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!

Sunday, March 13, 2011

midford 27 February 2011





(Photos © Tom Seale)

I'm at last in the process of switching from my clanking old Dell PC to a lovely new Vaio laptop, my eyesight's improving as I adapt to hayfever and I reckon it's time I start working through all the emails sent by so many of you to trigger blog posts!

This is from Tom Seale's report of activity at Midford on 27 February.

Dad and myself went down to Midford again today, the order of business was to get rid of some of the accumulated brushwood from the previous three visits. Unfortunately we were not able to burn all of it in one day, but we broke the back of it by a significant margin.

We spoke to the owner of Romain (one of the houses on the west bank), he commented that his view has much improved and he was in favour of what we are doing. He asked if we could clear the area below his house at some point, but there was no rush.

We also spoke to the owner of Lynwood (the guy who asked us to remove the trees above the station that were blocking his light), he was also very pleased and appreciative. He raised a concern about the very large trees on the East bank above his house, unfortunately felling those would require skills and expertise well in excess of ours (probably would need a tree surgeon), again to real rush as they've been there since the railway closed by the look of them.

Should be heading down again in three weeks time, this time to clear some of the leaf mulch of the platform before spring really takes a hold.

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4 comments:

Dom said...

Presumably all the usable wood has found a new life as handy firewood for log burners?.. :-)

Steve Sainsbury said...

Naturally. We hope to stick to our futuristic and sustainable objectives right from the start.

Anonymous said...

No good wood was wasted! Come down and see for yourselves sometime.
Regards,
Stuart Seale

Tom Seale said...

Will be there again this Sunday (20th) More platform clearance.