Before the era of reliable roads, transport of the mineral to Bristol was difficult and expensive, and this seriously limited commercial activity.

A number of attempts were made over several years to have a form of guided transport—a wooden wagonway or a tramway—built, but nothing was successful until on 27 October 1827 a meeting of interested businessmen resolved to form a company to build a double line of railway between Bristol and Coalpit Heath.

The northern half of the line, from Mangotsfield to Coalpit Heath, was opened in July 1832;[1][page needed] this enabled the Avon and Gloucestershire Railway to convey coal from the mines to the River Avon; it had been a condition of some of the subscription that priority would be given to this section.

This opened on 6 August 1835 with a gala procession by horse-drawn train, which covered the nine miles in three hours.

[3][page needed] The track gauge was 4 ft 8 in (1,422 mm)[note 1] The edge rail was in 15-foot (4.57 m) sections of malleable cast iron at 35 pounds per yard (17.4 kg/m), with five fish-belly webs.

Neighbouring proprietors were permitted to make siding connections to the railway, subject to certain regulations.

There were several passing places—known as turnouts—on the single line, and the uphill direction was given a straight path, the downhill taking the deviation onto the turnout.

[3][page needed] The railway was designed to bring coal down from an area described as "Coalpit Heath" to Bristol.

Having connected all these pits, the line ran east to maintain a steady gradient, and then south to the point that became Mangotsfield North Junction, and then west to Staple Hill, where there was a tunnel, 518 yards long.

[4][page needed] There was a diverging branch to St Philips shortly before arrival at the Avon Street wharf.

This group of pits closed in the 1860s, leaving New Engine Yard as a maintenance and supply depot for the more northerly collieries.

[7][page needed] These pits became considerably more productive from the 1860s, and were connected to the mineral line after its takeover by the Midland Railway.

[7][page needed] In the area south of the present M4 motorway, there were several abandoned 18th century shafts.

A little further south was Shortwood Colliery at about NGR ST680763, which had a branch line to serve it, about half a mile (800 m) long.

The Bristol and Gloucestershire company issued a prospectus proposing the extension, but its bill failed in parliament in the 1838 session.

c. lvi) was given royal assent on 1 July 1839; this established a Bristol and Gloucester Railway Company, which was authorised to absorb the Bristol and Gloucestershire Railway, and to extend its line from a junction at Westerleigh, 2 miles south of Coalpit Heath, and to run from there to Standish Junction, a distance of 211⁄2 miles.

An agreement was concluded on 8 October 1903 between Dame Emily Francis Smith and Charles Colston, owners of the Coalpit Heath Colliery Company.

There is no record that any of these engines were registered to work over GWR metals at Coalpit Heath station for shunting or access purposes.

[10][page needed] Mitchell and Smith[11] show a photograph of the bridge, which had two spans: one for the through line and one for a siding.

The National Coal Board closed Frog Lane pit and Mayshill Colliery by 1949.

[14] Parts of the northern end of the route have also been converted into a footpath, referred to as the Dramway[15] In his book, Lawson[8][page needed] refers throughout to both the Bristol and Gloucestershire Railway and the Avon and Gloucestershire Railway as "the Dramway", and he also uses the word generically, still with capitalisation, for example, "With the metamorphosis of the B&GR from a horse-drawn Dramway to a full-blown steam-driven broad-gauge railway ..."[16] Nowhere in the book does he explain the origin of the word.