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!

Monday, March 05, 2012

something a little different!





This is Manchester's Mayfield station as it is today. This was a subsidiary station that lay alongside Manchester Piccadilly. The S&D link is that this was the Manchester station that the Pines Express used. Photos via the excellent Derelict Places website.

7 comments:

Knoxy said...

That's brilliant. we should make it our northern base. i hope it keeps surviving until Manchester needs even more trains. not too much longer.

Keith Browning said...

Knoxy...

Don't encourage Steve with ideas like that.

He'll soon be planning to link up via the Great Central, reopening Nottingham Victoria and ending up at Mayfield from the Woodhead Tunnel direction.

yamfaz said...

HS2 Northern Extension station??

Knoxy said...

If i had £32bn to spend (printed money of course) on getting the country back to work i would spend it all on rebuilding closed local and secondardy lines and not HS2.

This really would benefit all of the population....

Worthing Wanderer said...

It's incredible that this place is still derelict. It was like this when I lived in the area in the early 1990s!

Keith Browning said...

Just looking at the work going on to link up some of the preserved lines, I think that £100m would probably surfice to reconnect 100 miles of track to the major network. Just £2 million would reconnect the Bluebell and the Swanage, and that would be 20 miles. There are others where the only missing bit involves signals etc. £100m for 100 miles would be more than adequate. Trouble is the politicians are owned by the oil and transport companies and till that link is broken things wont change very quickly. look what Scotland has done now that the link is gone.

Anonymous said...

i am sure this station was used in an episode of cracker a few years ago but i didnt know then where it was
thanks guys

steviez