39-679: The Bristol Harbour Railway (known originally as the Harbour Railway ) was a standard-gauge industrial railway that served the wharves and docks of Bristol , England. The line, which had a network of approximately 5 mi (8.0 km) of track, connected the Floating Harbour to the GWR mainline at Bristol Temple Meads . Freight could be transported directly by waggons to Paddington Station in London. The railway officially closed in 1964. In 1978,
78-410: A Welsh slate roof. In the 1990s it was still being used for the storage of wines and spirits. The building is now owned by Bristol City Council . The western half houses Bristol Archives (which holds the extensive archives of the city of Bristol) as well as other council offices. The brickwork of the exterior of the building was refurbished by John Perkins Construction using bricks which matched
117-663: A heritage railway named the Bristol Harbour Railway was opened and operated by Bristol Industrial Museum . It uses approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) of the preserved line that runs adjacent to the River Avon . The line is a very popular visitor attraction in the city. The Harbour Railway was a joint venture by the GWR and sister company the Bristol and Exeter Railway . The first part of the network opened in 1872 between Temple Meads and
156-757: A railway with a track gauge of 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ). The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson ), international gauge , UIC gauge , uniform gauge , normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the most widely used track gauge around the world, with about 55% of the lines in the world using it. All high-speed rail lines use standard gauge except those in Russia , Finland , Uzbekistan , and some line sections in Spain . The distance between
195-628: A country (for example, 1,440 mm or 4 ft 8 + 11 ⁄ 16 in to 1,445 mm or 4 ft 8 + 7 ⁄ 8 in in France). The first tracks in Austria and in the Netherlands had other gauges ( 1,000 mm or 3 ft 3 + 3 ⁄ 8 in in Austria for the Donau Moldau line and 1,945 mm or 6 ft 4 + 9 ⁄ 16 in in
234-505: A standard gauge of 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 1,435 mm ), and those in Ireland to a new standard gauge of 5 ft 3 in ( 1,600 mm ). In Great Britain, Stephenson's gauge was chosen on the grounds that existing lines of this gauge were eight times longer than those of the rival 7 ft or 2,134 mm (later 7 ft 1 ⁄ 4 in or 2,140 mm ) gauge adopted principally by
273-745: Is currently operated by the Ghana Railway Company Limited . Kojokrom-Sekondi Railway Line (The Kojokrom-Sekondi line is a branch line that joins the Western Railway Line at Kojokrom ) Indian nationwide rail system ( Indian Railways ) uses 1,676 mm ( 5 ft 6 in ) broad gauge. 96% of the broad gauge network is electrified. The railway tracks of Java and Sumatra use 1,067 mm ( 3 ft 6 in ). Planned and under construction high-speed railways to use 1,668 mm ( 5 ft 5 + 21 ⁄ 32 in ) to maintain interoperability with
312-598: The Liverpool and Manchester Railway , authorised in 1826 and opened 30 September 1830. The extra half inch was not regarded at first as very significant, and some early trains ran on both gauges daily without compromising safety. The success of this project led to Stephenson and his son Robert being employed to engineer several other larger railway projects. Thus the 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 1,435 mm ) gauge became widespread and dominant in Britain. Robert
351-657: The Portishead Railway was relaid, this severed the connection to Ashton Junction. The line starts at M shed, following the south side of the harbour and crossing Spike Island , the narrow strip of land between the harbour and the River Avon . The former route east over the Swing Bridge is now the Pill Pathway rail trail and cycleway . The railway operates on selected weekends on standard gauge track over 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 miles (2.4 km). The railway runs along
390-719: The CREATE Centre was further curtailed in December by severe subsidence that closed that section of the line and the adjacent Chocolate Path . The section collapsed into the New Cut in January 2020. Since the collapse, trains from the M Shed now travel a significantly shorter route that follows Museum Street, ending at a platform near to the SS Great Britain . Seabank Gas Works (Avonmouth) shunter The steam locomotives were formerly part of
