midford on thursday

 

Midford int he rain - looking good!

 

Looking towards Wellow - and car access on site at last!

 

H&S!

 

Mick getting ready ...

 

Posing with chainsaw

 

The rain at its heaviest!

 

MIDFORD FACEBOOK GROUP

 

Reward - butchers sausages cooked on the still smouldering embers from Tuesday!

 

 

A REALLY good day at Midford last Thursday, tree clearing again. Mick Knox was down from Milton Keynes with his chain saw, local boy Tom also brought his!

It was rainy and quite gloomy when we arrived but within a couple of hours enough trees had come down to let the light in.

Our neighbour Pat also turned up and we discussed the remedial work on the concrete facing of the embankment that abuts his house down below us.

Stuart, lacking a chainsaw of his own, cooked some sausages for the chainsaw boys!

To me this is always the best part of rail restoration, the hands on stuff out in the open. Meetings and office work leave me cold, even though that takes about 95% of my New S&D time.

There's a real buzz all along the route now, with Masbury very close, new local groups forming in Shepton Mallet, Evercreech and Whitchurch, Shillingstone going great guns and a real feeling that the whole route is stirring at last.

We are now planning to launch the Midford Appeal in 2014, with the aim of raising the funds to rebuild the station and oil store, which will transform the site.

bit of a treat?

Midsomer Norton greenhouse

Midford 1960s.

Gartell Railway.

Gartell double heading.

Charlton Marshall.

Midsomer Norton 1960s.

Midford.

Shillingstone - before track.

Midsomer Norton.

Evercreech Junction.

Blandford.

Spetisbury.

Midford.

Midford - very first bit of clearance - September 2010.

Narrow gauge at Midford - 1980s/90s.

Shillingstone.

Henstridge - the 'inbetweener' years.

Well I hope it is! Apologies for no pics of Washford - couldn't find any from the album from which the above were drawn. Also apologies if I haven't attributed them, but they have been attributed earlier! This is just to try to get a taste of all we've done up and down the line for the S&D together with a few looking back on the original route.

Someone asked me on Facebook to explain the different groups restoring/preserving the S&D - this is what I came up with.

The Midsomer Norton group has been going about 20 years, formed when the site was about to be built on! They are now running trains over a short stretch of line and have rebuilt the whole site at Midsomer Norton including restoring the station buildings and goods shed which survived and rebuilding the signalbox and greenhouse which were completely demolished. This group is the Somerset and Dorset Railway Heritage Group. They were formed with the intention of 'supporting a 21st century rebuilding of the line for modern trains' which is what inspired the New S&D. They intend to rebuild back to Radstock where they will connect with the ex-GWR line to Frome, which is in situ throughout and heavily used by stone trains from Great Elm. They also plan to extend over the Mendips to Shepton Mallet and have planned a diversionary route around Shepton to possibly connect with the East Somerset Railway.

Shillingstone has been going around 10 years and have been particularly active over the last year or so. They have also rebuilt a completely demolished signalbox, the station building had been well preserved. They have a short length of running line but no public trains as yet. They have long term plans to extend northwards to Sturminster Newton. This is owned by the North Dorset Railway Trust.

The Gartell Railway is a privately owned narrow gauge line just south of Templecombe which uses about a half mile of S&D trackbed and is now extending northwards closer to Templecombe. It is strongly S&D flavoured. This runs around 7 or 8 times a year.

The Somerset and Dorset Railway Trust is based at Washford on the West Somerset Railway, but was originally based on the S&D at Radstock where it ran special trains to Writhlington, but was forced off site in around 1975. Their lease at Washford finishes in 2020 and they are expected to return to the S&D, either at an existing site or at a new one. They own a 7F loco which runs on the WSR, currently posing as fictional prussian blue liveried no 88.

The New S&D was formed on 6 March 2009 with the intention of restoring the whole route for modern trains in the post oil era. We own Midford station and a quarter mile of trackbed outright and are also about to take on Spetsibury (in Dorset) on a lease. The intention is to fully restore these stations, also to probably lay track at Spetisbury and possibly extend to Charlton Marshall and to just south of Blandford. We will also acquire trackbed etc as it becomes available, based on the Exmoor Associates model at the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway. We will also lobby for restoraton of the route in its entirety as part of a 21st restoration of the whole rail network.

All the groups work closely together with regular meetings every 6 months, we also share members and sometimes skills and equipment.

bason bridge

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

Bason Bridge was the first station after Highbridge heading towards Evercreech Junction on the branch. It survived another 9 years after closure to passengers as it lay alongside a busy milk depot. I seem to remember that closure, as always with the S&D, wasn't for economic reasons but because they were building the M5 which intersected this route, so modern transport had to be sacrificed for something ephemeral and fleeting with no future. Crazy times.

Originally the branch was expected to be retained as far as Clark's factory in Glastonbury after closure for passengers. I suspect the people of Glastonbury already regret that that didn't happen, as this longer route may well have survived into the rail era and would still be there, probably already reopened for passengers. Oh well, it will be back soon enough!

pylle

(Source unknown)

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

Pylle was the first station (later halt) on the branch to Burnham from Evercreech Junction. The passing loop was taken out of use in the 1920s. Once the main line of the S&D, this route became the branch after the Bath Extension was opened in 1874. This history was the reason the branch took the straight route from Evercreech whilst the main line curved away.

