Bristol and Exeter Railway

Bristol and Exeter Railway

Exeter in 1844. William Spreat's print shows the original Exeter station before the South Devon Railway was opened.
Dates of operation 1844–1876
Successor Great Western Railway
Track gauge 7 ft 0 1⁄4 in (2,140 mm)
Headquarters Bristol

The Bristol & Exeter Railway was a railway company formed to connect Bristol and Exeter.

The company's head office was situated outside their Bristol station. Designed by Samuel Fripp, it was opened in 1854.

In addition to the mainline from Bristol to Exeter (Devon), branches were opened to Clevedon, Cheddar and Wells, Weston-super-Mare, Chard, and Yeovil in Somerset, and to Tiverton, Devon. The Bristol & Exeter also worked a number of small independent railways: the Bristol and Portishead Port and Pier Railway, the Somerset Central Railway, the West Somerset Railway and Minehead Railway, the Devon and Somerset Railway, and the Exeter and Crediton Railway.[1]

Contents

History

Bristol & Exeter Railway
Legend
 Great Western Railway to London
0.00 Bristol Temple Meads
1.00 Bedminster
Bristol Harbour Railway
Portishead Branch Line
3.50
5.75 Flax Bourton
8.00 Nailsea
12.00 Yatton
Cheddar Valley Railway
15.50 Clevedon
15.25 Puxton
18.25 Weston Junction
19.75 Weston-super-Mare
20.00 Bleadon and Uphill
24.00 Brent Knoll
27.50 Highbridge
30.50 Dunball
33.75 Bridgwater
River Parrett/Somerset Bridge
Bridgwater Docks
Yeovil branch
38.75 Durston
Chard branch
44.75 Taunton
46.75 Norton Fitzwarren
West Somerset Railway
Devon and Somerset Railway
51.75 Wellington
53.25 Beambridge
56.25 Burlescombe
58.75 Sampford Peverell railway station now Tiverton Parkway
60.50 Tiverton Junction
65.25 Tiverton
62.75 Cullompton
67.00 Hele
68.25 Silverton
72.00 Stoke Canon
North Devon Railway
75.50 Exeter St Davids
South Devon Railway

The Bristol & Exeter Railway was authorised by act of Parliament in 1836, following quickly on the 1835 act for construction of the Great Western Railway. Bristol merchants were anxious to secure a railway route to Exeter, which was an important commercial centre, and which had a harbour on the south coast, in the English Channel. Coastal shipping from the South coast and from continental Europe making for Bristol needed to navigate the hazardous north Cornwall coast after negotiating the waters round Land's End.[1]

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was appointed engineer, and his assistant William Gravatt surveyed the route in 1835 and was resident engineer for the section between Bristol and Whiteball with William Froude supervising the section from Whiteball to Exeter.[2] He developed an empirical method of setting out track transition curves and introduced an alternative design to the helicoidal skew arch bridge at Rewe and Cowley Bridge Junction, near Exeter.[3][4] The first 7 ft 0 1⁄4 in (2,140 mm), broad gauge, section of the line was completed to Bridgwater on 14 June 1841, and the extension to Taunton in July 1842 - both using trains leased from the Great Western. The line was completed to Exeter and opened on 1 May 1844.[1]

At first the railway was worked by the Great Western Railway, but the Bristol & Exeter took over its own working in 1849. It built a carriage works at Bridgwater,[1] which already had a railway engineering industry. George Hennet obtained permission in the town to cast atmospheric pipes for the South Devon Railway, the Bristol and Exeter Railway simply extended his works. The Hennet name continued to be linked to Bridgwater for many years, and was responsible for producing many wagons for various companies.

The Bristol & Exeter Railway was a considerable financial success and between 1844 and 1874, paying an average annual dividend of 4.5 per cent.[5] The city fathers of Exeter refused the railway access to the dock of the Exeter Canal until 35 years after it entered the city in 1844.

The railway was fully amalgamated with the Great Western Railway on 1 January 1876.[1]

Engineering features

South of Weston-super-Mare the line crosses the western end of the Mendip Hills, at Uphill, through a deep cutting spanned by a 115 feet (35 m) masonry arch bridge, known locally as Devil's Bridge, which is built into the rock sides.[2] It then runs south across the Somerset Levels.

