branching out

Two above courtesy Jeffery Grayer.


Courtesy Adrian Vaughan.

We'd like to welcome Steve Overthrow on board the New S&D team. He'd only discovered this blog a few days ago, has since joined and is now acting as track steward for Evercreech Junction to Burnham and the Bridgwater North and Wells branches. He will also be taking a keen interest in these branch affairs via a co-opted committee role. He has a long family history with the 'branch'.

We have always intended to restore the branches as well as the main line. All S&D branches served important towns and a city - Wimborne, Wells, Glastonbury, Burnham and Bridgwater - and also provided potential modern transport to many villages en route.

Restoration of the branch presents few physical obstructions and compared to the main line follows a very easy and lightly-engineered route. Early on I mooted restoration of Burnham-Highbridge or even an isolated (at first) route between Wells and Glastonbury as possible first steps towards restoration of the branch, mainly to find our feet as rail operators and to show that we are very serious. I can imagine Parry People Movers (of which more tomorrow) being ideal transport on these flat routes. The branch had a particular charm which I think will be recovered when it is restored - the landscape through which it runs has changed little during the four decades of temporary closure.

we are definitely not alone!

(Bottom pic Mick Knox)

Just posted to the message board -

I'm afraid the problems with aiming at restoring any railway, seem to be people who have no interest in providing a SERVICE eventually. Its all about playing ( ! ) "choo - choo's" and thier own self importance. There are several railways where this attitude is prevelant.

To my way of thinking, the ULTIMATE aim should be LONG railways LINKING towns, villages and other population areas that will provide an alternative to overcrowded and unsuitable roads. I imagine quite a few people who are dead because of road traffic accidents on poorly maintained and overused roads would possibly be alive and well today HAD the railways been left and used, and they had the option of travelling by rail.

However, the point of the exercise above all else in 'preservation' should be, first and foremost, track mileage and the aqquisition of such mileage BEFORE any stock or buildings are envisioned. Maybe the East Somerset COULD have reached Wells or EVEN Cheddar by now HAD the priority been track miles as opposed to engine sheds etc! All very pretty, but what use is 2 miles of track which terminate NOWHERE ! People soon tire of the short little 'hops', but if the S&D could link, say Sturminster to Blandford for example, there would be a possibility of providing local people with regular, safe and reliable transport for shopping, business and leisure also, but not least: The railway would provide JOBS from staff, to engineering to all aspects of training YOUNG people towards a sustainable and progressive industry on the rails!

Ideally, the COMPLETE restoration of S&D metals to the south coast and Bristol Channel again, with ALL towns and cities LINKED once again. Wells, Glastonbury, Bridgwater, Wimborne, Blandford, Poole and Bournemouth with 'main line' rail links at Templecombe, Poole, Bristol and Highbridge so it would be possible to travel CONTINOUSLY by rail to say Minehead via GW and West Somerset or Portsmouth via Poole and Southern main line etc etc. In other words a new NETWORK.

the bigger picture

It's helpful sometimes to set what we're doing at Midsomer Norton into perspective. The S&D was over 100 miles long. We can drive for two hours and still be on the route. This week we were down in deepest Dorset yet crossed the S&D near Creekmoor, a few weeks ago on the Bristol Channel coast and there was the S&D again, at Burnham. Wimborne, Wells, Bridgwater, Bath, Glastonbury, Broadstone - all once saw S&D trains - and will again. Down at Shillingstone the S&D is beginning to reappear, on many points on the route you'll find solid, timeless reminders of the line. It is as if everyone realised the 'closure' of the S&D was just a phase, that it would be back sooner or later. Because a restored S&D, even without the converging catastrophes (for roads at least!) of Peak Oil and Climate Change, is inevitable. Large towns like Norton-Radstock, Blandford, Glastonbury and Wimborne will not survive in the future without modern transport. Businesspeople will still need markets, children will still need to get to school, people will still need to commute to work, hopefully we'll still have enough leisure time (even in a harsher world) to travel for pleasure or to find peace and quiet. The new S&D will sit perfectly into the new world, be an asset and give our area and country an edge against those that didn't see the future until too late, who stupidly tried to hang on to the past whilst the future overtook them.

We're being empowered at the local and regional level, no-one considers restoring a railway as a 'hobby' these days. Rail is back in a big, big way, on the network and outside of it. The S&D will always lead others in this respect because we look to the future rather than the past.