page_title: Bristol and Gloucester Railway
section_title: Docks branches
hierarchical_section_title: Bristol and Gloucester Railway / Docks branches
caption_attribution_description: English: A long Down coal train south of Haresfield. View northward, towards Gloucester etc. (For route details see my related images near here, e.g. SO8110&#160;: Sheffield to Paignton express near Haresfield). This train is probably a Washwood Heath (Birmingham) to Westerleigh Sidings (Bristol) - i.e. Midland line - working so will cross to the nearer (MIdland) tracks at Standish Junction. The locomotive is Stanier 8F 2-8-0 No. 48220.
context_page_description: The Bristol and Gloucester Railway was a railway company opened in 1844 between the cities in its name. It was built on the 7 ft Brunel gauge, but it was acquired in 1845 by the 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in 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 standard 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 the ex-Great Western Railway route through Filton. However, the remainder of the route is in service currently as part of the busy Bristol to Birmingham main line.
context_section_description: The GWR and the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway had jointly acquired the Gloucester and Cheltenham Railway, a horse-operated plateway; the original purpose was to get access to the docks at Gloucester. The tramway was of 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge and in street running in Gloucester it made some extremely sharp turns at road junctions. Various proposals were made to convert the plateway to standard gauge in Gloucester, but these were never implemented, and the use by the others railways of the plateway's right of way was confined to sidings within the docks.
  A very short stub from the Bristol and Gloucester goods station to a location alongside the plateway was made in 1840; transshipment was necessary there. It closed in 1896.
  Independent railway access to the docks was made in 1848 when the High Orchard Branch was opened, from the Tuffley Loop. It closed on 1 October 1971.
  In 1900 the New Docks Branch was opened from Tuffley Junction, crossing the Berkeley Canal by a swing bridge to the west side, and joining with the GWR docks branch near Llanthony Bridge. There was a short stub to Hempsted Wharf (on the east side of the canal) and, from 1913, the gas works, which had previously been served exclusively by the canal. These branches all closed by 1971.
caption: Down coal train south of Haresfield in 1962
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