429-535: The Floating Harbour. The route required a tunnel under St Mary Redcliffe church and a steam-powered bascule bridge across the entrance locks at Bathurst Basin. In 1876 the line was extended by 1 ⁄ 2 mile (0.80 km) to Wapping Wharf . In 1897 an act of Parliament gave the GWR the authorisation to make a westwards connection between the Harbour Railway and the Portishead Railway . This created
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#1732851561037468-889: The Great Western Railway. It allowed the broad-gauge companies in Great Britain to continue with their tracks and expand their networks within the "Limits of Deviation" and the exceptions defined in the Act. After an intervening period of mixed-gauge operation (tracks were laid with three rails), the Great Western Railway finally completed the conversion of its network to standard gauge in 1892. In North East England, some early lines in colliery ( coal mining ) areas were 4 ft 8 in ( 1,422 mm ), while in Scotland some early lines were 4 ft 6 in ( 1,372 mm ). The British gauges converged starting from 1846 as
507-631: The Netherlands for the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij ), but for interoperability reasons (the first rail service between Paris and Berlin began in 1849, first Chaix timetable) Germany adopted standard gauges, as did most other European countries. The modern method of measuring rail gauge was agreed in the first Berne rail convention of 1886. Several lines were initially built as standard gauge but were later converted to another gauge for cost or for compatibility reasons. 2,295 km (1,426 mi) Victoria built
546-698: The New Cut. In 1964, the Harbour railway connection to Temple Meads was closed and the track lifted. The steam engine from the link's bascule bridge is now preserved at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery . The following year, the Canons Marsh line closed. The branch from the Portishead line and Wapping marshalling yard to the Western Fuel Company continued remained open for commercial coal traffic for another 20 years. It
585-577: The West Loop at Ashton Gate which permitted southerly travel towards Taunton and Exeter St Davids . The connection also permitted the double the rail capacity to the Great Western Main Line . In 1906 another authorised extension created new branches from the south via the Ashton Swing Bridge to Canons Marsh on the north side of the Floating Harbour and to Wapping via a line alongside
624-399: The aborted preservation scheme at Radstock North . There is also a collection of wagons, some of which have been converted for passenger use while others are used for demonstration goods trains. Download coordinates as: 51°26′48″N 2°36′33″W / 51.4468°N 2.6092°W / 51.4468; -2.6092 Standard-gauge railway A standard-gauge railway is
663-629: The advantages of equipment interchange became increasingly apparent. By the 1890s, the entire network was converted to standard gauge. The Royal Commission made no comment about small lines narrower than standard gauge (to be called "narrow gauge"), such as the Ffestiniog Railway . Thus it permitted a future multiplicity of narrow gauges in the UK. It also made no comments about future gauges in British colonies, which allowed various gauges to be adopted across
702-476: The coal mines of County Durham . He favoured 4 ft 8 in ( 1,422 mm ) for wagonways in Northumberland and Durham , and used it on his Killingworth line. The Hetton and Springwell wagonways also used this gauge. Stephenson's Stockton and Darlington railway (S&DR) was built primarily to transport coal from mines near Shildon to the port at Stockton-on-Tees . Opening in 1825,
741-581: The colonies. Parts of the United States, mainly in the Northeast, adopted the same gauge, because some early trains were purchased from Britain. The American gauges converged, as the advantages of equipment interchange became increasingly apparent. Notably, all the 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ) broad gauge track in the South was converted to "almost standard" gauge 4 ft 9 in ( 1,448 mm ) over
780-459: The course of two days beginning on 31 May 1886. See Track gauge in the United States . In continental Europe, France and Belgium adopted a 1,500 mm ( 4 ft 11 + 1 ⁄ 16 in ) gauge (measured between the midpoints of each rail's profile ) for their early railways. The gauge between the interior edges of the rails (the measurement adopted from 1844) differed slightly between countries, and even between networks within
