Bristol and Exeter Railway locomotives

The Bristol and Exeter Railway locomotives worked trains on the Bristol and Exeter Railway from 1 May 1849 until the railway was amalgamated with the Great Western Railway on 1 January 1876.

The Great Western Railway had leased the Bristol and Exeter Railway from its opening and provided the locomotives up until 1849.

The Bristol and Exeter Railway in turn provided the broad gauge locomotive power on most of the railways with which it had junctions:

Engineering

The railway established workshops at Bristol Temple Meads railway station in September 1854, the site later being known as Bath Road. Engine sheds were provided at major stations and on some branches including at Taunton railway station and Exeter St Davids railway station.

The engineer was Charles Hutton Gregory until May 1850, when James Pearson was appointed as Locomotive Engineer. He designed several classes of tank engines, including large 4-2-4T locomotives.

Locomotive types

Broad gauge

Standard gauge

The Bristol and Exeter Railway operated 28 standard gauge locomotives, all of which became GWR property on 1 January 1876.[11]

Narrow gauge

The Bristol and Exeter Railway built two 0-4-0WT locomotives in 1874/75 at Bristol – numbers 112 and 113 – for working the 3 feet gauge lines in its ballast quarry at Westleigh, Devon to the main line at Burlescombe. They were renumbered 1381/2 when acquired by the GWR, and following the conversion of the line to standard gauge in 1898, were sold in 1899.[17]

Locomotives in numerical order

References

  1. ^ Reed 1953, pp. B32–3.
  2. ^ a b c Reed 1953, p. B33.
  3. ^ Reed 1953, pp. B33, B35.
  4. ^ Reed 1953, pp. B34–5.
  5. ^ a b Reed 1953, p. B35.
  6. ^ Reed 1953, p. B34.
  7. ^ Reed 1953, pp. B33–4.
  8. ^ Reed 1953, pp. B35–6.
  9. ^ a b c d e Reed 1953, p. B36.
  10. ^ Reed 1953, pp. B28–9, B36.
  11. ^ Reed 1956, p. C61.
  12. ^ Reed 1956, pp. C62–3.
  13. ^ Reed 1956, p. C62.
  14. ^ a b Reed 1956, p. C63.
  15. ^ Reed 1956, pp. C63–4.
  16. ^ a b c Reed 1956, p. C64.
  17. ^ Reed 1956, pp. C64–5.
  • Reed, P. J. T. (February 1953). White, D. E. (ed.). The Locomotives of the Great Western Railway, Part 2: Broad Gauge. Kenilworth: RCTS. ISBN 0-901115-32-0. OCLC 650490992.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ignored ISBN errors (link)
  • Reed, P. J. T. (December 1956). White, D. E. (ed.). The Locomotives of the Great Western Railway, part three: Absorbed Engines, 1854-1921. RCTS. ISBN 0-901115-33-9. OCLC 12654357.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ignored ISBN errors (link)
  • MacDermot, E T (1931). History of the Great Western Railway, Volume 2. London: Great Western Railway.
  • Messenger, Michael (1993). The Culm Valley Light Railway. Truro: Twelveheads Press. ISBN 0-906294-29-0.
  • Waters, Laurence (1999). The Great Western Broad Gauge. Hersham: Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 0-7110-2634-3.