Welcome to the 'New Somerset and Dorset Railway'

The original Somerset and Dorset Railway closed very controversially in 1966. It is time that decision, made in a very different world, was reversed. We now have many councillors, MPs, businesses and individuals living along the line supporting us. Even the Ministry of Transport supports our general aim. The New S&D was formed in 2009 with the aim of rebuilding as much of the route as possible, at the very least the main line from Bath (Britain's only World Heritage City) to Bournemouth (our premier seaside resort); as well as the branches to Wells, Glastonbury and Wimborne. We will achieve this through a mix of lobbying, trackbed purchase and restoration of sections of the route as they become economically viable. With Climate Change, road congestion, capacity constraints on the railways and now Peak Oil firmly on the agenda we are pushing against an open door. We already own Midford just south of Bath, and are restoring Spetisbury under license from DCC, but this is just the start. There are other established groups restoring stations and line at Midsomer Norton and Shillingstone, and the fabulous narrow gauge line near Templevcombe, the Gartell Railway.

There are now FIVE sites being actively restored on the S&D and this blog will follow what goes on at all of them!
Midford - Midsomer Norton - Gartell - Shillingstone - Spetisbury


Our Aim:

Our aim is to use a mix of lobbying, strategic track-bed purchase, fundraising and encouragement and support of groups already preserving sections of the route, as well as working with local and national government, local people, countryside groups and railway enthusiasts (of all types!) To restore sections of the route as they become viable.
Whilst the New S&D will primarily be a modern passenger and freight railway offering state of the art trains and services, we will also restore the infrastructure to the highest standards and encourage steam working and steam specials over all sections of the route, as well as work very closely with existing heritage lines established on the route.

This blog contains my personal views. Anything said here does not necessarily represent the aims or views of any of the groups currently restoring, preserving or operating trains over the Somerset and Dorset Railway!

Saturday, June 16, 2007

from nsw to msn



A little favour for a fellow heritage group on the other side of the world - I only wish we had the patience and volunteers to do the same with our second hand shop stock!

I am writing to you on behalf of the New South Wales Rail Transport Museum, which is a volunteer run organisation entrusted with, predominantly, the custodianship of the moveable heritage items of the former New South Wales Government Railways (Australia).The Museum is regularly the benefactor of donations of railway themed books. A significant number of these donated books, we call them pre-loved, are of British origin and subject. Over the past couple of years the number of British titles donated to us has increased substantially and we are now seeking additional disposal channels and good homes for these publications (some of which were printed in excess of 50 years ago and may now be collector’s items).In this respect we are hoping that you may be able to either distribute the attached listing to your members or to publicise a link to it in a member’s/supporters newsletter (http://www.nswrtm.org/museum_shop/publications.html). We believe that the publications listed are very fairly priced, especially when exchange rates are taken into account. Please note that all proceeds from sales are used to further the aims of the Museum and its preservation activities.

No comments: