Former Station near Filton, Bristol

[ValleyLines142]

Just to the north of Filton Abbeywood, close to the junction of Patchway/Bristol Parkway lies the remains of what I presume is a former railway station. I noticed it today on the 1230 Cardiff to Portsmouth service. It is absolutely covered in overgrown weeds and there is a rusty staircase which I presume leads down to a subway, implying that the station in question consisted of an island platform. As I am not from the area (living in Cardiff and commuting to Bristol every day), can anyone local or knowledgeable of the area shed some light on this? I'd be most interested. CrossCountry and First Great Western services pass, just after Filton before the line heads north-east towards Bristol Parkway and north-west towards Patchway and Wales. Thank you!

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Sounds like the old Filton North, which was directly replaced by the better-sited Filton Abbey Wood. It closed in 1995 or thereabout.

 

[Buttsy]

I concur with MattE in that it is the old Filton station.

 

[steevp]

From wikipedia:

"There have been three Filton stations on a short stretch of line in this area. The first, on the Bristol to New Passage Pier line opened on 8 September 1863, was just north of the present station; it was resited on 4 October 1886. Services were then diverted to a station further north (on the northern side of the present day A4174 ring road) which was renamed Filton Junction on 1 May 1910. This was renamed as just Filton on 6 May 1968 but it in turn closed when services moved to the present station, about a quarter of a mile south of the actual junction, on 11 March 1996."

So looks like the 2nd station (there is more info on wikipedia about why it was moved - basically to be near MOD offices)

 

[Buttsy]

There was a further station in the Filton area, on the Henbury line, which was a workman's halt called North Filton Platform, but this is well away from the main lines.

 

[ValleyLines142]

Ah, I see. Thanks for the info everyone!

 

[Mojo]

Sounds like the old Filton North, which was directly replaced by the better-sited Filton Abbey Wood. It closed in 1995 or thereabout.

I concur with MattE in that it is the old Filton station.

l think there's a bit of confusion here, as to my knowledge there was never a Filton North station. The station the OP refers to on the Main Line is Filton (although l've seen sources refer to this as Filton Junction too; not sure which is correct), which was replaced by Filton Abbey Wood in the 1990s.

There was a North Filton, which is on the line towards Henbury, currently only used by freight and for diversions and this closed to normal passengers in the 1960s and to workers trains in the 1980s.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Indeed Mojo - I did mean Filton Jn! Always forget that North is the long-disused one out towards St Andrews Rd!

 

[mr williams]

IIRC the old Filton station stayed open very briefly after Abbey Wood came along, probably so that the necessary statutory notice etc could be given and to allow for any delays in opening the new station.

However, in its later years it only used to get 5/6 or so trains a day each way, a couple in the morning and evening peak with one at lunchtime.

Edit: I've just found the 1993/94 timetable and trains called at Filton Monday to Saturday (no Sunday service):

To Bristol: 07.07, 08.39, 16.47 (SX), 17.40

To Cardiff: 07.52, 08.30, 09.22 (SX), 12.33, 17.28, 19.22

So it was somewhat lop-sided!

 

[The Planner]

Here on Disused Stations shows North Filton Platform