Mock up of a coach but original track!
One of original turnstiles.
Another group of visitors.
The stairs and walls added during world war two. One rail remains under the stairs, the other six to the right of the wall, and the last behind a wall built on the opposite side.
Something very different today - a trip to see the Clifton Rocks Railway. This was a very unusual four track underground funicular in the shadow of the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol. Although it closed in 1934 the track remains and there is now an active group restoring it, with the eventual aim of operating it again on two of the four tracks, connecting with a bus (hopefully eventually tram!) route into the city centre, so fulfilling a genuine transport need.
Although today's trip was only of the top station the society does offer tours to view the whole route, which takes about two hours as there are interesting war time additions to view including air raid facilities and a BBC underground emergency broadcasting station.
If any readers would be interested in joining one of these special tours please email me on leysiner@aol.com - we need 10 to make up a tour of our own, with less we can join a tour with others. Unfortunately there is (for obvious reasons) no wheelchair access for this tour. A donation of £5 each is suggested.
11 comments:
Steve, you say the following ; The stairs and walls added during world war two.
Although it closed in 1934 the track remains.
Daft question but why add stairs etc after it closed in 1934 ????
By the way, we have 'working' cliff car at Bournemouth so there, big rasberries to you mate !!!! lol
The stairs were added to give access to the air raid shelters and the BBC station built during the war. These had to be built over one of the rails on each side because of the limited space available.
I went on the cliff car at Bournemouth on my honeymoon which was fun. But the Bristol one is unique in Britain (there was a similar line in lausanne, Switzerland, now converted to rack operation and extended) as it was built underground so as not to offend the people of Clifton who were, and still are, 'too good for public transport!'
BAD NEWS- SHILLINGSTONE STATION WEBSITE: LATEST NEWS.
Could you elaborate? Couldn't spot anything in that tangle of text!
Sorry- the following text at the top DISCLAIMER: We have no links with the New Somerset and Dorset Railway, and never have done.
We are NOT involved with them in ANY way.
LOL! That's good news ...
We've never claimed to have anything to do with them, and we've never worked out why they put it - but it sent LOADS of new traffic to our website and blog as it's the first thing you see on the page. We're very grateful to them for it!
well thats one way of looking at it..
I can't see why Shillingstone would have anything to do with you as they are purely a heritage site?
Well we certainly didn't court Shillingstone or get involved in any way, so why the disclaimer appeared is a total mystery! But you would think a group claiming to support the S&D would be over the moon that a company had been formed to rebuild the whole line allowing access to heritage groups to any stretch of the route they wanted to operate on. Ho hum.
Never mind, we're in for the long haul, have now started buying sections of the route and the door to Shillingstone and any other S&D groups will always be open. It's enshrined in our constitution and despite being a real transport operation almost all of our current membership have come to us via the heritage movement
And, as I said, blog and web hits did increase after our bit of free advertising on the site!
Wait till the Steam Railway Magazine article hits the streets!
And let’s hope the local community get involved to safeguard and protect what we have left of the route, because they are the ones who are going to need it.
I’m sure everyone has noticed how much fuel has gone up lately and my view is that it will continue going one way: upwards.
No need to worry about the odd supermarket built across the trackbed, as I’m sure they won't be slow to act when the realisation that the cheap fuel and energy era is ending.
Villages like Spetisbury must restore their station buildings as they would want them, and make the station once again at the heart of the community. You don't want the indebted state buying just a poxy bus shelter?
When i travel to the seaside from the Midlands i want to lean out the window and enjoy the countryside, like the generation before me once did.
We have the ability in this country to do such a thing, and our over reliance on oil & road will give us the opportunity to do so, and we mustn’t waste it.
Oh sorry, forget all that, we’re all going to have electric cars, aren’t we?
Midsomer Norton seem more receptive though.
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