All aboard The Pines Express Part 2

We welcomed back Chris Youett for the  second part of a colour slide presentation following the route of the Pines Express over the Somerset and Dorset Railway to Bournemouth It also covered the Branch Line from Evercreech Junction to Highbridge together with the short link between the Somerset and Dorset Railway at Glastonbury and the Great Western Railway at Wells. The majority of the images were taken at or near stations and gave a good idea of the typical freight and passenger traffic. The earliest slides were from the beginning of the 1960’s before the final rundown of the Line. During this period the locomotive types changed from pre grouping SR, GWR and LMS locomotives to those of the BR standard design. The famous 2-8-0 midland Railway Locos survived until 1964. There were also examples of carriages from the same main line railways. At Templecombe S&D  trains were shown taking the junction  to enter the mainline station and then carry out a reversal to regain the line to Bournemouth. There was a variety of locomotives on shed including a SR class Z loco some distance from the Exeter area which was its normal home. Following Templecombe we followed on the southerly journey to its connection with the Southern Region at Broadstone Junction and then onwards to the terminus at Bournemouth West. The final images showed the revised route of the Pines Express via Southampton and Oxford. Thanks to the presentation by Chris Youett which was interesting in that were able to see the last vestiges of local passenger and freight trains, particularly serving local farms before the closure in addition to the more photographed summer Saturday holiday trains.