LAST TRAIN FROM EVERCREECH JUNCTION
A Brief History of the Somerset & Dorset Railway
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Areas served: Somerset, Dorset
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Termini: Bath Green Park, Bournemouth West, Bridgwater North, Burnham-on-Sea
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Stations: 48
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Services: Bath to Bournemouth, Bridgwater to Bournemouth, Burnham to Bournemouth
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Closed: 7th March, 1966
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Owners: Midland Railway & L&SWR/ LMS & Southern Railway
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Mainline Length: 71.5 miles (115.7 km)
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Total length: 114 miles (183 km)
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Highest elevation: 247 m (810 ft)
S&D Overview
The Rise and Fall of the Somerset & Dorset
The Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway came into existence on 1st November 1875. It was formed when the Somerset & Dorset Railway ran into unmanageable financial difficulties and they leased jointly the line for 999 years to the Midland Railway and the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR).
By the following year, it ran from Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset to Wimborne in Dorset. From Wimborne, the S&D trains could use a line owned by the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) to reach Hamworthy on the South Coast. It was anticipated that substantial traffic would be attracted to this cross-country link between the Bristol Channel and the English Channel. When this failed to materialise, the Company, which was already in dire financial straits, decided to gamble everything on one last desperate bid for increased traffic, and built an extension from Evercreech Junction to Bath to join up with the Midland Railway. This new line provided a through route with the Midlands and the North of England, and the South Coast. It managed to produce a substantial increase in traffic, but too late to save the Company, which went into receivership. Management in 1875 chose to reject an approach to be absorbed by the Great Western Railway (GWR), and accepted an joint offer by the Midland Railway and the L&SWR. It was subsequently renamed as the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway (S&DJR).
After the 1st January 1923 Grouping joint ownership of the S&DJR passed to the LMS and the Southern Railway. In 1958 much of the Somerset & Dorset Railway transferred under the jurisdiction of British Railway's Western Region; who viewed them as a 'thorn in the side'. Western authorities considered the S&D trespassed into their territory, and having rebuffed an earlier takeover bid; in the coming years an old score was about to be settled with devastating consequences.
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The Somerset & Dorset Railway originally started out life as two separate railways. The Somerset Central Railway from Highbridge to Glastonbury, opened in 1854; it then extended at the Highbridge end to Burnham in 1858, and at the Glastonbury end to Wells in 1859; to Cole (near Bruton) in 1862 and onward to Templecombe in 1863. In 1860, the Dorset Central Railway opened a railway line between Blandford and Wimborne, where it connected with the Southampton-Broadstone-Dorchester line; and another between Templecombe and Cole in 1862; in that same year the two companies amalgamated to become the Somerset & Dorset Railway. The missing link between Templecombe and Blandford was opened in 1863, resulting in a coast to coast route between Burnham and Hamworthy in Poole Harbour. Subsequently, a line was opened from Broadstone to Poole in 1872, and on to Bournemouth West station in 1874, which then became the southern terminus of Somerset & Dorset trains.
Route Map
The S&D main line ran south from Bath Queen Square (later renamed Green Park) to Radstock, at one time the centre of the Somerset coalfield, and then over Masbury summit, at 811 feet (274 m) above sea level crossing the Mendip Hills, via Shepton Mallet and entering the catchment area of the River Stour to Wincanton and Blandford, joining the L&SWR Weymouth line at Poole, the S&D trains continuing to the L&SWR station at Bournemouth West.
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