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Clifton Rocks Railway

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Coordinates: 51°27′14.4″N 2°37′31.7″W / 51.454000°N 2.625472°W / 51.454000; -2.625472
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Clifton Rocks Railway
Clifton Rocks Railway lower station
Overview
LocaleHotwells, Bristol (grid reference ST565730)
Stations2
Service
TypeUnderground funicular
History
Opened11 March 1893 (1893-03-11)
Closed1 October 1934 (1934-10-01)
Technical
Track gauge3 ft 2 in (965 mm)
The Avon Gorge. The Clifton Rocks Railway ran from a lower station just beyond the furthest buildings at river level, through a tunnel to an upper station at bridge level.

The Clifton Rocks Railway was an underground funicular railway in Bristol, England, linking Clifton at the top to Hotwells and Bristol Harbour at the bottom of the Avon Gorge in a tunnel cut through the limestone cliffs.

The upper station is close to Brunel's famous Clifton Suspension Bridge and is located adjacent to the former Grand Spa Hotel (now the Avon Gorge Hotel). The lower station was opposite the paddle steamer landing ferries in Hotwells, Hotwells railway station of the Bristol Port Railway and Pier, a terminus of Bristol Tramways and the Rownham ferry enabling connections across the river Avon.

History

Diagram showing the design of the Clifton Rocks Railway

Construction of the railway was funded by the publisher George Newnes, also proprietor of the Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway, and as at Lynton and Lynmouth the engineer was George Croydon Marks. Construction of the line started in March 1891. The 28 feet (8.5 m) wide tunnel was bored through the limestone cliffs using both machine-drills and hand-drills and then lined with bricks. It took two years to construct.[1]

The railway opened on 11 March 1893 and carried 6,220 passengers on the opening day,[2] and 427,492 in the first year of operation.[3] However, it was never a great success; in 1912 it was sold to Bristol Tramways,[4] but it continued to struggle and closed on 1 October 1934.[5]

During the Second World War blast walls were installed in the tunnel, which was used as offices by BOAC, as a relay station by the BBC (who also constructed an emergency studio there, though it was never put into use), and as an air-raid shelter. The BBC continued to use parts of the tunnel until 1960.[5][6]

Operations

The railway was 450 feet (137 m) long, and rose 200 feet (61 m) at a gradient of about 1 in 2.2 (45%).[3] There were four cars in two connected pairs, essentially forming two parallel funicular railways, each running on 3 ft 2 in (965 mm) narrow gauge tracks.[7]

The system operated by gravity. At the upper station, water was fed from a reservoir into the tank underneath the car. The extra weight of this water was enough to pull a loaded car up from the lower station. When the car with its water ballast reached the lower station, the water was discharged into another reservoir, from where it was pumped back up to the upper reservoir to restart the cycle. The pumps were originally powered by a pair of Otto engines at the bottom of the tunnel.[1]

Preservation

A voluntary group, which in 2008 became a charitable trust, aims to preserve and restore the railway and wartime structures. It is not feasible or desirable to get the railway to run again due to the war-time structures sitting on the railway lines. The cost of complete restoration is estimated at around £15 million.[8]

In 2019 a proposal to turn the top section into a museum was announced.[9]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Marks, George Croydon (1894). Cliff Railways. The Institution of Civil Engineers (Great Britain). p. 318. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  2. ^ Council, Design (1893), Engineering, Volume 55, Office for Advertisements and Publication, p. 332
  3. ^ a b Mellor, Penny (2013). Inside Bristol: Twenty Years of Open Doors Day. Redcliffe Press. pp. 36–37. ISBN 978-1908326423.
  4. ^ Klapper, Charles (1984), The Golden Age of Buses, Routledge, p. 186, ISBN 9780710202321
  5. ^ a b "Clifton Rocks Railway – History". Subterranea Britannica. Retrieved 3 June 2007.
  6. ^ "The Clifton Rocks Railway Tunnel". Old Radio Broadcast Equipment and Memories. Archived from the original on 26 September 2006. Retrieved 3 June 2007.
  7. ^ "Clifton Rocks Railway – FAQ". Clifton Rocks Railway special interest group. Retrieved 3 June 2007.
  8. ^ "Clifton Rocks Railway – About Us". Clifton Rocks Railway special interest group. Retrieved 3 June 2007.
  9. ^ "Museum plan for Bristol's Clifton Rocks Railway revealed". BBC. Retrieved 1 May 2019.

The Ups and Downs of Clifton Rocks Railway and the Clifton Spa by Maggie Shapland (Bristol Industrial Archaeological Society, 2017, 317pp) is the definitive history, available from the Clifton Rocks Railway Trust.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Clifton Rocks Railway.

51°27′14.4″N 2°37′31.7″W / 51.454000°N 2.625472°W / 51.454000; -2.625472

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