The Sharpness branch
The three and a half mile long freight-only branch to Sharpness Docks connects with the Bristol to Gloucester main line at Berkeley Road Junction. The branch was formerly part of a through-route to Lydney. However, after a tragic shipping accident in October 1960, the 4,162 ft long Severn Railway Bridge was partially destroyed and from then on, only the section from Berkeley Road to Sharpness remained. The branch lost its passenger service in 1964 and since there is now no regular traffic for the docks at Sharpness, nuclear flask traffic from the nearby Oldbury Power Station provides the only traffic for the branch. These flask trains still run to Sharpness in order to use the run-round loop.
In this first picture, 37 501 is seen on the Sharpness branch near Berkeley Road Junction on 26
September 1986. The train consists of empty hoppers from the Stonehouse
coal depot and the train has run to Sharpness purely for the locomotive to
run round as there was no loop on the main line at Stonehouse.
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31 275 is seen approaching Berkeley from Sharpness with a nuclear flask train on
1st August 1991. There is a siding for this traffic here at Berkeley.
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Near Berkeley, the branch crosses this small three arch viaduct. 37 240 is seen from below on 17 August 1995.
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The pictures above and below were taken on 10 April 1997 and show 31 142(nearest) and 31 512 shunting at the nuclear
flask siding at Berkeley. In the above picture, the siding curves away to the left whilst the train is standing on the
running line from Sharpness.
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31 142 and 31 512 in the nuclear flask siding at Berkeley.
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31 294 is seen heading away from Sharpness on 29 August 1991. This short train has just used the run-round loop
at Sharpness and is bound for the nuclear flask siding at Berkeley.
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Shortly after leaving Sharpness, the line runs through an enclosed cutting, as seen in this view of
31 554 on 19 October 1995.
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On 2nd August 1990, 37 146 is pictured running round its flask train at Sharpness.
When the coal yard at Stonehouse closed, there was no other regular traffic
on the branch apart from this weekly flask working.
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Very rare traction for the Sharpness branch as 33 102 and 33 064 head a railtour from London Waterloo through
Berkeley on 4 August 1991. The flask siding can be seen in the background.
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Dock Locomotive No. DL2 seen outside the premises of Coopers Metals at Sharpness Docks
in September 1986. At the time there was still a daily train to Sharpness. The mineral wagons
were conveying scrap traffic and were not (yet) being scrapped themselves. Eighteen months later, I
photographed clayhood wagons being broken up at this same location.
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Another view of DL2 at Sharpness docks. BR locomotives were not permitted into the docks area. Today (2009),
most of the tracks around the docks are still in situ albeit heavily overgrown. The shed where the DL1 and DL2
were kept is now occupied by a private business.
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'Clayhood' wagons being broken-up at Sharpness docks in March 1988.
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