Spike Island - Bristol

[Mark J]

Came across the plethora of rails and sidings at Spike Island/Wapping wharf, on a visit to Bristol last weekend.

Are the rails still connected to the main network?

Signs potted around stated it is an operational railway - however the color of the rails in some places (the curve in the cutting, towards the bridge) seemed to indicate otherwise!

 

[pdeaves]

Sounds like the docks railway, used to be the outdoor bit of 'Bristol Industrial museum', not 'M-shed'; see about half way down https://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/m-shed/whats-at/working-exhibits/

 

[sprinterguy]

The Bristol Harbour Railway operates steam train rides between M shed and either the SS Great Britain or Vauxhall Bridge (there are two separate branches) on selected weekends throughout the year. They've had a couple of operating weekends already this year, and will be in operation this weekend (30th/31st March), then 13/14th April, the following Easter weekend and then the May Day bank holiday weekend:
https://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/m-shed/whats-on/train-rides/

I believe that the remaining line west of Vauxhall Bridge to the Butterfly Junction Halt station, by the Ashton Avenue swing bridge, is currently obstructed by a short diversion of the riverside Chocolate Path, and the track and platform at the Butterfly Junction end were removed to make way for the new busway thing that now uses the bridge. I think that the connection to the national network was severed in around 1997 (Though commercial freight traffic had ceased ten years before in 1987), though track remained in place for some years after that in an increasingly overgrown state on the swing bridge itself. I think the last loco across the bridge was pannier tank 1369 in 1996 (Scroll towards the bottom of the linked page for photos):
https://bristolharbourrailway.co.uk/tag/meadows/