West Somerset Railway

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West Somerset Railway

Somerset

Gauge: standard
No. of stations: 11
Track: 22.75 miles
Information

The West Somerset Railway heritage railway line in Somerset, running on a track 22¾ miles long. The freehold of the track and stations is owned by Somerset County Council and the railway is leased to and operated by West Somerset Railway plc; which is supported and minority owned by charitable trust the West Somerset Railway Association. The company operates services using both heritage steam and diesel trains.

The railway originally opened as a commercial line in 1862 between Taunton and Watchet. In 1874 it was extended from Watchet to Minehead by the 'Minehead Railway'. Although just a single track, improvements were needed in the first half of the twentieth century to accommodate the significant number of tourists that wished to travel to the Somerset coast. The line was closed by British Rail in 1971 and reopened in 1976 as a heritage line.

It is the longest standard gauge heritage railway in the United Kingdom. Services normally operate over just the 20½ miles between Minehead and Bishops Lydeard. During special events some trains continue a further two miles to Norton Fitzwarren where a connection to Network Rail allows occasional through trains to operate onto the national network.

History

Foundation to closure

The railway has its origin in two earlier lines: the West Somerset Railway built from Taunton to Watchet in 1859-1862 and the Minehead railway built from 1871, both operated at that time in conjunction with the Bristol and Exeter Railway, which completed its main line between those two cities in 1845.

In 1876, Bristol & Exeter was amalgamated into the Great Western Railway. The Minehead Railway was amalgamated into the Great Western in 1897 and under the Great Western there were steady improvements in the line as it carried an increasing level of holiday traffic to the Somerset coast and Exmoor. Under the Railways Act 1921, the West Somerset Railway Company was finally amalgamated into the Great Western Railway too.

The Great Western Railway was nationalised on 1 January 1948. Rationalisations followed. Washford signal box was closed in 1952 and Minehead engine shed closed in 1956. Norton Fitzwarren station closed on 30 October 1961, after which passengers once again had to travel through to Taunton to change onto trains travelling west.[1]

Despite the opening of a Butlins holiday camp at Minehead in 1962 which brought some 30,000 people to the town that year, the line was recommended for closure in the 1963 Beeching Axe. Goods traffic was withdrawn from Stogumber on 17 August 1963 and from the other stations on 6 July 1964 after which British Rail transported any goods traffic by road from Taunton. By this time the passing loops at Leigh Bridge and Kentford had been taken out of use, in April and May 1964 respectively.[2] The Minehead line was finally closed early in 1971.

The line was officially kept in "possible to return to operations" status for five years but lineside shrubbery quickly took over the infrastructure.[3] When in 1975 Butlins wanted to extract LMS Princess Coronation Class 6229 Duchess of Hamilton (bought by Billy Butlin in 1966) a team needed two weeks to clear the line pathway before a BR Class 25 diesel No.25 059 and a BR brakevan could make a 20 mph traverse in March 1975.[4]

Heritage railway

Bishops Lydeard Railway Museum

On 5 February 1971, a Minehead Railway Preservation Society organised a meeting in Taunton and a working party headed by Douglas Fear, a local business man, was tasked with investigating how the line could be reopened as a privately owned railway. In May, a new West Somerset Railway Company was formed to acquire the line and operate a year-round commuter service from Minehead to Taunton alongside which a limited summer steam service could also run. A deal was agreed with British Rail to purchase the line with the support of the council: the council though was wary of putting money into a project which could make someone else dome money were Minehead station site to be sold into private hands should the railway fail, so it bought the line itself in 1973 and leased back the operational land to the West Somerset Railway Company plc.[5]

The proposed commuter service never materialised, due to traffic restrictions between the newly installed Taunton Cider Company sidings at Norton Fitzwarren and Taunton, but the line was slowly reopened as a heritage railway. Minehead to Blue Anchor was the first section to see trains restored, opening on 28 March 1976 and services were extended to Williton on 28 August the same year. Trains returned to Stogumber on 7 May 1978 and they reached Bishops Lydeard on 9 June 1979. A new station at Doniford Halt was opened on the coast east of Watchet on 27 June 1987 to serve a holiday camp at Helwell Bay.[1]

During 2007 a regular service ran from Minehead to Taunton and Bristol Temple Meads on a couple of days each week. Known as the Minehead Express, it was aimed at holidaymakers travelling to Butlins at Minehead. It left Minehead at 11:10 and Bristol at 14:06.

