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Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Light Railway

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Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Light Railway
Hesperus at Weston-super-Mare with one of the 'American' coaches
Overview
HeadquartersClevedon
LocaleEngland
Dates of operation1897–1940
Technical
Track gauge1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Length13.8 mi (22.2 km)

The Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Light Railway (WC&PR) was a 13.8 miles (22.2 km) standard gauge light railway in Somerset, England. It was conceived as a tramway in the 1880s, opening between the coastal towns of Weston-super-Mare and Clevedon in 1897 and completed to Portishead in 1907. It closed in 1940.

History

Construction and opening

A broad gauge railway from Portishead to Clevedon was proposed in 1865 to connect with the Bristol and Portishead Railway which was then under construction. If it had been built it would have allowed direct services from Clevedon to Bristol which would have avoided the need to change at Yatton.[1]

A new proposal in 1884 envisaged the three towns being linked by a 'Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon and Portishead Tramway'. This standard gauge line would run along the street from the Boulevard to Ashcombe Road in Weston-super-Mare and then off-road (apart from numerous level crossings) from there to Portishead. An Act of Parliament authorising its construction was passed on 6 August 1885.[2][3]

Building of the Weston-super-Mare to Clevedon section of the tramway began in 1887 but progress was slow due to many legal and financial problems. The Act had stipulated that construction should be completed within 5 years but further Acts had to be passed on 25 July 1890 and again on 27 July 1892 to extend the time allowed. The section from Ashcombe Road to Clevedon was formally inspected by the Board of Trade on 26 August 1897 but not allowed to open. Due to the long time taken to build the line some of the wooden sleepers had rotted and needed to be replaced. The local council also complained about the state of the track along the streets in Weston-super-Mare so this was taken up. A second inspection was made on 9 November and the line finally opened on 1 December 1897.[2] Instead of the extension to the Boulevard, the Tramway provided horse buses from Ashcombe Road to Birnbeck Pier and the Sanatorium for a few years.[4]

Completion to Portishead

The location of Clapton Road Halt near Portishead.

The powers to construct the railway had run out in 1896 so another Act of Parliament was required. After some opposition from the Clevedon Urban District Council regarding the necessary level crossings, the Act was passed on 9 August 1899. In addition to allowing construction to be completed to Portishead by August 1904 it enabled the tramway to convert to a light railway with the name changed to the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Light Railway Company.[5]

Financial difficulties continued. By 1904 the company was about £76,000 in debt so a new limited company was floated, the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Docks Railway, with a capital of £120,000.[6] The new company still found it difficult to raise enough money until September 1905 when £14,500 of 5% debentures were taken up by the Excess Insurance Company. In 1906 it borrowed £16,000 from other sources but was unable to repay the interest so the Excess Insurance Company provided funds up to £15,000 in March 1907 on the condition that the existing directors were replaced by new directors chosen by the insurance company.[7]

With money available again work could be completed on the new line to Portishead. It was inspected on 31 July 1907 and opened for traffic on 7 August 1907.[8]

Receivership and closure

The finances of the railway were always precarious and became serious by 1905. It entered receivership in 1909 and was in decline up to the outbreak of World War II, not helped by the increase in road traffic. It had relied on the transport of stone from the Black Rock quarries and the decline in this business made things worse. The railway spent 31 of its 43 years in the hands of receivers.

Col. H. F. Stephens took over the running of the WC&PR in 1911. He was known as the 'Light Railway King' because he ran a number of similar railways, and though he got the costs under control, the financial situation remained poor. After his death in 1931 W. H. Austen followed him as manager until the railway closed.

Due to an ever-worsening financial state, the Company applied for a Court order to close the line. The railway closed on 18 May 1940. The Great Western Railway purchased the line (but not the land) to use it for wagon storage, and for a short time up to 200 coal wagons were stored on the line. It was decided to remove the track for use in the war effort, and it was cleared between October 1942 and late 1943. The legality of the ownership of the land was a long-running issue that was never properly resolved.

Description

The railway ran through sparsely-populated and level countryside. It was 13.8 miles (22.2 km) long with 19 stations or halts, most of which had a small shelter and no platform. It was built with economy in mind and there were no major station buildings or bridges.

Links to the Great Western Railway were provided at Clevedon and Portishead. A short branch to a wharf at Wick St. Lawrence on the River Yeo was built in 1915. Sidings served three stone quarries in the Gordano Valley.

