page_title: Mangotsfield railway station
section_title: Second station
hierarchical_section_title: Mangotsfield railway station / History / Second station
caption_attribution_description: Mangotsfield Station from Rodway Hill (1958).
context_page_description: Mangotsfield railway station was a railway station on the Midland Railway route between Bristol and Birmingham, 5.1 miles north-east of Bristol Temple Meads and 82 miles from Birmingham New Street, serving what is now the Bristol suburb of Mangotsfield. The station was opened in 1845 by the Bristol and Gloucester Railway, but had very little in the way of passenger amenities. The station was resited in 1869 to serve the new Mangotsfield and Bath Branch Line, and became an important junction station with extensive facilities and six platforms. Passenger footfall however failed to match the station's size, though at its peak eight staff were employed. The station closed in 1966 when services to Bath ended as part of the Beeching cuts, and the line through the station closed in 1969. The railway became a cycle path in the 1980s, and is a popular resting point on the route as several of the station's walls and platforms are still in situ.
context_section_description: When the Midland Railway took over the Bristol and Gloucester in 1845, it announced plans to build a branch to Bath. While several different plans were mooted, what eventually came to pass was the Mangotsfield and Bath Branch Line, roughly following the route of the Avon and Gloucestershire Railway south from Mangotsfield to a terminus at Bath Green Park. A large triangular junction was built at Mangotsfield, and a new station constructed at the western point of the junction, 0.5 miles (0.8 km) from the centre of Mangotsfield. The branch, and with it the new station, opened on 4 August 1869. The original station was closed to passengers, but the goods facilities were retained. The new station was 42 chains (0.84 km) west of the original, 5 miles 11 chains (8.27 km) from Bristol Temple Meads, 82 miles 62 chains (133.21 km) from Birmingham New Street and 9 miles 58 chains (15.65 km) from Bath Green Park. The next station towards Bath was Warmley, 1 mile 17 chains (1.95 km) to the south, with Fishponds now 2 miles 3 chains (3.28 km) away and Yate 5 miles 20 chains (8.45 km) distant. In 1888, a station was opened at Staple Hill, 1 mile 28 chains (2.17 km) west of Mangotsfield.
  The second station was much more extensive than the original. Built on the southern face of Rodney Hill, it had three platform islands, giving six platform faces, with the junction apex forming the western end of the middle island. The northern island platform had two platforms for trains going towards Birmingham: the northernmost platform was mostly used as a passing loop for goods trains, and was known as "under the rock" due to the hill; the southern side was the Up Main Line. The centre island had its western apex at the junction and was triangular in shape. The northern face was the Down Main line, for trains from Birmingham; the southern face was the Up Bath line, for trains towards Bath. The southern island's north face was the Down Bath line, serving trains from Bath towards Bristol, and its southern side was a west-facing bay platform. The south side of the bay platform had a timber windbreak due to the station's exposed site, and thus the platform acquired the name "behind the box". The station as built was sparsely furnished: there was a small building on the centre platform in a standard Midland Railway style, which housed the booking office and two waiting rooms, and also a shelter on the Bristol-bound branch platform. Passengers were required to use a level crossing to change between platforms; however, "through carriages" — whereby a carriage from one train would be transferred to a train going a different direction, without need for passengers to alight — were also used.
  The initial service along the Bath branch was 9 trains per day each way, increasing to 18 each way by 1910. From 1870, most Bristol-bound trains were diverted from Temple Meads to Bristol St Philip's, which the Midland Railway had opened after noting that many travellers from Mangotsfield and other branches found the location of Temple Meads to be inconvenient and would thus take the omnibus instead. In 1874, services began on the Clifton Extension Railway, a joint railway operated by the Midland and Great Western railways to connect to the Bristol Port Railway and Pier. The Midland initially operated 13 trains per day between Clifton Down and Mangotsfield, terminating in the bay platform. However, by 1887 these services would mostly terminate at Fishponds rather than Mangotsfield, and the service was discontinued in 1941. 1874 also saw the opening of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, which had its northern terminus at Bath Green Park, providing more passengers for the branch. Trains from the north would frequently use the eastern side of the Mangotsfield triangle and continue on south from Bath. The triangle was also used for turning locomotives when the turntable at Bath was unavailable. Main line services also increased: by 1882 there were ten trains each way between Bristol and Gloucester via Mangotsfield, with trains variously continuing to Cheltenham, Worcest
caption: A northbound train departing Mangotsfield in 1958. The chocolate factory is visible in the background.
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