Masbury - your chance to visit!

MASBURY HALT

FACEBOOK - MASBURY STATION RESTORATION

Great news - Masbury station is open this bank holiday weekend from 10am - 4pm Saturday to Monday (28th-30th May 2016) for the S&DRT's travelling exhibition.

Parking is available in the adjacent garden centre.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1580734378904624/

Masbury was the subject of an appeal to purchase the site for rail use, but the appeal fell some way short of the £400,000 required. However the new owner is very sympathetic to the S&D so has kindly allowed access FOR THIS BANK HOLIDAY WEEKEND ONLY.

If you get a chance go along to get a rare look at this iconic S&D location, which in many ways just looks like its waiting for the trains to return!

Masbury - another S&D station that is returning!

MASBURY

FACEBOOK - FRIENDS OF THE S&D

Masbury - and its new owner (radio interview)

It was a shame, not to mention a shock, when the appeal to purchase the Masbury station site did not reach its target a couple of years ago.

Of course we all know that EVENTUALLY trains will return to Masbury, but we were always aware that, even with the site in railway hands, that was going to be more of a multi-decade process than something that would happen within a few years. Personally it means I'm not getting down there once a week as project manager - but I've got lenty more to do anyway!

But the really good news is that the new order has plans to restore the station to its pre-closure condition, rebuilding the signalbox (like at Midsomer Norton and Shillingstone) and reinstating the booking office etc.

NOTHING is going to keep the S&D down - the line is on its way back and more and more people are geeting involved. This blog will follow progress at Masbury with great interest over the coming years!

Please remember that Masbury is private property and a family home. Please do not trespass under any circumstances. Just let it happen!

infamy

NEW SOMERSET AND DORSET RAILWAY FACEBOOK

It's that time of year again! It's now 48 years to the day since the S&D closed (and 5 years to the day since the New S&D was formed).

If only ...

But I tend to look forwards rather than backwards. Speculation on what the S&D would be like now if it had been rationalised and dieselised (clue, look at the Castle Cary to Dorchester route) or even purchased entirely for £50,000 (if that rumour is true) are a waste of time and energy.

Back in the real world we have what we have, and that's a lot. Five points on the line being restored. The classic iconic station of Midsomer Norton South fully restored with the signalbox and greenhouse recreated and over half a mile of DOUBLE TRACK running line in place. Shillingstone going great guns and not far behind Midsomer Norton despite a late start, the very special Gartell Railway extending northwards and offering a fantastic experience for young and old, Midford arising from the ashes (and the Midford Appeal being launched TODAY!) and Spetisbury also being cleared with rebuilding of the station not too far off. Not to mention Masbury still teasing s along the way ...

And all against a background of increasing climate change effects (some of the worst not too far from our branch to Burnham), energy issues becoming harsher each day and elsewhere in the UK closed lines coming back from the dead as more and more people realise rail is the future.

In 5, 10, 20 years' time who knows how much bigger and busier the S&D will be? As always if you are an S&D fan please get involved in some way or another with the rebirth of this fabulous line. either by joining the New S&D, the heritage groups at Midsomer Norton and/or Shillingstone, volunteering for the Gartell or joining Railfuture or one of the other transport campaigning groups. There's no longer any excuse not to! 

masbury stirring again ...

MASBURY FACEBOOK GROUP

The original Masbury Appeal was time-limited simply because that was the original offer and aim - to raise £500,000 in three months in a window of opportunity whilst the station was kept off the market.

We did raise £80,000 which was magnificent and equated to around £7,500 a week! This gave us the leverage to request a joint working arrangement with the prospective new owner, who I and several others met in the meeting coach at Midsomer Norton in the autumn.

Sadly this promising buyer dropped out, and the whole scheme has been in limbo since. Now the station is not only on the market but the price has been dropped by £100,000!

