Bristol Harbour Train Rides

I love steam engines and this one is awesome. It is a tourist attraction but I enjoyed the train ride. Highly recommend it as an activity in Bristol.

Okay so having been in Bristol for a good few years, I had never thought to check out these train rides until a couple of family members came up and wanted something touristy and different to do — and it was actually pretty good fun! We wanted to check out the SS Great Britain and took an old fashioned steam train along to it, at just around £2 each.
This is the kind of thing worth doing once in terms of exploring Bristol, but probably not something you’d do again — purely because once you’ve done it you’ve done it, and there’s not a whole lot more you can get from the experience! It’s very touristy but if you’re a resident and have never done it then it could also be a bit of fun.
One thing i would add is to make sure you check out when the trains are running — they tend to be every other weekend, and occassionaly run on Mondays too!

There’s something about an old-​fashioned steam train that makes me feel like a kid again. It would be nice to say that it’s because it gives me a sense of nostalgia to the days when I was young and steam was the way forward, but I’m not nearly that old, so it’s more likely a case that it reminds me of watching Thomas the Tank Engine. Either way, this is a great day out for young and old alike. Staring out across the harbourside, lit by the summer sunshine, with a Mr. Whippy in your hand. On a day like that, I challenge anyone to find me a better way to travel.

This is Britain’s only dockside railway, which once helped move cargo on and off ships to the city, but now is a fantastic tourist attraction. It’s an authentic steam train, which makes for great fun for the youngsters and at £2 for a single trip, it’s definitely worth the money.
If you’re visiting the SS Great Britain, the harbour train is the perfect way to reach it, and there’s a discount if you show your SS ticket. Sadly the train only functions in the warmer months, so you’ll have to wait til March before you can take a ride.

Along Bristol’s harbourside you shall find this link to Bristol’s past. Trundling up and down the railway lines ingrained into the ground a steam train runs, pulling along cart loads of tourists. It’s quite an evocative experience — I can remember well the smell of the fire burning and the piercing whistle just before the train juddered into life.
Something I did whenever the sun came out when I was young, this is a wonderful family day out. Get a kid to buy themselves a ticket, help them up into the carriage (things have been kept pretty authentic here, so you might have to clamber around a bit, and they should have a whale of a time.
The train billows huge amounts of steam, which means you can see from all over the city when it’s running. More often in the summer months, make sure you take the opportunity to go for a ride when you can.