Rolling stock

Most of the locomotives and rolling stock were bought second-hand from various sources, making a varied collection.

Steam locomotives

Number Name Type Builder Built To WC&PR Withdrawn Former railway and notes[9]
— Harold 0-6-0ST Kitson 1872 1897 1898
— Clevedon 0-6-0T Walker Brothers ? 1897 1898
— Clevedon 2-2-2WT Sharp Stewart 1857 1898 1904? Furness Railway
— Weston 2-2-2WT Sharp Stewart 1866 1898 1906 Furness Railway
— Portishead 0-6-0T Robert Stephenson 1887 1898 1901
1 Clevedon 2-4-0T Dübs 1879 1901 1940 Jersey Railway
— Emlyn No. 82 0-6-0ST Kitson ? 1903? 1907
— — 2-4-0T Sharp Stewart 1872 1903 1906 London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
— Emlyn No. 96 0-6-0ST Black, Hawthorn ? 1905? 1905
3 Weston 0-6-0ST Manning Wardle 1881 1906 1940
2 Portishead 0-6-0ST Manning Wardle 1890 1907 1926
4 Walton Park 0-6-0ST Hudswell, Clarke 1908 1908 1912 WC&PR's first "new" locomotive
4 Hesperus 2-4-0T Sharp Stewart 1876 1911 1937 W&PRR/Great Western Railway[10]
2 Northiam 2-4-0T Hawthorn Lelsie 1899 1917? 1921 On loan from Kent and East Sussex Railway
5 — 0-6-0ST Manning Wardle 1919 1919 1940
2 Portihead 0-6-0T LBSCR 1877 1925 1940 LBSCR/Southern Railway
4 — 0-6-0T LBSCR 1875 1937 1940 LBSCR/Southern Railway

Internal combustion

Number Type Builder Built To WC&PR Withdrawn Former railway and notes[9]
— Tractor Muir-Hill 1921 1921 1926
— Railcar Drewry 1921 1921 1940
— Trailer 1923 1923 1940 [11]
— Tractor Muir-Hill 1926 1926 1940
5 Railcar Drewry 1928 1934 1940 Southern Railway[12]

The line today

Due to the lack of major infrastructure, there are few obvious remains of the line. Still surviving is a small bridge over a rhyne in Portishead, the remains of a bridge over the River Yeo, and the wharf. Much of the route of the track bed survives, a small part of which can be walked on Weston Moor reserve in the Gordano Valley. There are plans to convert some of the track bed to a cycle path as part of the National Cycle Network.

The WC&P Railway Group was formed in November 2006, to attempt to preserve what was left of the railway.

References

  1. ^ Redwood, Christopher (1981). The Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Railway. Weston-super-Mare: Avon-Anglia. p. 17. ISBN 0-905466-42-X.
  2. ^ a b Redwood 1981, pp. 22–35
  3. ^ Maggs, Colin (1964). The Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Railway. Lingfield: The Oakwood Press. pp. 5–12.
  4. ^ Strange, Peter (1989). The Weston, Clevedon & Portishead Railway, a pictorial record. Truro: Twelveheads Press. pp. 44–45. ISBN 0-906294-19-3.
  5. ^ Redwood 1981, pp. 37–40
  6. ^ Redwood 1981, p. 42
  7. ^ Redwood 1981, pp. 49–53
  8. ^ Redwood 1981, pp. 45–46
  9. ^ a b Strange 1989, p. 33
  10. ^ Darbyshire, Les (1970). "W.C.&P.R. No. 4 Hesperus". Model Railway News. Vol. 46, no. 552. pp. 632–633.
  11. ^ Strange 1989, pp. 29–30
  12. ^ Clark, P.R. (1976). "Southern Railway petrol railcar No. 5". Model Railway Constructor. Vol. 43, no. 505. pp. 176–177.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Railway.

Further reading

  • Bourne, John (1956). "The Weston, Clevedon & Portishead Railway". Trains Illustrated. Vol. 9, no. 8. pp. 393–399.
  • Mitchell,Vic and Smith, Keith (2003). Branch Lines to Clevedon and Portishead. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN 1-904474-18-7.
  • Scott-Morgan, John (1978). The Colonel Stephens Railways: A Pictorial Survey. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0 7153 7544 X. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Smith, Martin (1992). The Railways of Bristol & Somerset. Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-2063-9.
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