Gerald Road: The Avonside Branch on a shelf (N part 56)…

First things first, before anyone with local knowledge points this out - I know Gerald Road is not near Lawrence Hill and the Avonside Branch. Instead, it’s less than a mile away in Ashton Gate, across the new cut. Why then, is this project named as it is?

D2121 at Avonside Wharf 1972, Andy Kirkham photo (https://flic.kr/p/gSSfvr)
Note Bristol Temple Meads in background, which was on a higher level and across the river from this location, sadly now covered in flats with little to remind residents of the rail and industrial heritage of this, Bristol’s first railway terminus.

Gerald Road is where my Dad grew up, and I have fond memories of childhood summers walking from the house to Wapping Wharf. I’ve mused schemes previously drawing on this nostalgia, this time however I’m adding some reality to the melting pot and shifting things closer to the railway heart of the city. 

From Tom Foxon in Narrowboat magazine…

In August 1835 the first Bristol & Gloucester Railway completed a horse-drawn tramway from mines at Coalpit Heath to a terminus at Cuckold's Pill, later known as Avon Street or Avonside Wharf at Bristol. The wharf was located on the north bank of the Floating Harbour, immediately to the west of the current Great Western Railway bridge that crossed it and just to the east of Temple Meads station. Here coal was transshipped from tramway wagons into barges. The B&GR was taken over by the second Bristol & Gloucester Railway on 11th July 1839, whose line between Bristol and Gloucester was completed and opened in 1844. The railway company built a new main line from Lawrence Hill Junction to the Great Western Railway just east of Temple Meads station and the original line to Avonside Wharf became a goods branch.

As is my usual flavour, we’re not looking at this branch-line in its heyday, no it’s the dog days here, weed strewn sidings, rusting rails and minimal service to a few surviving customers. If the story sounds familiar it’s because it echoes so many of my layout schemes both British and American (and these are further explored in my new book, out later this year), a place I seem to return again and again and although I can’t tell you exactly why I can muse that it has something to do with those early childhood memories, walking over and alongside the rails at Wapping Wharf, weed strewn, cinder ballast soaked with dirt, oil and detritus, rusting wagons and nature reclaiming the right of way with just the hint of life, fresh orange rust disguising the movement of a recent train.

Concept sketch, showing the advantage of N gauge in this limited space. Foreground scenes break up the railway view, plenty of opportunity for finescale modelling. James Hilton 2023.

So this is a flavour of the place, I will include a scrap merchant and cement silo on stage, with the distillers siding assumed beyond stage right. I envisage two operational periods, 1970s with the 03 and vacuum braked Presflos and 16T and a later ‘faux’ Speedlink period with PCAs, Black Adders and an 08. Yes it’s simplified, and hence I’ve taken some liberties and included ‘lead actors’ beyond the track and stock. The pub front and centre, the Western Fuel Co. sales office and lorry (from Wapping Wharf and home of the ‘big yellow diesel’) and a mix of old and new gates, brick walls, chain link fence and concrete fence panels. Period advertising hoardings and signs of rationalisation with old sleepers, new track and a second disused set of rails across the road.

The Farish 03 and match wagon - catalysts and sourced just for the creative energy that such a wonderful thing can contain within its form!

Inspiration, track plan and sketch. Photos from a Flickr, credit to original collections. Non credited photos are grabs from a a YouTube video of railway interest around Barton Road and Lawrence Hill. James Hilton 2023.

For some months now I’ve felt the drive to build a new layout. Moving Pont-y-dulais on was the start, and now Mollington Road has gone and hopefully Kinross too I have the space and some ££ to put towards materials. In my first book, due to be reprinted this summer, I talk about the need to find a space in your home first, otherwise plans never get beyond paper - and combining the space with a scale, prototype and viewing height that work together. 

Lochdubh has been a pleasant distraction and a chance to pause and reflect. Paxton Road 3 was a realisation that I wanted a little more than PR2, however as a concept it was flawed in design. This then takes the N scale journey forwards whilst reflecting the real mental, emotional and physical learning of recent projects.

The key things are falling into place. The important difference to Lochdubh is operation, and I know from experience that leads to some sort of longevity. Reflecting also from Beaverbrook that cardboard mock ups allow quick progress and the enjoyment of adding scenic elements over time and it feels a good 1-2 year project I can fit around my life and space here in North Wales. 

So this is not another prototype I just needed to get out of my system and into a book (!) rather a considered and choreographed collection of nostalgia, melancholy, craft and play shrunk down and put in a box. Artful perhaps too? Let us see where it leads, until next time more soon…

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