New S&D chairman's report

This will be appearing in the New S&D's magazine, 'RIGHT LINES', in a few weeks' time. Hopefully it boils down the last six months activity and I haven't missed anything!

Chairman's Report

June 2012

It's fantastic that Philip Marsh and Grant Henderson have formed an editorial team to produce a magazine twice a year. I was well aware that members living a distance from the line were not really getting value for money for their membership fee, but until people stepped forward we were rather stuck! Can I ask all of you to try to provide articles and letters, and send in photos for the next edition.

Another relatively new member, Dean Cockwell, has worked wonders down at Spetisbury, negotiating with Dorset County Council and getting a team together to restore the station.

Up at Midford Tom and Stuart Seale have done sterling work rescuing this most iconic station from the undergrowth - work on rebuilding the station is now not too far away. Other members (even myself!) have helped as well, but 95% of the work has been done by the Seales.

Both Spetisbury and Midford will be rebuilt to serve as information offices for the whole line and will also have shops to make each site self-financing.

We have also approached Network Rail Property to see if Templecombe box will become available for lease at some time in the future. Whilst the site is currently still within NR's Operational area, it may well switch to Commercial at some time in the future, at which point we could negotiate to take on this site with a similar role to that of Spetisbury and Midford but with the added attraction of a Network line running past the front door.

The branches meanwhile are still in deep sleep, despite the potential of Wells, Glastonbury, Burnham and the Glastonbury Festival sites all being on route. If any of you would like to get something started on the branches please let us know! We are here to help local initiatives get started.

We've had an influx of new officers join the committee, some with fixed roles and others as general members. Thank you all for agreeing to get involved at this level!

Elsewhere on the S&D all three established sites - Midsomer Norton, Shillingstone and Gartell - have recently laid extra track, and now Midsomer Norton has joined Gartell in running regular passenger trains. Midsomer Norton is an absolute gem and a credit to all of those who have helped make this happen.

On the Sunday before the Jubilee holiday, ALL five S&D sites had work being done on them, running trains, rebuilding etc. What a turn around from the dark 80s and 90s when hardly anything was happening! The S&D was a line destined to live forever, or as close as possible, and the closure was stupid. But back in the 60s people had other priorities and a very different view of the future, expecting to be getting around in flying cars or jet packs, eating space paste from tubes!

The last five to ten years have seen some amazing developments in the railway field, from huge passenger loadings on the Network, through the building of Tornado, the rebuilding of the Welsh Highland Railway and the incredible sight (in Porthmadog) of regular steam passenger trains running through the streets.

Many lines that missed the first and second waves of preservation now have groups determined to rebuild them. The Glyn Valley Tramway in Wales for example, the Helston branch and the missing link between Bodiam and Robertsbridge - did even the most optimistic of us really think these things would happen? And in 2014 a good proportion of the Waverley line will be reopened, a reinstatement that required the demolition of many homes built on the trackbed since closure.

This is the background in which we need to set the S&D revival. The world is changing, the oil is running out and we've all seen the effects of climate change over the past few years. Meanwhile the roads continue to deteriorate and many people are giving up their cars. And this is before the cost of fuel even begins to really impact on most of us.

In 20 years the railway map of Britain will be much expanded, the S&D will be well on the road to complete reopening, there will be new build routes opening up as well as many of the Beeching cuts reversed. We do blend heritage and 'real' running, but all lines will eventually if they are to survive. It won't be easy by any means, and there will be upsets and hold ups on the way, but remember that it will get easier as each day passes!

Steve Sainsbury MA

Chair

shapwick

(Photos courtesy Jim Type, copyright C L Caddy Collection)

On the branch today, two excellent shots of Shapwick, both late 50s/early 60s.

The branch is something of a dilemma to us. Whilst clearly Wells andf Glastonbury both need to be connected to the network ASAP, as does Burnham, it's not clear that a long branch connecting at Evercreech and Highbridge is the best way to serve these places in the future. Glastonbury and Wells would probably benefit more from a logical route across the Mendips to a junction somewhere in the Masbury area, giving this sizeable town and city a direct connection to Bristol and Bath. But perhaps a change at Highbridge or Evercreech is not such a bad option from the economic point of view. There's also the Cheddar Valley route that shadows this line somewhat to the north, which could perhaps be used instead, linking Wells and Glastonbury to Yatton. There's also the flooding problem on the original branch, which will only get worse with time.

The only definite re the branch is that clearly both Wells and Glastonbury will need rail connection in the not too distant future!

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.

options for the 'New'

The New S&D will hope to quite quickly set up a short section of line to announce our presence and intent to the world! Ideally the line would be a few miles long and would, right from the start, fulfil a genuine transport need.

My own views are that the following sections would fulfil this - Burnham to Highbridge (up platform side) and Wells to Glastonbury. I'd like to see a mix of utilitarian (and inexpensive) trains such as the Parry People Mover and a steam worked tourist service. Both would need to be economically viable. Burnham has the advantage of a captive market and a seaside destination, as well as a network connection, but Glastonbury to Wells would link a prime tourist destination to England's smallest (and probably most attractive) city. Both lines would be under 3 miles long, ideal for a start up.

The Wells line also has the advantage of being expandable towards a connection - ie by heading east from Glastonbury back to Evercreech then down to Templecombe (or by a connection at Bruton at first). Beyond that the line could be extended northwards to Shepton Mallet, giving a useful network with connections to the main line - and becoming tantalisingly close to the Midsomer Norton line as it heads southwards.

But this is all a long way into the future! But a PPM at Midsomer Norton would be a nice start!

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.

out on a limb

We found ourselves in Burnham on Saturday. What a surprise! It's a delightful seaside town but it is missing a very important element - a railway station. We soon found where the line had run, and stumbled upon the delighful Somerset and Dorset pub!

But what a destination Burnham would be for a heritage line! Like Swanage but more compact. Imagine if the line were reopened at first from Highbridge, giving Burnham modern transport again, taking traffic off the roads and bringing in many more tourists combining a trip behind a steam train with a trip to the seaside. And at under two miles long the line would be a pretty cheap way to set up an attraction.

Perhaps when the Trust has completed the Mendip Main Line Project (or even before) it might look at something a little easier - the reopening of the first section of the S&D branch!