street running US style

Just had to share this! Anyone who doubts that street running isn't an option should remember that the USA (supposedly anti-rail) has MANY places where this happens. This is Salem, Oregon, which sees 2 to 4 freights a day on this route. Hopefully I can catch some of this in real life either in December (New York City, Brooklyn) or next October (Florida, lots of locations!)

So who knows, we may one day see a 9F pulling a half mile long freight down the road somewhere in Somerset or Dorset!

stamping ground

Great news - the post office is issuing a set of stamps in August and one of the first class values is shown above. Evening Star on the Pines at Midsomer Norton! I assume that Midsomer Norton will be doing a huge tie in with the issue of these stamps as this is really a once in a lifetime opportunity to push the station! It's even better that it's a first class stamp as these see vastly more use than the higher values in the rest of the set. Buy as many of these as you can and use them on all your letters and parcels! Issue date is 19 August 2010. There will also be a much larger postcard sized stamp card available.

midford - discuss ....

(Click on picture to enlarge and read text).

This is a plan for Midford put forward by George M Howard, who has recently created the Pines Express and Evening Star Facebook groups. This was merely a 'thought experiment', dreamed up before there were any plans to restore Midford. I do wonder if once we start work at Midford, which is now imminent, a trackless station will soon be too little, and thoughts will switch to laying track? 

new facebook

Another S&D relevant facebook group has just started up, this one concerning the locomotive 'Evening Star' which was not only the last steam locomotive built for British Railways (up to now of course!) but was also a regular on the S&D. To join click here..

shillingstone progress

We now have an official Shillingstone contributor so expect a lot more on this exciting project to build a loco works and a long length of running line on the Dorset section of the S&D. Nothing from them yet, but expect news very soon.

It certainly seems to be buzzing down at Shillingstone and a clear vision of an operating railway, funded in part by the outshopping of tender locomotives at their innovative Highbridge New Works, has now been firmly established in my view.

If you've been considering joining the Shillingstone group but putting it off, perhaps due to their earlier ideas of just rebuilding a half mile or so of line with no running trains and no obvious income, now is the time to get involved in a scheme that seems to have transformed itself over recent months and now looks set to become a major player in the heritage world nationally and the tourist world locally.

Go Shillingstone!!

more shillingstone

(All 17.2.2009)

More info on the loco works at Shillingstone courtesy of Nick Howes.

[T]he engineering facility has been at the pinnacle of the Trust's plan for a least 4 years and will provide employment, pass on important engineering skills and show the public, who are fascinated by steam, how things are done. Not only locomotives, but carriages and wagons too. Once Morning Star and another loco go through the contract overhaul works then the locos and other stock that follows will start to build up a healthy fund for whatever direction the project decides to take in future. This sustainable long term vision has been recently endorsed by our colleagues at Midsomer Norton. As I said elsewhere what is eventually needed is shared membership, [o]ne quarterly magazine and shared stock, artefacts, skills, knowledge and staff between all the S&D projects, which are currently, Washford, Midford, Midsomer Norton, Masbury, Gartells, Shillingstone and Spetisbury.

fancy owning a bit of a coach?

(Photo Jeremy Woodrow MMOG newsletter)

Midlands Mark One coach number 26049 is now resident at Midsomer Norton - and it looks superb! (Sorry for the quality of the picture - it was taken directly from the newsletter - better quality shots are welcomed!!)

It is so important that the S&D restoration captures the feel of the line as it was in its prime. These Mark One coaches are every bit as iconic as Midford station, Midsomer Norton box, Templecombe, 9Fs, Ivo's Bentley and Prestleigh viaduct.

There are still a lot of costs looming to get the coach fully restored inside and to this end the MMOG are asking for further donations. If you would like to help with this please send a cheque made payable to 'Midlands Mark One Group' to Jeremy Woodrow, 1 Bathway Cottages, Bathway, CHEWTON MENDIP, Somerset, BA3 4NP. You can also make regular payments by standing order - again if interested please contact Jeremy at the above address for a form. (We will also do a pdf of this form on the New S&D website after David returns from his holiday this coming week, but please don't wait).

the secret garden

(18.2.2009)

Under where the Shillingstone road branches off from the A350 to Blandford there is, if you know where to find it, a secret bit of the S&D. There's a short stretch of cutting then a long (and very well preserved) underbridge. In common with many other engineering features on this section of the route (which was always single track from Templecombe to Blandford) it is only wide enough for one track. This is probably the reason this section was never double-tracked - although I suspect that eventually it will be!

It seems amazing that this quiet, rural and almost totally hidden part of the S&D once rang with the sounds of 9Fs, 7Fs, long express passenger trains and heavy goods twenty four hours a day. Let's hope it's not too long before modern transport returns to this corner of Dorset.

last look at shillingstone (for now)

Four more shots from Shillingstone (taken 18.2.09).

The view from the platforms across the valley are fantastic - though don't look great in the last shot thanks to the weather, which elsewhere en route actually heightened the atmosphere!

I suspect it won't be too long before the Shillingstone diesel ventures back on to the main line, echoing Midsomer Norton's achievement about 4 years back, which I missed! It will be a lot longer before the 9F does the same, but after last week's visit I no onger have any doubts that it will.

This is the last bit of active S&D on this trip, though surprisingly not the last bit of track still in place. We'll be heading southwards tomorrow ...

a 9F on the S&D

This is 9F Morning Star at Shillingstone (18.2.2009).

Progress is already being made on this monster - a new cab has been built and it's generally looking a lot better when I last saw it a few years ago.

The 9F is definitely a commitment to a new S&D. Rumours are that although the hulk was able to be brought in by road, that option will simply not be available when it is fully restored. The only way it will visit anywhere is (at least partly!) by rail. Obviously this doesn't presume a fully restored S&D, but it will require that Shillingstone extend to a point where bridge weight restrictions will no longer apply. In any case a big loco like this deserves a good ten miles of S&D to justify its presence - but the more sanguine amongst us will already wish it to run down to Bournemouth and up through Masbury and Midsomer Norton to Bath!

southern teasers

Four random shots from today's epic survey of the route between Sturminster Newton and Spetisbury - much more to follow over the next few days and weeks!

last shots of shillingstone

The main waiting room - looking good.


Visitor info.


The diesel looking like its ready to break out!


Pile of ballast and 9F beyond.

cheap solution to blockages!

Transition Transport UK now also has a blogsite
to complement its facebook presence. I promise future posts here will be S&D first and foremost but this is such a great video I thought it might give the S&D ideas where the trackbed is a bit difficult - run 9Fs down the middle of the street! Cheap, easy and spectacular, and conflict with road traffic will become less and less of a problem as cars and lorries disappear from our roads!

This will soon be a common sight in Porthmadog when the Welsh Highland links with the Festiniog on street - using steam!

little do we know

1989, West Somerset Railway. Ex-brother in law and none other than Evening Star! Now all has changed - Tere's remarried and Evening Star is stuffed and mounted in York and no longer running. In 1989 the S&D was totally closed and bereft of track.



18 years later and this is the S&D back with a vengeance. And who's that walking along the track? None other than Aubrey Punter, fireman on Evening Star's last up Pines Express through Midsomer Norton in September 1962!

shillingstone 2007

Four shots from a quick visit today to our sister set up in Dorset at Shillingstone. It's great to see track reappearing here, and they've caught the 1960s Southern atmosphere very well with good signing etc. It seems to me that track will soon appear between the platforms with preparation work and a new drain clearly visible. One day the two schemes will physically join - it will be a momentous day indeed when Midsomer Norton reach Dorset or Shillingstone reach Somerset!