Route

A train near Williton in 1960
Station sign at Bishops Lydeard

The route is described from Minehead towards Taunton. Features are described as being on the left or right of the line for passengers facing this direction of travel, therefore the right side of the train is generally on the south or west of the line. On the railway this is known as the 'up' direction.

Minehead - On the seafront close to the town centre
Dunster 1.75 miles A long way from the village of that name
Blue Anchor 3.5 miles The West Somerset Steam Railway Trust's museum is on the right-hand platform
Washford 6.75 miles Somerset and Dorset Railway Trust's museum
Watchet 8 miles
Doniford Halt 9 miles
Williton 9.75 miles
Stogumber 13 miles
Crowcombe Heathfield 15.75 miles Summit of the line
Bishops Lydeard 19.75 miles Railway museum and old station master's house
Norton Fitzwarren
Taunton 24.75 miles Terminus

Rolling stock

88 with a train of Mark I coaches

Photographs of the line when operated by the Bristol and Exeter Railway show that their 4-4-0ST locomotives were the regular motive power. Later years saw types such as GWR 4500, 4575, and 5101 'prairie' 2-6-2Ts, 2251 'Collett goods' 0-6-0s, 5700 'pannier tank' 0-6-0PTs and 4300 'mogul' 2-6-0s. In British Railways' time, these were replaced by Western Region NBL Type 2, Hymek Type 3 diesel-hydraulic locomotives, Swindon and Gloucester cross-country diesel multiple units (DMUs).[5]

Today, the line is operated by a variety of preserved steam and diesel locomotives and DMUs. Most of these are typical of GWR branch lines in Somerset or of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway (SDJR). Among the types based on the railway are examples of GWR 4575 and 5100 class 2-6-2Ts, a Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway 7F Class 2-8-0 and a Southern Railway West Country Class 4-6-2. A unique experiment has been to convert a GWR 5101 Class 2-6-2T into a small 2-6-0 numbered 9351. Diesels include Hymek and Western diesel-hydraulics.[6]

Most trains are formed from British Rail Mark 1 coaches painted in a chocolate and cream livery, based on the most familiar one used by the GWR but with WSR crests. The WSRA owned and operated Quantock Belle fine dining train is also formed from BR Mark 1 coaches, but each is painted in a livery reminiscent of Pullman cars and also named. There are also a number of freight wagons, some of which are used for engineering purposes or in a demonstration heritage freight train that is used on special occasions.[6]

Films and television

Several films and television programmes have been shot on the railway:

  • A Hard Day's Night (1964, The Beatles)[7]
  • The Belstone Fox (1973 children's film)[8][9]
  • The Flockton Flyer (1976-7 children's television drama series about a preserved railway)
  • The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1988 BBC television mini-series[10]
  • The Land Girls (1997)

Outside links

 ("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about West Somerset Railway)

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Oakley, Mike (2006). Somerset Railway Stations. Bristol: Redcliffe Press. ISBN 1-904537-54-5. 
  2. ↑ Cooke, RA (1979). Track Layout Diagrams of the GWR and BR WR, Section 15: North Devon. Harwell: RA Cooke. pp. 15–17. 
  3. ↑ "Pictures of the line in 1972". wsr.org.uk. http://www.wsr.org.uk/cgi-bin/galleri.cgi?h=Pictures%20of%20the%20line%20in%201972&t=1972pix. Retrieved 2012-08-15. 
  4. ↑ http://www.wsr.org.uk/cgi-bin/galleri.cgi?h=Picture+Search&q=hamilton
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Minehead
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Smith, Keith (2007). West Somerset Railway Stockbook (6 ed.). Taunton: West Somerset Railway Association. 
  7. ↑ Horton, Glyn (2009) [2007]. Britain's Railways in Feature Films. Kettering: Silver Link Publishing. ISBN 1-85794-334-1. 
  8. ↑ The Belstone Fox/ West Somerset Railway at the Internet Movie Database
  9. ↑ "The Belstone Fox". Quantock Online Forum. Quantock Online Forum. http://www.quantockonline.co.uk/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=316#p835. Retrieved 2012-01-12. 
  10. ↑ IMDb title|0094500|The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe}}
  • Maggs, C. G. (1998). The Minehead Branch and the West Somerset Railway. Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-528-4
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