The Galloping Sausage and Other Train Curiosities by Body Geoff; Body Ian;

Author:Body, Geoff; Body, Ian; [Body, Geoff Body and Ian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2016-02-22T00:00:00+00:00

I SEE NO SHIPS

Along the single line from Bristol to Portishead a complex of station, passing loop, signal box, sidings and branch line was constructed at a point 127 miles 30 chains from London, but never fulfilled the purpose for which it was intended. The fifty-seven-lever signal box was brought into use on 29 January 1918 and lasted until 14 April 1964, by which time the station itself had been closed for twenty-one years.

This situation came about as a result of the considerable losses of merchant shipping suffered during the First World War. To maintain the country’s vital supply lines it was decided to build a new shipyard on the south bank of the River Avon, not far from its emergence into the Severn Estuary. A new station and associated sidings on the Portishead branch were linked to the shipyard construction site by a connecting line and were, for a short time, used for bringing in the materials for the building work. But then the war ended, the need for the additional shipbuilding capacity no longer existed and the associated part of the new station facilities became redundant.

The station, named Portbury Shipyard, was in use from 16 September 1918 to 26 June 1923 and had been intended for the use of people working at the shipyard site but that need passed when the government abandoned the project. The GWR retained the signal box and passing loop but, apart from the original construction materials and a few loads of coal, the sidings and shipyard branch had become redundant and were eventually lifted.

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