Bristol Harbour Railway

The Bristol Harbour Railway was a standard gauge industrial railway built by the Great Western Railway to connect Bristol's Floating Harbour and wharves to the GWR main line at Bristol Temple Meads. It was a joint venture between the Great Western Railway and the Bristol and Exeter Railway, authorized by Parliament in 1869, with its first section opening in 1872 and further extensions added in 1876 and 1906. The railway carried freight from the docks as far as London's Paddington station, and commercial operation ended in 1964 when its Temple Meads connection closed, though a branch serving coal traffic stayed open until 1987. In 1978 the Bristol Industrial Museum reopened a preserved section as a heritage railway, and the line today runs about 1.6 kilometers along the River Avon as a visitor attraction linked to Bristol's M Shed museum.