it was to be a horse-operated plateway. Cheltenham was growing in importance because of the supposedly health-giving properties of the waters, and houses for well-to-do residents were being built, requiring the bringing in of stone for the building work and for roads, and coal for the residents. There were good-quality quarries already in existence at Leckhampton, high above the town, and Forest of Dean coal was available at Gloucester, nine miles away, brought there on the River Severn and later by canal. The Gloucester and Cheltenham Railway was built to serve these needs, by connecting the docks at Gloucester (under construction) and the Leckhampton quarries, with Cheltenham. The G&CR was completed in 1811.
Although alternatively referred to as a railway, railroad, or tramway, it was in fact a horse-operated plateway of 3ft 6in gauge. A steam locomotive was later tried out, but the experiment was a failure because the locomotive was too heavy for the tramplates and broke them.
In June 1828 two companies were incorporated by Act of Parliament to build tramways to bring coal from collieries at Shortwood, Parkfield and Coalpit Heath, to the north-east of Bristol, into Bristol itself. One of the companies was the Bristol and Gloucestershire Railway, which was to terminate in Bristol at Cuckold's Pill on the Floating Harbour. The second was the Avon and Gloucestershire Railway, whose terminal was on the River Avon opposite Keynsham, from where river boats would continue the journey. The two lines were to make a junction north of Mangotsfield, near the later Mangotsfield North Junction.
...
Wikipedia