So we have a second bite at this! I have been corresponding with John Baxter at Midsomer Norton about this and we've basically agreed that a rather different approach needs to be made to move this along. The first decision was to appoint one person to oversee the whole process. The second is to drop the time limitation and to set it up like a normal appeal ie it will run until we've secured the site, either wholly or by a written agreement with the owner. So the money raised will cover purchase of the whole site or, again, give leverage to secure land ownership and/or running rights to allow us to operate, eventually, a train service to a reopened station at Masbury.

The game is back on! More news very soon.

Anyone who would like to help with this stand alone project please email me on leysiner@aol.com giving me your ideas!

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.

Masbury countdown

 

MASBURY FACEBOOK GROUP

The Masbury Appeal has far exceeded my wildest expectations. The last figure we have is £62,000 but this is now almost two weeks old, and more has doubtless come in. If we conservatively estimate £80,000 now in the pot, then this equates to over £6000 a week coming in!

It is still short of the Appeal total of course, but that shouldn't be too big an issue. The cost of the property will be £375,000, the extra £125,000 is for various things such as legal fees etc, but a big slice is initial repair and restoration costs.

I suspect the Appeal will continue to run after 30 September until the full £500,000 is raised.

This Saturday a few of us have a meeting with the current owner of Masbury station. Hopefully we will be able to negotiate an extension or possibly look towards a mortgage, share issue or some other similar way of raising the balance, so we can get in and start the work.

So thanks to everyone who has sent money - I know of one individual donation well into 5 figures for example. This Appeal has really caught the imagination of S&D fans nationally, and further afield. We've worked together to really make things happen and caught the imagination of the entire railway heritage community.

masbury steams ahead

Excellent news today is that the Masbury Appeal has now raised £40,000! Some will see this as a glass 92% empty but in reality it is a glass (and leverage!) that is 8% on its way.

These are difficult times for most people, but there's been a huge amount of generosity from a lot of people. Whilst we are almost half way through the appeal period remember that 30 September is merely the date when the station may appear on the open market. The appeal will continue after that date of course, and it may be a decent sized pot may delay it a little longer, which is all good news. And we'll be entering the season of rail enthusiasm, the winter, when the pace of donations should go up.

So whatever you can do please do to raise money! We'll keep pushing the appeal this end but we can only do so much. It would be fantastic if we did have the whole £500,000 by 30 September, it will make life a lot easier!

jazz for masbury

 

There will be a big jazz event at Midsomer Norton on 10 August 2013 (details on above poster).

 

 

Shades of the S&D in the sixties when a DMU worked a special service to an open air jazz event at (I think) Wellow!

 

masbury progress

The latest figure for money raised to purchase Masbury is £29,300. It's a tidy sum but there's still a long way to go!

I think we need to be proactive - all of us. We need to look at ways to raise money individually and also make sure as many people as possible know what is happening.

I'm not one for saying 'this is our only chance'. But it is our best chance and to have Masbury saved forever for rail use will be a huge step towards getting the S&D back.

Progress at Spetisbury, Midford, Midsomer Norton, Shillingstone and Gartell continues. The S&D is coming alive all along its route - and it would be great to see activity up on the Mendips!

So start spreading the message and keep thinking of ways to raise money for the station. We are part of the way there, but there's still a lot to do!

masbury earache!

Oh dear, just endured a forty minute earbashing by the people that own a property next to Masbury. Despite an earlier phone call about a month ago where I thought I'd allayed their fears it was not to be!

The latest communication was thanks to some TV and radio publicity for the appeal. The callers seemed to think that we shouldn't be publicising this appeal, and they also picked up on some of the spin about when trains will actually be running at Masbury.

Don't get me wrong, I understand their fears of the place buzzing with people and the whiff of steam, I can understand the non-rail fan mindset. Except this rather benign image wasn't the one they had in their head. I used psychology and asked them what THEY thought would happen from 1 October if we get the site. 'Well you'll be running trains almost right away, and it will scare the horses and our house price will plummet'.

Let's analyse that. Even the most optimistic person (not me) doesn't expect trains of any sort to be running here for 4 years at least. Real through trains carrying freight and passengers are decades away yet. The first few years at Masbury will be gentle restoration.

