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Clifton Rocks Railway Restoration – 2005

December 2005

  • Tiny Tim poodle food
  • Bore hole done in the 1950’s showing 6 layers of bricks in tunnel roof
  • wet floor again
  • Toilet seat found in the wartime refuge Water closet section
  • It does not snow much in Bristol- so this is as Christmasy as I can get!
  • Brooke and Prudencio flask found in refuge area, being displayed by an enamel sign from a tram. Brooke and Prudencio made tonic waters from 1890 to 1960

November 2005

  • Clifton Rocks Railway team played the SS Gt Britain team at 10 pin bowling for Children in Need. We had to keep our hats on!
  • The small refuge area needed clearing!
  • Still quite a lot to go!
  • Ed admiring his handiwork. This area was then used for filming. We spent all day filming for Secret Underground Bristol. It was a fascinating experience since we also had 4 people sitting in a refuge area in the tunnel reminiscing about sheltering there in the war, and a BBC engineer who described his experiences and the function of each of the four rooms the BBC used. The film will be shown in February/ March 2006.
  • Peter and Maggie sharing a joke with Chris Searle before entering the station
  • Chris entering the station- a cold day
  • Reminiscing
  • Filming in the refuge area
  • Group photo after filming, observe the insulating board on each ledge Mike Edwards, Sue Stops and Jason Townsend took some of these photos

October 2005

  • Bottom waiting room before sweeping
  • Two Lyns sweeping
  • Alan and Lyn clearing the bottom of BBC area
  • This is the plinth where the BBC generating plant was mounted- all debris now cleared Walked up the steps three times with the rubbish which was enough for anyone
  • We cleared 60 steps by the BBC rooms which had rubber treads (to deaden sound), many of which had disintegrated so were unsafe
  • We swept the bottom large refuge area including the chemical closet area where we found an original seat.
  • Sorting out leaks in the top station. Mike Edwards took some of these photos

September 2005

  • Lots of broken bits from turnstile railings
  • Mike E assembling a jigsaw of railing into the frames
  • Long queues at Doors Open Day
  • Teresa, Peter Davey, Lauren and Lyn
  • The Scammell brothers
  • Bev talking to the visitors
  • Group picture of the volunteers
  • Engine room needed cleaning out along with the corridors and waiting room of the base station
  • We went into the water tank at the base station- no point in cleaning that out too!

August 2005

  • Cleaning all the plants from the bottom station
  • I found a gas light in the chamber (looking very sorry for itself)
  • light now firmed up and cleaned. It has controls for gas and air and is a regenerative gas light. All the controls open and shut the brass valves inside. The two steel chimneys, gas pipe and internal supports were all replaced
  • Tom refurbishing the bracket
  • Maggie, Dave and Mike refitting the light bracket in its original place
  • Maggie with a big satisfied smile on putting the lamp back on its original bracket after perhaps 70 years at least
  • Bushes on top of passageway by top reservoir
  • All cleaned off. Tank is by side of passageway

July 2005

Width of the rubble was 16′. We had already cleared 17.5′ rubble in May- but had not cleared all of it since it was tiring climbing up the 45% slope with a bucket of rubble to be carried round to the back of the station, some had been shovelled down for speed. We now had to clear the remaining 16′ rubble which was at least 2′ deep.

  • We hired a hoist on scaffolding to lift the rubble 38′ to a skip on the lane on the other side
  • We needed a rope to keep the barrow from the wall
  • The Scammel brothers powering through the rubble
  • Mike has found something
  • 45% is awfully steep- Mike E recovering after a slide- big masonry being lifted up
  • Scaffold in Princes Lane
  • 4′ rubble cleared in one and a half days
  • another 6′ rubble cleared in two days
  • so much glass- since there was originally a wired glass roof, one was bound to cut oneself
  • having a breather
  • 6′ to blast wall so rubble cleared over half the width in one day- Pete and Chris pleased with their work. Note its alot deeper here
  • Jason’s son Andrew enjoying physical labour- the heap is going down
  • Bottoming out celebration at the end of another day.

May 21st and 22nd Openday 2005

  • Donations welcome! (Clifton Rocks Railway, HSBC, Regent Street, Clifton)
  • Rocks Railway signs and cantilever gate, with Suspension Bridge
  • Sir George White (the patron and great grandson of the founder) opening the first stage. James Tonkin vicechairman- and responsible for the superb signs and other woodwork behind
  • Peter Davey (the chairman and well known presenter of wonderful talks on trams and the railway) talking to Sir George White
  • Clifton jazz band entering the railway
  • Sir George White and some volunteers (Pete Luckhurst, Maggie Shapland, James Tonkin, Mike Steadman, Donna Luckhurst, James Bray and Adam Whiting)
  • Orderly queue down the stairs (estimated 4000 came)
  • Railway model
  • Rocks Railway exhibition notice boards with old pictures and new
  • Bus stop for the buses from the Industrial Museum
  • Double Decker buses in Sion Hill
  • Double decker squeezing down Princess Victoria Street!
  • 1929 Peugeot, 1925 Talbot, modern infiltrator, 1925 Lanchester, Riley RME, Moss Monaco, Bristol, MG Magnette outside. A Rolls Royce Ghost and another Bristol also joined the display

May 2005

  • Rail profile
  • Springs on the rails being uncovered
  • 4″ Pin holding rail every 28″ (and buffer springs and bent bolt to hold wheel stationary presumably before the BBC built the wall)
  • 2 cables per wheel, the other end presumably goes to the bottom
  • Maggie’s Mike clearing the rails by spade
  • Lyn clearing the easy way
  • Maggie clearing the hard way (by the springs). The wheel has now been painted. Thanks too to Severnside Mike- whose head is shown (he provided the modern photos for the exhibition)!
  • 6 rails uncovered, the pile of rubble is getting taller- will be conveyered out in due course
  • 6 rails uncovered and visible from the pavement
  • Manufacturers name on vent outside top station
  • Prisms of clear and violet glass to reflect more light into top station
  • You can see the original colours of the top station. There was a waiting room up here.
  • Bricked in alcove in top station- is there anything behind it?

April 2005

  • wheel for cable buried in rubble
  • Railings manufactured by Gardiners of Bristol
  • gold and black railing
  • Fantastic Clifton Rocks Railway new sign
  • new handrail
  • stage with graffiti
  • stage with debris
  • sweeping some of the 700 steps
  • right hand wheel starting being cleared
  • right hand wheel being cleared, see the cable
  • left hand wheel starting being cleared
  • left hand wheel being cleared
  • left hand wheel being cleared, see the cable and rail. One can see 5 rails currently, the rest are covered by BBC brick walls

March 2005

Note the weeds cleared from the stairwell

  • Note the new welded frame to hold the signs.
  • hoarding removed
  • Note the new welded frame to hold the signs.
  • gritblasting the railings
  • Railing being painted having been gritblasted and primered, look at the rosettes

February 2005

  • Someone stole the sign that the Lord Mayor put up in 1991
  • Bottom Entrance
  • Note the hoardings have been removed from the pavement side of the railings (but not the other side), weeds in the stairwell, broken railings where signs used to be held
  • Ceiling of railway entrance
  • Note the rusty bits of railing which used to hold the signboards