Oakwood Locomotion Paper LP 247, The Bristol to Portishead Branch with the Bristol Harbour Railway and Canon's Marsh Branch

摘要

Your reviewer awaited this book with some interest having been at school next to Canons Marsh Depot and having worked for ten years on the Portishead Power Station site in the 1970s. The previous book on these lines was published in 1983 by OPC and written by the late Mike Vincent (for some reason this has been omitted from the Bibliography). While the author of this book has covered the developments of the last 37 years, the OPC book remains a better source of the historical background to why these lines were constructed and operated. Colin Maggs is a prolific author and has a writing style which concentrates on facts - I am not decrying the inclusion of opening and closing dates but they could be as well put in an appendix. However there is no mention of the land ownership at Portishead by Bristol City Council (as opposed to private land ownership at Avonmouth) or comparison of the Portishead situation where railway and dock were owned by one Company as opposed to Avonmouth where there were two companies; nor is the ownership of Ham Green house and Leigh Court by the Miles family which influenced the building of a cutting, a screening embankment and a tunnel included. There are also a number of annoying editing errors but there is a useful index.