LAST TRAIN FROM EVERCREECH JUNCTION
The Final Days of the Somerset & Dorset Railway
Unlike many other lines recommended for closure by Dr. Beeching, this case was unique, and far from clear cut having many other factors at play. Left ‘Sabotaged and Defeated’, Western Region’s mishandling of the Somerset & Dorset were to set it in collision with the wrong side of history. The consequences were devastating, and the effects are still felt today.
The 1950’s was an era of great social and economic change, with rationing ending in 1954, Britain was beginning to find to find its feet economically after many years of wartime austerity. The dominance of Britain’s railways was being challenged by the rise in car ownership, the growth of new bus services, and lucrative freight contracts being lost to road haulage companies. Despite substantial investment in the 1955 modernisation plan, Britain’s railway network was haemorrhaging losses, £15.6 million in 1956 rising to £42 million in 1960. Massively subsidised by public taxation when money was hard to come by, the winds of changes were blowing through the corridors of Westminster, and the growing consensus that something urgently needed to be done.
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On March 15th 1961, the Minister of Transport Ernest Marples announced in the House of Commons that Richard Beeching, a respected ICI board member renown for his fiscal acumen was given the mission to make ‘Britain’s railway’s pay’. Eyebrows were raised when controversially Beeching insisted the government matched the salary he received from ICI, an eye watering £24,000. To put this in context, the then Prime Minister of the day Harold Macmillan was remunerated £14,000 a year (£10,000 less!)
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March 27th 1963 saw the publication of Beeching’s first report, titled ‘The Reshaping of Britain’s Railways’. His findings made the case for the removal of duplicate lines and loss-making lines, and carried page after of station names recommended for closure. The report was based on a survey carried out in one week in 1961, the timing of when the information (passenger numbers) was gathered was brought into question, such accusations were fervently denied. Ironically, before the publication of this report Dr Beeching had promised: “In all our planning, we haven’t forgotten that railways are there to serve people. We haven’t forgot the human side”.
Dr. Richard Beeching
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A high profile casualty of the Beeching cuts was the Somerset & Dorset. However, the seeds of its destruction were viewed to have been sown years before its closure when much of the line was brought under the jurisdiction of Western Region.
Most noticeable, was the deliberate diversion away from the S&D of the highly profitable ‘Pines Express’, the final ‘Pines’ was single headed by Class 9F ‘Evening Star’ on 8th September 1962, Western Region in their argument cited that many customer benefits would follow as a result. Between 1963 – 1965 freight facilities were withdrawn from most intermediate stations, and Midford, Wellow and Chilcompton were reduced in operational status to unstaffed halts.The last night freight mail train from Bath to Bournemouth ran over the line on 7th September 1964.
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Britain's railway network:
(Pre & post Beeching)
1963
1984
On the 2nd August an ongoing electrification scheme demanded the closure of Bournemouth West station. S&D trains were either terminated at Branksome, or diverted on a supposedly temporary basis, but they never returned. The Minister of Transport agreed to the station’s closure on the 4th October.
Deeply grieved; a meeting was held at Templecombe on the 19th of September, it was called by Norman Down and Ernie Cross (the stationmaster and signalman at Binegar), and it was attended by 120 employees and 2 MP’s. In a heated exchange, the railwaymen accused the Western Region of a “cold blooded, deliberate murder of the line, planned and carefully executed over a period of 10 years, way before Dr Beeching’s plan”. Deploring the actions of Western Region and general attitude to the S&D, said that their methods were the deliberate withdrawal of important through trains, freight and parcel services, accusing them sabotage by re-routing goods traffic so it took twice of time of the direct route and taking days instead of hours to reach their destination. The railway also charged management with a refusal to modernise the line or its stations; to affect economies which railwaymen knew would work, but which they would not accept, in order to create a valid case for closure.
An official statement made by a British Railways spokesman on 12th November 1965 came as no surprise, confirming that all passenger services over the Somerset & Dorset would cease on 3rd January 1966 together with most freight trains. This was, subject to the provision of an alternate bus service serving destinations along the line. As not enough time was allowed to get a replacement bus service up and running, the line received a temporal stay of execution while another applicant was found.
Two days before Christmas, British Railway announced an ‘interim emergency service’ that would take effect in the New Year. Publication of the new (skeleton) timetable was not favourably received. When implemented, complaints were received that the minimum requirement of services as promised under the principles of closure consent had not being met, of consistently high fares, and of trains deliberately being run during irregular hours to discourage use of the railway. Somerset County Council in a telegram to the newly appointed Minister of Transport, Barbara Castle, deploring the Railway Board’s actions and the clear violations that had taken place, asking her to intervene to prevent the further curtailment of railway services before final closure, and was supported the Norton Radstock and Bathavon District Councils.