819-735: The first railways to the 5 ft 3 in ( 1,600 mm ) Irish broad gauge. New South Wales then built to the standard gauge, so trains had to stop on the border and passengers transferred, which was only rectified in the 1960s. Queensland still runs on a narrow gauge but there is a standard gauge line from NSW to Brisbane. NMBS/SNCB 3,619 km (2,249 mi) Brussels Metro 40 km (25 mi) Trams in Brussels 140 km (87 mi) 1,032 km (641 mi) The Toronto Transit Commission uses 4 ft 10 + 7 ⁄ 8 in ( 1,495 mm ) gauge on its streetcar and subway lines. Takoradi to Sekondi Route,
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#1732851561037858-429: The initial gauge of 4 ft 8 in ( 1,422 mm ) was set to accommodate the existing gauge of hundreds of horse-drawn chaldron wagons that were already in use on the wagonways in the mines. The railway used this gauge for 15 years before a change was made, debuting around 1850, to the 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ) gauge. The historic Mount Washington Cog Railway ,
897-534: The inner sides of the rails) to be used. Different railways used different gauges, and where rails of different gauge met – a " gauge break " – loads had to be unloaded from one set of rail cars and reloaded onto another, a time-consuming and expensive process. The result was the adoption throughout a large part of the world of a "standard gauge" of 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ), allowing interconnectivity and interoperability. A popular legend that has circulated since at least 1937 traces
936-400: The inside edges of the rails is defined to be 1,435 mm except in the United States, Canada, and on some heritage British lines, where it is defined in U.S. customary / Imperial units as exactly "four feet eight and one half inches", which is equivalent to 1,435.1 mm. As railways developed and expanded, one of the key issues was the track gauge (the distance, or width, between
975-499: The origin of the 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ) gauge even further back than the coalfields of northern England, pointing to the evidence of rutted roads marked by chariot wheels dating from the Roman Empire . Snopes categorised this legend as "false", but commented that it "is perhaps more fairly labeled as 'Partly true, but for trivial and unremarkable reasons. ' " The historical tendency to place
1014-510: The originals. The eastern side is occupied by the CREATE Centre , which includes an energy-saving Ecohome designed by Bruges Tozer Architects . The CREATE Centre also houses several organisations working in sustainable development, including the city council's sustainability teams. In 2015 a quarter of a million books and reference materials were moved from Bristol Central Library to the B Bond Warehouse to make space for refurbishment and
1053-405: The outermost portions of the wheel rims, it became apparent that for vehicles travelling on rails, having main wheel flanges that fit inside the rails is better, thus the minimum distance between the wheels (and, by extension, the inside faces of the rail heads ) was the important one. A standard gauge for horse railways never existed, but rough groupings were used; in the north of England none
1092-411: The rest of the network. All other railways use 1,668 mm ( 5 ft 5 + 21 ⁄ 32 in ) ( broad gauge ) and/or 1,000 mm ( 3 ft 3 + 3 ⁄ 8 in ) metre gauge . BLS , Rigi Railways (rack railway) 449 km Several states in the United States had laws requiring road vehicles to have a consistent gauge to allow them to follow ruts in
1131-492: The road. Those gauges were similar to railway standard gauge. B Bond Warehouse B Bond Warehouse ( grid reference ST570720 ) is a former bonded warehouse built to serve Bristol Harbour . Built in 1908, B Bond was the second of three warehouses constructed close to Cumberland Basin to meet the demands of the tobacco import boom of the early 20th century. A Bond was built in 1905 and C Bond in 1919. All three warehouses are Grade II listed buildings . B Bond