A classic British branch line, immortalised in a BBC film by John Betjeman in the early 60s, this line settled down to a fairly peaceful existence once the Bath Extension stole all the S&D's glory.

I do worry that this branch (and the other S&D branches) will be a little neglected in the buzz of rail reinstatement in the 21st century, but of course it does serve the important town of Glastonbury and, via another S&D branch off a branch, the smallest English city of Wells. These places will return to the network eventually, but whether the branch will simply be rebuilt as it was or a new line built to serve the two larger destinations we will have to wait and see. It really depends on what the people living along the route decide.

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!

the S&D's second city

Photo © John Thorn

This is Wells Priory Road in 1963/64. Wells in England's smallest city and once boasted three stations. This branch of the S&D was the first major section of the route to close, the branch connecting to the Highbridge line (itself a branch) at Glastonbury. There was of course a more logical route through Wells via the Cheddar Valley which explains the early closure.

How Wells will be served by trains in the future is still undecided. It will be essential to connect Glastonbury and Wells back to the network though whether it will be via the line to Highbridge, Evercreech, the Cheddar Valley route (to either Witham or Yatton) or perhaps even by a new direct route over the Mendips to join the main line near Masbury ... who can tell at this early stage?

tourist potential

(Midford 2.2.2010 © Mick Knox)

Although we're sometimes mistaken for a potential heritage railway (we're not of course!) we do appreciate that our route does pass through some of the finest scenery in England, and as a commercial operation we would be stupid to ignore that potential. The Bath Extension from Evercreech to Bath was possibly the most scenic stretch of railway in England, and the rest of the route is also pretty attractive!

In the same way that we will be welcoming to steam trains, because that will provide additional cash flow, profit and media attention, we will certainly exploit the beauty of the route, encouraging people to visit the line for the journey alone for example.

The top view is of Midford, admittedly on a damp winter's day, but it does give an idea of the rural attractiveness of the route. Any look through an album of photos of the line will also show just how attractive it was. The architecture and infrastructure on the route actually fitted in with this and in places even enhanced the natural beauty.

We do feel a huge amount of responsibility to restore the route as closely as possible to the original. Railways have always had an immense advantage over roads in fitting into both the urban and rural environment and the S&D was possibly the finest example of them all.

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.

before closure

A couple of excellent shots from Adrian Vaughan. He has sent us around 100 pictures of the old line so I'll be loading these to the website in the stations section and also the fledgling loco section over the coming weeks. Eventually we will offer these on CD as a collection once we have more dates from Adrian.

reorientation

We are all in for a big reorientation over the next 20 to 30 years.

With respect to the rebuilt S&D we are not only looking at restoring the 'classic' routes, Bournemouth to Bath and Evercreech to Burnham, but adding extra capacity and flexibility by including new links to Brockenhurst via Wimborne and Ringwood and to Bristol via Pensford, and also looking at the whole provision of rail to Glastonbury and Wells by not dismissing the possibility of building a wholly new route from these two important tourist towns over the Mendips to a junction near Masbury rather than simply restoring the original route from Evercreech Junction. We also expect that the entire main line will need to be double tracked including the long Blandford to Templecombe section, though with the obvious proviso of physical limitations north of Midford into Bath!

In the wider transport field all communities will need to look at how they are actually arranged. Suburbs, where they are still viable, will need trams or ULR to continue to allow them to thrive. Businesses needing incoming and outgoing transport will need to be located next to a rail or tram route with larger concerns having private sidings. Many industries will need to reconnect using their own private industrial lines. Whole swathes of manufacturing and service industries will vanish with the withering of pure consumerism. Seaside resorts benefitting from an improving (warming) climate and the end of cheap air travel will need to ensure they are connected to the network and outlying parts of their resort connected to the nearest network station by tram. Everything will need to be sustainable both in embedded energy and energy used to operate. Farms will need to be connected to the network by light rail to allow produce to reach markets which will also, of course, need to be rail served.

And individually, and as families, we will all need to reorientate the way we live. Within 20 to 30 years the idea that we once all - or nearly all - had access to private motorised transport will seem incredible. The electric car, now the only serious option in a post-oil society, will wither on the vine as the roads themselves fail without affordable materials for repair and under the new political regimes that will do everything they can to reduce private transport, using the oil price first, then rationing then actually outlawing private vehicles. This will not of course be a concatenation of political decisions but economic imperatives, so will be applicable to anyone who is voted in. None of this is rocket science.

We'll need to change the way we work, many of us will have to relocate, as close as we can to rail transport, grow our own food and live more locally-based lives. Personally I hope we retain our love of travel even if many are counting on us giving it all up. I don't think this will be the end of history or of, indeed, progress. But I do think we are all going to have to sit back and relax for a few generations until everything is totally reorientated towards a truly sustainable society. Once that's in place technology can start to develop again. I'm sorry if I'm an incurable optimist, but it's a position I've arrived at after many decades of pushing the boundaries!

(Apologies for using continental European images for this article - but they are so far ahead of us!!)