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With closure looming, the General Post Office announced their own road service, much of which was previously carried by rail.
It was a very dispiriting time for those working for the railway, where pride gave way to feelings of despair - signs of neglect were all around to see on a once highly-maintained railway. Locomotives and rolling stock were often sent out in a filthy state, that were run into the ground and then retired for scrap. Maintenance to railway structures and infrastructure was cut down to an absolute minimum to meet safety standards. Those that worked for the railway were looked up to and considered to have a job for life, this sadly was no longer the case and uncertainty became the new reality.
On 4th January 1966, the emergency service was introduced. Many were unhappy at the limited provision of passenger trains over the line; feelings were strong in local council chambers and amongst residents. After the sending of numerous letters, telephone conversations and behind-the-scenes diplomatic action, followed a press release from a British Railway spokesman on 13th January, it read, “To help in cases of hardship, we are arranging to augment train and bus services until the S&D closes”. A few concessions regarding additional services were made by British Railways in the time leading up to closure.
On Saturday 5th March 1966, the final day of normal scheduled S&D services, two farewell specials ran on the line. Organised by the L.C.G.B., was named 'The Somerset & Dorset Rail Tour' and was double headed by 34006 ‘Bude’ and 34057 ‘Biggin Hill’. Such was the affection for the line that many people came to be part of the occasion and witness the end of an era. A booking clerk at Green Park when talking to a prospective passenger intending to catch the last train out of Bath said, “You’ll be crushed to death, hundreds have booked for the 18:10, they’ve come from all over to see us”.
At Evercreech Junction, onlookers witnessed a solemn, yet light lighted approach to the occasion. A cortege made its way through a densely crowded platform; headed by a local florist who was wearing a dark coloured suit, overcoat and top hat. He stopped to halt the four men behind him (consisting of the stationmaster Alexander Stowe and three of his uniformed staff, all who wore mourning purple ribbons in their button holes). They carefully lowered a coffin carrying a cross of yellow flowers into the guards van. In the regrettable absence of a brass band, a loudspeaker relayed ‘John Brown’s Body’ from a record player in the booking office. The black - edged card read: ‘The Somerset & Dorset Railway Died Today, March 5th 1966!’ At the next stop, Evercreech New, the coffin was off loaded into a hearse.
The train was so delayed at various stations that hundreds of spectators at Bath had to wait until 22:47 for it to appear. People packed every compartment of the train, the corridors took the overflow. Detonators placed on the line went off as planned, torches flashed and daffodils were waived as the Pines Express steamed into the station.
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The Stephenson Locomotive Society ran a special on the Bath - Templecombe - Bournemouth section on Sunday 6th March 1966. The final train consisted of Class 8F 2-8-0 No. 48706 and BR Standard Class 4 MT 2-6-4T No. 80043; bringing down the curtain on over 100 years of railway history.
Farewell Train - 34057 ‘Biggin Hill’ at Bath Green Park station
(6th March, 1966)
The end is nigh - notices informing passengers of impending closure (S&DRT)
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Beeching Fact File
- British Railways was losing £140m when Dr Richard Beeching took over as Chairman of the British Railways Commission
- His solution, announced on 27th March 1963 was to ‘Make Railways Pay’
- The first was entitled ‘The Reshaping of British Railways’ and published in 1963. It was based on a survey carried out over one week in April 1961
- A third of the route surveyed carried only one per cent of passenger and freight traffic
- The first was entitled ‘The Reshaping of British Railways’ and published in 1963. It was based on a survey carried out over one week in April 1961
- A third of the route surveyed carried only one per cent of passenger and freight traffic
- The second report in 1965 was called ‘The development of the Major Railway Trunk Routes’
- The first report suggested that 2,363 stations and 5,000 miles of railway line should be closed - accounting for 55 per cent of stations and 30 per cent of route miles
- The Conservative government welcomed the report, but British people living in rural areas were against the plans
-Following the reports 2,128 stations and more than 67,000 British Railways jobs were cut. More than 4,500 miles of track was lost
- Closures stopped in the early 1970’s and nearly 30 stretches of railway have since been reopened
34006 'Bude' and 34057 'Biggin Hill' cross Presleigh viaduct heading the LCGB Railtour on 5th March 1966