Horses? Well any sensible horse will go to the other end of the field, and will soon get used to the occasional train.

House prices? ALWAYS go UP, and go up more the closer they are to a station, even a heritage station. Utility you see. The really interesting thing (and perhaps they shouldn't have told me!) was that they had an INSURANCE to cover any shortfall 'IF THE RAILWAY IS REOPENED'. They were more far sighted than most of us!!

They even dared to compare Masbury, that idyll of railway perfection on the finest line in England, to a SEWAGE FARM opening on your doorstep!

Their fears are not real. They will USE the railway when it's reopened, we all will as there won't be any other realistic option. Their house price will shoot up as the railway returns. And their horses will soon learn that trains are fun and will chase them the length of their field.

The world simply is not as many people see it - it is far nicer than that.

All that 40 minutes of nonsense did was to make me even more determined to GET THE STATION BACK!

next stop masbury

You can hardly fail to have noticed that the S&D is attempting to acquire Masbury station - as well as Facebook groups and the front page of the SDRHT website, it was also announced to the world through the pages (and cover) of Steam Railway.

The appeal is being overseen by the SDRHT at Midsomer Norton, with the full support of the New S&D. It's planned that if the purchase is successful then the New S&D will manage the site in cooperation with the SDRHT.

This is fantastic news for several reasons. Masbury is an iconic S&D location (right up there with Midsomer Norton, Evercreech Junction and Midford) and is a sizeable station, especially for such a small village. It is the first big scheme that involves more than one (and hopefully ALL) the S&D groups. And it opens the way for the SDRHT to realise its banner - Mendip Main Line Project. It will also elevate the S&D into the stratosphere of the best heritage lines in the UK. It announces to the world that the S&D is on its way back and we don't plan to let anything stand in our way!!

Please please donate everything you can to this project. Remember to Gift Aid where appropriate. And if you don't want the money spent elsewhere it will be returned to you if the appeal fails ... but that's not going to happen, is it?

Full details on how to donate here.

love at first sight?

 

Hardly! My first ever visit to Midford (indeed the S&D) was on 24 May 1980, and the site was a mess. Overgrown and neglected it would have been a brave person indeed who would have forecast that it would ever be a station again, let alone a station on a rebuilt S&D. But we've come a long long way since and the station is now almost ready for rebuilding. Of course further along the S&D Midsomer Norton is now a superb restoration and a real credit to the entire heritage movement. Further south Masbury awaits the revivalists (after the small matter of raising the money has been achieved!), next is the Gartell Railway which operates a superb 2 foot gauge with an S&D flavour just south of Templecombe, well into Dorset Shillingstone has been restored and track laid and a bit further south Spetisbury has received the attention of a sizeable group of local revivalists. The S&D has indeed come a very long way since that day back in 1980!

 

At the time I lived in Sussex and my main interests were Swiss electric railways and music. My interests haven't changed much but you'd have to add the S&D to that list!

the next big step

I'm waiting with baited breath here for the final details of the next big S&D development - the purchase of MASBURY station!

I can't say too much (but all will be revealed in just a few days) but at least two of the existing S&D groups (including the New S&D of course) will be announcing an appeal to purchase Masbury.

Full details to follow by the weekend at the latest!

more masbury

(Copyright Mick Knox 17.2.2009)

Attached is a picture taken from the site of the DMU picture from May 1958 on the blog. This picture was taken in Feb 2009 and I believe the fence on the Upside of the DMU is the same fence, to the left of the fence in my picture? The approach to the former Masbury Summit Bridge (Oakhill Rd No 69) has been filled in, where the DMU is.

As an aside, this is a very nice shot of a quiet rural corner of Somerset. Imagine a motorway going through this! But at the same time imagine just how well the revived S&D will fit into this scene, one more HUGE advantage rail has over road. In fact from a short distance away the railway will completely blend in with the environment.