1170-749: The south side of Bristol Harbour , starting at M Shed (the former Bristol Industrial Museum ( 51°26′54″N 2°35′49″W / 51.4483°N 2.5969°W / 51.4483; -2.5969 ( Bristol Harbour Railway (Prince Street end) ) ) ), stopping at the SS ; Great Britain , and ending at B Bond Warehouse (home of the CREATE Centre), one of the large tobacco warehouses beside Cumberland Basin ( 51°26′48″N 2°37′17″W / 51.4466°N 2.6213°W / 51.4466; -2.6213 ( Bristol Harbour Railway (Cumberland Basin end) ) ) . In 2006, Bristol Industrial Museum
1209-492: The south-west of the city. In early 2013, a review of alternative routes recommended a route along Cumberland Road, Commercial Road and Redcliff Hill as the best alternative. This change of route means that the rapid transit buses would no longer use the railway. Some time before March 2017, the track and platform at Butterfly Junction (by the CREATE Centre) was removed due to work on the Bristol MetroBus system. The route to
Bristol Harbour Railway - Misplaced Pages Continue
1248-485: The term "narrow gauge" for gauges less than standard did not arise for many years, until the first such locomotive-hauled passenger railway, the Ffestiniog Railway , was built. In 1845, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , a Royal Commission on Railway Gauges reported in favour of a standard gauge. The subsequent Gauge Act ruled that new passenger-carrying railways in Great Britain should be built to
1287-434: The wheels of horse-drawn vehicles around 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ) apart probably derives from the width needed to fit a carthorse in between the shafts. Research, however, has been undertaken to support the hypothesis that "the origin of the standard gauge of the railway might result from an interval of wheel ruts of prehistoric ancient carriages". In addition, while road-travelling vehicles are typically measured from
1326-426: The world's first mountain -climbing rack railway , is still in operation in the 21st century, and has used the earlier 4 ft 8 in ( 1,422 mm ) gauge since its inauguration in 1868. George Stephenson introduced the 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ) gauge (including a belated extra 1 ⁄ 2 in (13 mm) of free movement to reduce binding on curves ) for
1365-449: Was closed and the site redeveloped into M Shed Museum of Bristol. The railway continues to operate between SS Great Britain Halt and the CREATE Centre, and in 2011 the railway became part of M Shed's working exhibits. In 2010, Bristol City Council, in partnership with other local councils in the area, proposed that the route of the railway should be used for a bus rapid transit route to serve
1404-768: Was less than 4 ft ( 1,219 mm ). Wylam colliery's system, built before 1763, was 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ), as was John Blenkinsop 's Middleton Railway ; the old 4 ft ( 1,219 mm ) plateway was relaid to 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ) so that Blenkinsop's engine could be used. Others were 4 ft 4 in ( 1,321 mm ) (in Beamish ) or 4 ft 7 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 1,410 mm ) (in Bigges Main (in Wallsend ), Kenton , and Coxlodge ). English railway pioneer George Stephenson spent much of his early engineering career working for
1443-597: Was officially closed in 1987. In 1978, the Bristol Industrial Museum reopened part of the line as preserved railway using locomotives built in Bristol and formerly used at Avonmouth Docks . At first, it connected the museum with the SS Great Britain , but when commercial rail traffic ceased in 1987 on the remaining branch line, the museum railway expanded to use the branch alongside the New Cut . However, when
1482-589: Was reported to have said that if he had had a second chance to choose a gauge, he would have chosen one wider than 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 1,435 mm ). "I would take a few inches more, but a very few". During the " gauge war " with the Great Western Railway , standard gauge was called " narrow gauge ", in contrast to the Great Western's 7 ft 1 ⁄ 4 in ( 2,140 mm ) broad gauge . The modern use of
1521-484: Was the first major building in Britain constructed using the reinforced concrete system pioneered by Edmond Coignet . It was built by Cowlins Construction. The open plan structure, which is nine storeys high and has an 18-window range, was created in two equal parts separated by central spine wall. In addition to the concrete structure, the warehouse was built using black bricks, patent red bricks and blue engineering bricks, with Pennant stone steps, terracotta details and
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