(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.
