66033 Avonmouth BHT 17th September 2000
Unfortunately the driver of 66033 pulled up a little too far for my picture but the shot just about works. A busy scene at the Avonmouth Bulk terminal (BBHT) at the tail end of it's heyday when king coal ruled.
66033 had just arrived on road 2 with a set of empties probably from a midlands power station. On the right in road 4 66087 also awaits loading and on the engine release line another 66 has been shunted to one side to make room with a loaded train. Road 6 has 08896 parked up in between shunting duties. At the time the bulk terminal was loading for most UK power stations and sending out 80-90 trains a week. Previously the plans had been three figures. On the left is the Benetts (formally Rudrums Ltd) coal stocking yard which was pad loading in the docks for industrial customers. Additionally there was two enterprise services a day + car trains and occasionally steel bars were railed out from the docks. A weekly container train was loaded for Nissan at Sunderland and fertiliser traffic had just resumed in to the local Norsk siding.
Within a month or so I transferred to Westbury for a drivers job. All the track is still there with one daily train arriving just to run round. The open area on the right is now a container terminal (Maritime) but does not use rail despite road 7 being in their pad.
66033 was dispatched to France a few years later where it still works under the ECR banner.
Mamiya 645 Slide Scan
© Neil Higson
66033 Avonmouth BHT 17th September 2000
Unfortunately the driver of 66033 pulled up a little too far for my picture but the shot just about works. A busy scene at the Avonmouth Bulk terminal (BBHT) at the tail end of it's heyday when king coal ruled.
66033 had just arrived on road 2 with a set of empties probably from a midlands power station. On the right in road 4 66087 also awaits loading and on the engine release line another 66 has been shunted to one side to make room with a loaded train. Road 6 has 08896 parked up in between shunting duties. At the time the bulk terminal was loading for most UK power stations and sending out 80-90 trains a week. Previously the plans had been three figures. On the left is the Benetts (formally Rudrums Ltd) coal stocking yard which was pad loading in the docks for industrial customers. Additionally there was two enterprise services a day + car trains and occasionally steel bars were railed out from the docks. A weekly container train was loaded for Nissan at Sunderland and fertiliser traffic had just resumed in to the local Norsk siding.
Within a month or so I transferred to Westbury for a drivers job. All the track is still there with one daily train arriving just to run round. The open area on the right is now a container terminal (Maritime) but does not use rail despite road 7 being in their pad.
66033 was dispatched to France a few years later where it still works under the ECR banner.
Mamiya 645 Slide Scan
© Neil Higson