The Avonside Locomotive Works was a locomotive manufacturer on Filwood Road, Fishponds, Bristol, England. A nearby locomotive builder was Peckett and Sons located on Deep Pit Road between Fishponds and St George.
The original Avonside Engine Company was based in St Philips, Bristol, and founded in 1837 as Henry Stothert and Company. This firm had got into financial difficulties and was liquidated in the 1880s. A new company was formed using the Avonside name as the Avonside Locomotive Works, initially at St Philips, before the company moved to Fishponds in 1905. The capital for the new factory in Fishponds was provided by Ronald Murray, and the facility was set up to build 16 locomotives a year. The company used the shunting line into Fishponds railway station and onto the Midland line in order to get their engines onto the mainline and onto their customers.
In 1882 Avonside made the first of the unusual Guinness-designed locomotives for shunting in their brewery either on the narrow gauge, or in converter bogies on the standard gauge. The engine was a success, but the remainder were built by William Spence in Dublin.
The company carried on the previous firm's policy of concentrating on smaller engine types of various gauges, and saw some success in exporting their locomotives all over the world as far afield as South America. One such customer was the Guaqui–La Paz Railway in Bolivia. Other engines built for overseas included a Heisler locomotive, developed for use on sugar estates in hot climes. Closer to home, locomotives were supplied to the War Department in 1915, fitted with Parsons four-cylinder internal combustion engines. The 0-4-0 type was popular, Cadburys of Bournville ordered an 0-4-0 T in 1926 and the Great Western Railway were supplied with six 0-4-0 T s in the 1920s.
The Avonside Locomotive Works was badly affected by the 1930s Great Depression and went into voluntary liquidation in November 1934. The Fishponds plant and buildings were sold off in 1935 and the goodwill, drawing and patterns purchased by the Hunslet Engine Company.
Several Fishponds-built Avonside locomotives remain, including:
Avonside locomotives preserved in Bolivia include:
A Fairlie is a type of articulated steam locomotive that has the driving wheels on bogies. The locomotive may be double-ended or single ended. Fairlies are most famously associated with the Ffestiniog Railway in Wales.
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-4-0 represents one of the simplest possible types, that with two axles and four coupled wheels, all of which are driven. The wheels on the earliest four-coupled locomotives were connected by a single gear wheel, but from 1825 the wheels were usually connected with coupling rods to form a single driven set.
4-4-0 is a locomotive type with a classification that uses the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement and represents the arrangement: four leading wheels on two axles, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and a lack of trailing wheels. Due to the large number of the type that were produced and used in the United States, the 4-4-0 is most commonly known as the American type, but the type subsequently also became popular in the United Kingdom, where large numbers were produced.
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-6-0 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. This arrangement is commonly called a Mogul.
The Hunslet Engine Company was founded in 1864 in Hunslet, Leeds, England. The company manufactured steam-powered shunting locomotives for over 100 years, and currently manufactures diesel-engined shunting locomotives. It is owned by Ed Murray & Sons.
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-8-0 represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and no trailing wheels. Locomotives of this type are also referred to as eight coupled.
Fishponds is a large suburb in the north-east of the English city of Bristol, about 3 miles (5 km) from the city centre. It has two large Victorian-era parks: Eastville Park and Vassall's Park. The River Frome runs through both with the Frome Valley Walkway alongside it. A restored mill found at Snuff Mills near the Vassall's Park end of the river has kept its original waterwheel, which can still be seen and heard turning. Eastville Park has a large boating lake with central wildlife reserves. Fishponds is mainly residential. Two main bus routes pass through. Housing is typically terraced Victorian. The high street shops include an international supermarket, Asian food store, charity shops, takeaways and Lidl, Aldi and Morrisons supermarkets. It has a small student population from the presence of the Glenside campus of the University of the West of England. The name Fishponds derives from when it was a quarry district, like nearby Soundwell. The empty quarries became large fishponds, which have since been filled in. One remained until the mid-1970s, when it was officially closed: a popular swimming area named "The Lido" by locals. It now belongs to an angling club.
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-4-2 represents the wheel arrangement with no leading wheels, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles and two trailing wheels on one axle. While the first locomotives of this wheel arrangement were tender engines, the configuration was later often used for tank engines, which is noted by adding letter suffixes to the configuration, such as 0-4-2T for a conventional side-tank locomotive, 0-4-2ST for a saddle-tank locomotive, 0-4-2WT for a well-tank locomotive and 0-4-2RT for a rack-equipped tank locomotive. The arrangement is sometimes known as Olomana after a Hawaiian 0-4-2 locomotive of 1883.
The Bristol and Gloucester Railway was a railway company opened in 1844 to run services between Bristol and Gloucester. It was built on the 7 ftBrunel gauge, but it was acquired in 1845 by the 4 ft 8+1⁄2 instandard gauge Midland Railway, which also acquired the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway at the same time.
Charles Benjamin Collett was Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway from 1922 to 1941. He designed the GWR's 4-6-0 Castle and King Class express passenger locomotives.
The Avonside Engine Company was a locomotive manufacturer in Avon Street, St. Philip's, Bristol, England between 1864 and 1934. However the business originated with an earlier enterprise Henry Stothert and Company.
Peckett and Sons was a locomotive manufacturer at the Atlas Locomotive Works on Deep Pit Road between Fishponds and St. George, Bristol, England.
GWR No. 1340 is an 0-4-0ST steam locomotive, built in 1897 by the Avonside Engine Company of Bristol, England.
Fishponds railway station was a station in Fishponds, Bristol, England, a victim of Dr Beeching's cuts in the 1960s.
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-6-0+0-6-0 represents the wheel arrangement of an articulated locomotive with two separate swivelling engine units, each unit with no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. The arrangement is effectively two 0-6-0 locomotives operating back-to-back and was used on Garratt, Double Fairlie, Meyer and Kitson-Meyer articulated locomotives. A similar arrangement exists for Mallet steam locomotives on which only the front engine unit swivels, but these are referred to as 0-6-6-0.
Powlesland and Mason were a company that provided steam locomotives and crews for shunting within Swansea Docks. The first name has sometimes been spelt "Powesland" and it is uncertain which spelling is correct.
Londonderry Port and Harbour Commissioners (LPHC) No. 3 R H Smyth is a preserved Irish steam locomotive.
The Bristol and Gloucestershire Railway was an early mineral railway, opened in two stages in 1832 and 1834, which connected collieries near Coalpit Heath with Bristol, at the river Avon. Horse traction was used. It was later taken over by the Bristol and Gloucester Railway, and much of the route became part of the main line between Birmingham and Bristol, though that was later by-passed and closed. Part of it now forms the Bristol and Bath Railway Path.
The Cape Town Railway & Dock 2-4-0T of 1864 was a South African steam locomotive from the pre-Union era in the Cape of Good Hope.
The Table Bay Harbour 0-4-0ST of 1881 was a South African steam locomotive from the pre-Union era in the Cape of Good Hope.