Great Western Coffee Shop

Pity they didn't rebuild the spire (https://www.networkrail.co.uk/who-we-are/our-history/iconic-infrastructure/the-history-of-bristol-temple-meads-station/) that was destroyed during WWII.

As I watched that, I thought that the whole hour could have been about Temple Meads and it wouldn't have been boring.   So much more that could have been said and shown (no criticism at all of the programme, just suggesting a development.)  I'm sure the same would be true of Sheffield the previous week (I loved that it was the Council guy's last day before retirement), never mind York, Norwich, Waterloo, Paddington, Edinburgh Waverley........

I'm really glad that Temple Meads got the lions share of the program time and as previously mentioned, I'm sure there was more than enough material to fill the entire episode.
I was also pleased that the Southend Pier Railway featured as well.  During the 1960s, living on the northeastern fringe of London, I've got fond childhood memories of catching the train from Ilford for family days out at Southend.  Oddly perhaps, I don't think we ever went on the pier railway.

They still might; they certainly should. The dome of the former Bristol General Hospital was recently restored, having been destroyed by incendiaries in a similar fashion.

If you look up next time you enter Temple Meads through the front door, you'll see that the ceiling has a CC41 look about it. Presumably the whole roof went along with the tower. Any restoration of this part of this (internationally significant!) structure should set out to fix all of this.

I watched the show again when it was repeated last night, as I often find that watching such shows twice I pick up items that didn’t register the first time around.

So it was last night when he mentioned that at the time of the 1870s rebuilding there were four railway companies running into it. I am aware of three (Great Western, Bristol and Exeter and the Midland) but what was the fourth? The Somerset & Dorset Bath extension had yet to be opened at the time, and through trains from the LSWR via Salisbury would seem to be pushing a point a bit.

What was that fourth railway?

Any S&D or LSWR trains reaching Temple Meads would have had to have been rather lost, I think. Maybe the Bristol and Gloucester?

Edit: Not B&G, as that's equivalent to the Midland in this context.

Quite, and that was why I asked the question and framed the narrative of the post in the way I did.

As far as I know, no S&D trains ever reached Bristol via Highbridge (well a special did in 1965 but that's another matter!). The Bath extension didn't open until 1874 and any through trains from Bournemouth via Bath Green Park would be better described as joint Midland/LSWR services

Any through trains from the LSWR at Salisbury woukd have had to run 50-odd miles over the GWR so would be difficult to describe them as LSWR trains, unless we are talking rolling stock workings.

But if he was including rolling stock workings there would have been all sorts in Bristol at that time ncluding North Eastern, LNWR and possibliy MS&L/ GC turning up regularly.

So I remain flummoxed!

Forum Webmaster note - I am using this thread to test mouseovers over abbreviations ... it will be toned down before it goes wider, and turnable offable by members who don't want it!



Edit to add - 09:42 14.3.2021 - I have now split off all the responses into a separate thread at http://www.passenger.chat/24784 and am leaving this clean for Bristol Temple Meads ...

Whilst all these posts written in computer speak may be riveting fr some, this thread has been completely hijacked by them. Can I suggest we split them off onto a new thread?

And unfortunately I posted an on-topic railway and Temple Meads related question just before it all kicked off, which no-one has addressed. This could be of course bebecause no-one knows the answer, or it could have completely forgotten because of all the awe-inspiring discussion on Firefox version z point x, apples and Mackintoshes (might be interesting if you’re trying to eat one when its raining...) RS232 interface leads, or whatever.

By the way, I’ve never heard of a mouseover before. I think our cat prefers mice under rather than over her, but when I asked her she only said meow. Or it could have been meow meow – I can’t remember the details of the conversation

So before I start posting about Tim Dunn telling porkies on the wireless with pictures, I will pose the question again. On this week’s  show he said that four railway companies were operating into Temple Meads at the time of the 1870s rebuilding and I could only think of three; GWR, B&E and MR. Can anybody think of the fourth?

[/tongue in cheek mode]

 ;)

Yes - you may suggest that.

I was the one who "kicked off" the techie stuff as I needed real data riddled with unexplained acronyms in a thread to see how mouseover highlighting would look in a practical case with lets of members reading it - I did explain that to you and beg your forbearance in a personal message sent at 10:45:41 yesterday. 

My hijacking has worked well - lots of attention to the thread from lots of different browser, and lots of user feedback for the greater good - but that only needs/needed to be quite a short term thing and I'll split the thread when it's "proper" morning.    Thank you for putting up with the activities I solicited  :D


Edit to add - 09:42 14.3.2021 - I have now split off all the responses into a separate thread at http://www.passenger.chat/24784 and am leaving this clean for Bristol Temple Meads ...

Robin - B&SWUR ?

An interesting history of Bristol's Railway Mania - a 24 page booklet from from the Bristol Branch of the Historical Association. Department of History, University of Bristol, dated 1987 in online / downloadable at https://bristolha.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/bha066.pdf

I must get some sleep!

There is a plaque relating to the Bristol and South Wales Union Railway on platform 3, I seem to remember - not been there for some time.

I reckon the obvious place to look is the 1867 version of the Railway Clearing House junction diagrams. There are e-books of that on line, but they are limited. For one thing the original did not have colour, and tried - rather unsuccessfully - to show companies by shading instead. Then the only digital versions I can find are of low resolution and the text is barely legible. And the page for Bristol has Exeter on it too, and a single legend for both.

However, given that, the five companies shown as present  in those two stations are clear enough (copied here as exactly as I can): B. & E.,  G^T. W., L. & S. W., MID., SO. DEVON..

So, assuming that two of those are known to be in Exeter but not Bristol, my money is on a modified version of the porkies theory. Was there another company still existing in name but not as a separate operating entity? A TV researcher could easily get confused trying to sort that out based on a number of different written histories of the railway companies in this period.

Another that comes to mind is the North Somerset Railway

Indeed there is:

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/90/Bristol_%26_South_Wales_Union_Railway_-_plaque_at_Bristol_Temple_Meads.jpg/512px-Bristol_%26_South_Wales_Union_Railway_-_plaque_at_Bristol_Temple_Meads.jpg)
Image: Chris McKenna (Thryduulf), CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

Never seen any of this series but I thought I'd have a look. Must have clicked in the wrong place because, after registering, I ended up watching an episode about Huddersfield, Cologne and Morecambe. Which was good, because I've never been to Huddersfield or Morecambe (though I have been to Cologne and do remember the bridge, so good to now know its history).