Millennium Project

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The BGS Millennium Project

Members of the Broad Gauge Society are collating information on the hundreds of broad gauge buildings and structures which have survived into the new millennium, despite the broad gauge era ending over a hundred years earlier. It is hoped that this will encourage recording the details of these works for future historians and modellers, but it is also providing an opportunity to identify any which are need of conservation or listing.

Please report any changes of use to broad gauge structures to the Broad Gauge Historical Steward.

Grade I listed buildings Avon Bridge, Bristol Royal Albert Bridge, Saltash Starcross Pumping House, Devon Temple Meads Station, Bristol

Grade II* listed buildings Bath station, Somerset Bridgwater station, Somerset Bristol & Exeter Offices, Bristol Chippenham viaduct, Wiltshire Fairburn Steam Crane, Bristol Maidenhead Bridge, Berkshire Moorswater Viaduct, Cornwall Mortimer station, Berkshire River Parrett Bridge, Bridgwater River Thames Bridge, Windsor Swindon Workshops, Wiltshire Torquay Pumping Station, Devon

Some other notable buildings Axbridge station Box Tunnel, Wiltshire Bradford station, Wiltshire Didcot Transfer Shed Frome station, Somerset Kingswear station, Devon Sandford station, Somerset Sutton Harbour, Plymouth Sydney Gardens, Bath Torquay station, Devon West Somerset Railway Wycombe station, Buckinghamshire Yatton station

 

Bristol

The buildings at Temple Meads are the largest collection of Grade I and Grade II listed buildings in the country. They include the three phases of development of the station from its opening as a terminus to the completion of the impressive roof of the modern station, also the headquarters building of the Bristol & Exeter Railway, and the George and Railway Hotel. Brunel's original terminus is now home to the Empire & Commonwealth Muesum, and many original features have been preserved, both inside and out. The line approaching from Bath passes through several Gothic tunnels and over Gothic arched bridges before finally crossing the Grade I listed Avon Bridge a short distance from the station. In the city itself is the floating harbour which is still dredged using a system specially designed by Brunel. Here can be found an 1876 built Fairburn steam crane, along with the SS Great Britain, the façade of Brunel's hotel, and the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

Bath and Box

Bath is a World Heritage City and its railway ably supports this. The main station was built from honey coloured local stone by Brunel, as were many bridges and tunnels in the area, including the famous west face of Box Tunnel. The line approaches the city from the East through the Sydney Gardens where especial care was taken to provide a picturesque scene. The garden is separated from the line by a carved stone balustrade, the far side being a curved retaining wall for the canal above; stone and decorative cast iron bridges soar above the trains.

Somerset Stations

There is a wonderful selection of broad gauge stations surviving in good condition around Somerset. Perhaps the most important is Frome, the only surviving example of a Brunel-style all-over roofed station on the national rail network. It is served by Bristol to Weymouth trains as is Bradford in Wiltshire where the two buildings are built in local Bath stone. A similar building, this time in limestone, is the one-time junction station at Yatton. The railway hotel still earns its keep as a pub, the station footbridge dates from broad gauge days, and the station garden has recently been restored. One branch ran to Cheddar serving Sandford (where the buildings are now part of Sandford Stone Centre) and Axbridge where the main buildings, goods shed, and station master's house are all still in use by various people. The whole 12 miles form a countryside walk. Further down the main line is Bridgwater. The station buildings here are particularly opulent, and the River Parrett Bridge on the abandoned docks branch is preserved. It once let ships pass by swinging open after a part had been wheeled aside.

South Devon Atmospheric

The railway from Exeter to Plymouth and Torbay was originally designed to be worked by an atmospheric system. Stationary pumping stations every few miles along the line created a vacuum in big pipes laid between the rails; a piston connected to the train pulled it along. The system failed to live up to its promise so was abandoned before it was even completed. The red sandstone building at Starcross is the only pumping station actually put to work which survives, although its chimney has been truncated. The pumping station at Torquay is the one in best condition, although it is not easily visible from passing trains as it is above a cutting near Torre (it is best viewed from a supermarket on Newton Road). The pumping station at Totnes has been incorporated into a dairy.  The railway centre at Didcot in Oxfordshire has preserved some atmospheric pipes and set them onto some broad gauge track to show how the system looked. Several stations on the Torquay branch are worth visiting. The wooden buildings at Torre were the original terminus; Torquay was rebuilt in the 1870s in a style befitting an important resort, complete with a new signal box and decorative cast iron bridge; Kingswear - on a steam railway - has an all-over roof.

Saltash

The last link in the main line to Cornwall was the Royal Albert Bridge, opened by Prince Albert himself in May 1859. This was Brunel's last major project as he died soon after it was opened. The directors of the Cornwall Railway erected an inscription on the ends commemorating the great engineer. The best position for viewing  this structure is the adjoining road bridge but this is currently not possible due to extensive road works. Views of the bridge can still be had from the waterside at both Saltash and St Budeaux, from pleasure boats sailing from Plymouth, or - of course - from the trains and from Saltash station. Saltash station was rebuilt in the 1880s but is in need of conservation. Nearby, it is still possible to see a small piece of broad gauge pointwork in situ on the quayside of Sutton Harbour in Plymouth.

Viaducts

Brunel is well known for the timber viaducts which he built to carry the railway through the South West and South Wales. None of these survive but many original piers still stand alongside the replacement structures, notably those between Liskeard and Bodmin Road in Cornwall. Of the few which were replaced before the end of the broad gauge, that at Moorswater is certainly the most impressive, striding high above the Looe branch to the west of Liskeard station. The flatter terrain crossed by the Great Western Railway itself entailed fewer viaducts but an impressive honey coloured viaduct crosses high above the streets of Chippenham in Wiltshire and has been granted Grade II* listing.

Thames Bridges

Nobody thought it possible that Brunel's low, flat arches across the Thames at Maidenhead would survive having the builder's supports removed. They are still in place well over 150 years later carrying heavy traffic along the Thames Valley route between Paddington and Reading. The bridge has since been widened to the South but using the same shape. A little further along the river is a 202 foot iron bow string span near Windsor. This is set into a lengthy low brick viaduct which carries the line above the marshy ground below Eton. Nearby is the station at High Wycombe - granted listed status recently following action by Broad Gauge Society members - and the Grade II* listed station at Mortimer on the Reading to Basingstoke line.

Swindon and Didcot

Brunel chose Swindon as the site of his workshops. Despite expansion over the years, some of the broad gauge buildings survive, including L2 Shop and the Chain Test House. Some of these buildings are now home to STEAM: The Museum of the Great Western Railway. Across the railway line can be found the Railway Village, an early example of planned worker's housing. A few miles along the line is another museum, the railway centre at Didcot. Here is preserved the broad-to-narrow gauge goods transfer shed as the centre of their broad gauge exhibit which also includes track, signalling, and atmospheric pipes from South Devon.

West Somerset Railway

A journey from Bishops Lydeard to Minehead is as close as we can get to travelling along a broad gauge branch today. While the steam trains are now standard gauge, most of the buildings and bridges date from its days as a broad gauge line. Station buildings, goods sheds, a signal box, workers cottages, and bridges can all be found at various locations.