At Bridgwater a retractable bridge was built in 1871 to the design of Sir Francis Fox. It carried a short industrial branch line over the River Parrett to the docks, but the bridge had to be movable, to allow boats to proceed upriver. An 80-foot (24 m) section of railway track to the east of the bridge could be moved sideways, so that the main 127-foot (39 m) girders could be retracted, creating a navigable channel which was 78 feet (24 m) wide.[2] It was manually operated for the first eight months, and then powered by a steam engine, reverting to manual operation in 1913, when the steam engine failed.[6] The bridge was last opened in 1953, and the traverser section was demolished in 1974, but public outcry at the action resulted in the bridge being listed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and the rest of the bridge was kept.[7] It was later used as a road crossing, until the construction of the Chandos road bridge alongside it, and is now only used by pedestrians. Parts of the steam engine were moved to Westonzoyland Pumping Station Museum in 1977.[2] The bridge is now a Grade II* listed building.[8]

The main line crosses the River Parrett just south of Bridgwater on the Somerset Bridge, with a 100 feet (30 m) span but a rise of just 12 feet (3.7 m). Work started in 1838 and was completed in 1841. Brunel left the centering scaffold in place as the foundations were still settling but was forced to remove it in 1843 to reopen the river for navigation. Brunel demolished the brick arch and had replaced it with a timber arch within six months without interrupting the traffic on the railway. This was in turn replaced in 1904 by a steel girder bridge.[9]

At Taunton the River Tone was straightened to avoid the need for two bridges close together. West of Taunton gradients of 1 in 80 were needed to cross the Blackdown Hills and at the summit on the Somerset-Devon border the 1,092 yards (999 m) Whiteball Tunnel was constructed.[2]

Stations

Mainline

Branches

Locomotives

Main article Bristol and Exeter Railway locomotives.

Locomotives for the railway were provided by the Great Western Railway until its working arrangement finished on 1 May 1849, after which the Bristol and Exeter provided its own locomotives. Engine sheds were provided at major stations and on some branches, and workshops were established at Bristol in September 1854.[10]

Charles Hutton Gregory was responsible for the locomotives until May 1850, when James Pearson was appointed as Locomotive Engineer. He designed several classes of tank engines, including his distinctive large 4-2-4T locomotives, the first of which were introduced in 1854.[10]

Chronology

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e MacDermot, E T (1931). History of the Great Western Railway. 2 (1863-1921) (1 ed.). London: Great Western Railway. 
  2. ^ a b c d e Otter, R.A. (1994). Civil Engineering Heritage: Southern England. London: Thomas Telford Ltd. pp. 105–107. ISBN 978-0727719713. 
  3. ^ Simmons, Jack; Biddle, Gordon (1997). "Bridges and Viaducts". The Oxford Companion to British Railway History. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. 47. ISBN 0-19-211697-5. 
  4. ^ Brown, David K. (2006). The Way of a Ship in the Midst of the Sea: The Life and Work of William Froude. Penzance: Periscope Publishing. p. 26. ISBN 1-904381-40-5. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7Iimx-zvWccC&pg=PA26. 
  5. ^ "Bristol and Exeter". Spartacus. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RAbristol.htm. Retrieved 24 March 2010. 
  6. ^ "Bridgwater Town Trail". Bridgwater Heritage. http://www.bridgwaterheritage.org.uk/towntrail/miles/towntrail.htm. Retrieved 2009-12-22. 
  7. ^ "Rail bridge over River Parrett, Bridgwater". Somerset Historic Environment Record. Somerset County Council. http://webapp1.somerset.gov.uk/her/details.asp?prn=11837. Retrieved 21 December 2009. 
  8. ^ "Telescopic rail bridge over the River Parrett". Images of England. English Heritage. http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=374024. Retrieved 28 February 2010. 
  9. ^ MacDermot, E.T. (1931). History of the Great Western Railway, vol. II: 1863-1921. Paddington: Great Western Railway. pp. 135–137. 
  10. ^ a b Sheppard, Geof (2008). Broad Gauge Locomotives. Southampton: Noodle Books. ISBN 1-906419-09-7. 

External links