Over the Mendips

This talk celebrated 150 years of the completion of the extension to Bath of the Somerset and Dorset Railway. The presenter was Mike Beale who has been a member of the Somerset & Dorset Railway trust since 1974 and has in that period been both a Trustee and Chairman. Many of the images shown were from the Archives of the Trust.

The first half covered the history of the Somerset and Dorset Railway which was originally formed by an amalgamation of the Somerset Central Railway and the Dorset Central Railway at Cole and provided a land route from the Bristol Channel to the English Channel via a connection at Wimborne with the LSWR. This was followed by the construction of a single line Railway to The Midlane Railway at Bath. Although initially successful it appeared to suffer from a lack of capital, suitable locos and stock, and shortage of money. This resulted in a takeover by the LSWR and Midland Railway in 1876 and The Somerset and Joint Railway was formed providing a North South Route to the English Chanel and also competition with the Bristol and Exeter Railway visa Templecombe. Doubling of the line through the Mendips then took place. It is interesting to note that this joint ownership progressed through the Grouping and Nationalization. Through services finished in 1962 and following publishing of the Beeching Report with complete closure in March 1966.

Mike then showed a collection of images from the northern section starting from Bath Green Park to Evercreech Junction. This involved a number of viaducts and tunnels which were doubled after the formation of the joint railway. Much of the former line is now either footpaths or cycle paths enabling a good view of the country through which the line was built. A small section of the line has been restored at Midsomer Norton and the station restored to its original condition complete with signal box. There is a long-term plan to extend the line southwards, however this involves removing a considerable amount of waste from a cutting. The original preservation was based at Radstock Colliery which was connected to the GWR line following closure. The latter period showed the effect of the rundown of services and for the final two years the last Midland 2-8-0 locos were replaced by Standard 9F locos.  The presentation gave a very balanced view of the history of the line. The famous summer Saturday services covered quite a brief period in the history of the line before tourists were able to use air travel to places such as Spain.