Another problem with busy roads is that there is a constant procession of vehicles, creating noise and pollution, and danger to other drivers as well as the many animals that take their lives in their hands when they cross roads. Even the busiest railway has gaps between trains, there's not an endless procession of trains causing the same problems. Hopefully there NEVER will be, despite the HUGE increase in rail traffic that is inevitable as the roads die. With long powerful trains and less need for people to travel to work there should be  a better balance of supply and demand - which will be the subject of a future blog post!

masbury 2009

(Both copyright Mick Knox)

Further to the picture of the DMU at Masbury, Mick Knox has dug out some 2009 shots taken at or near the same location.

Former trackbed, without infill near bridge No 68, the one behind the DMU and another from the site of Bridge No 69, likely to have been behind the photographer of the DMU picture. It doesn’t look like he was standing on in it, although I wouldn’t know having never seen the bridge.

dmu on the s&d

 

(Masbury 10.5.1958)

Took some finding but here's evidence that DMUs did work on the original S&D!

masbury

Two contasting shots of Masbury, the top one (courtesy Jim Type, copyright C L Caddy Collection), from the line in its heyday, the second picture from a few weeks ago.

It always seemed a little unfair that Masbury had the lovely station house, despite being a halt for a tiny village. How useful that big building would have been at Midsomer Norton - or indeed Midford!

Masbury was the summit of the line and must have been an incredible location in the 50s on a summer Saturday as heavy expresses breated the summit. All is quiet now, but Masbury's real glory days lie ahead of it!

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!

once in a lifetime opportunity?

The station at Masbury, lovingly restored over the last few years, is now available to rent! This would be a dream come true to an S&D fan, the chance to live the dream at one of the S&D's most iconic location!

It's currently on eBay, rent is £1150 per month.

Wells letting agents Palmer Snell are pleased to offer:Something Special - Built in 1874 by the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway a completely refurbished Station House retaining many of the period features and set in the enchanting hamlet of Masbury. The Station House is accessed down a completely private road and benefits from total privacy and is far from the madding crowd. Parking for two or three cars. The Cathedral City of Wells is just 3miles away with easy reach of Bristol and Bath as well as the regions major link roads.Wells in Somerset is an unspoilt market town of outstanding beauty, located in rolling countryside, at the foot of the Mendip hills. Although much of the glory of Wells lies in the past, it is very much a city of the present day, a busy market town, and an educational and commercial centre.Accommodation comprises: Entrance hall, beautiful fitted kitchen with completely restored Aga, together with an electric hob, integrated dishwasher and belfast sink, some of the original wood paneling has been replaced to add to its authenticity, utility, good sized lounge with dual aspect windows and wood burning stove, new downstairs bathroom with shower over bath, there is also a dining room with feature fireplace which could also be used as a third bedroom. Upstairs are two double bedrooms both retaining the original feature fireplaces. The garden is to the rear of the property and was part of the original platform and is surrounded by mature shrubs and trees. This is a fantastic opportunity to rent something special in an outstanding rural location

It's currently listed on eBay here.

happy 137th!

Midsomer Norton South

Midford

Happy 137th birthday to the Bath Extension, which opened on this day in 1874. This section of line now has one restored station running trains (Midsomer Norton South), one restored privately (Masbury) and one cleared and ready to start rebuilding (Midford). That'll be the Ms done!

This stretch of the line was probably the finest section of railway in England and certainly the most missed. With its fantastic scenery and huge variety of trains it was really the jewel in the crown of the heritage movement - but seemed to be missed first time round!

The glory days of the Bath Extension are really ahead of us. As more and more of this stretch of line reopens the reality of its return will become clear to everybody. Towns and villages along the route will once again have a modern transport system on their doorstep, linking them to the outside world once again and protecting them from the worst effects of Peak Oil. And the heritage movement, particularly locomotive owners, will have available the finest line on which to fully show off their magnificent machines.

The S&D community should stop 'celebrating' closures, and start celebrating openings and reopenings - there are going to be very many ahead of us. The tables really have turned and the S&D is very clearly on its way back after 45 years of that ridiculous and now obviously temporary closure.