9. Bristol Temple Meads-??.07.77

THE ARCHIVE FILES > Archive-1977 > 9. Bristol Temple Meads-??.07.77

Don't know why, but my record does not have the actual date for this visit. I had a roll of black and white film in the Exa camera and ended up with only 3 pictures from the visit.

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253014, unidentified down working, Bristol TM station
HST set 253014 arrives at Bristol Temple Meads with an unidentified down working. Close examination of the scanned image indicates that this power car is 43028. This was a West Country power car for many years before it gained the Inter City swallow branding and had an experimental one-off livery applied. It then reverted back to the Great Western again and at the time of writing, in 2018, has gone to Scotland to become part of their new 'short sets'.

Up Motorail working, Bristol TM station
But for the station pilot class 08 there is no locomotive in this picture but it's full of historical interest none-the-less. An up Motorail is seen running non-stop through Bristol Temple Meads, this itself was rare for a passenger working. It will have originated from one of St. Austell, Newton Abbot or even Taunton. A closer look at the scanned image reveals an interesting array of vehicles on the uncovered open flats. I cannot make out a single foreign interloper almost the Triumphs, Fords, Morris', Vauxhalls and Hillmans. The green Triumph at the back is a 1500 variant that looks very similar to my parents Dolomite that they owned at this time. The vehicle seen, MJC 682L was last on the road in summer 1988 so still had eleven years of motoring left in it from when this picture was taken. I have no idea who the fella watching me take the picture was, if he was a spotter then he does seem a little over-dressed for it!

Class 47 (green), unidentified up working, Bristol Temple Meads station
You can see that this negative has been fogged, so I would not have bothered to scan it but for its rarity value. Firstly, the class 47 is in BR dual green, there were very few around by the summer of '77. Secondly, observant ones will notice that it's on one of Temple Meads' centre roads. My notes do not reveal the 47s number (arghhh!) or the working. Any information gratefully appreciated. Just a technical point. This negative was so bad when I first looked at it that it was never actually printed. The left hand side was so burnt out it showed no detail. it's amazing what careful scanning and use of Photoshop can do to what was, initially, a throw-away image by bringing back a lot of the hidden detail.

Images 1-3 of 3 displayed.