SHILLINGSTONE | tribute

Shillingstone in the Noughties was to see the birth of a new S&D project on the Dorset side of the line. In a similar situation that existed at Midsomer Norton, on-site most of the station’s buildings and platforms remained intact.

During the 1980’s the station building was being by used for storage by a local furniture business and was in a poor state of repair. In order to save this site from possible redevelopment the North Dorset Railway Trust was formed in the late 1990’s.

The North Dorset Railway Trust

at Shillingstone

Former Shillingstone Railway Station (1982)

Dorset County Council declared the derelict station and its associated buildings (platforms and goods shed) surplus to requirements in 2002, and on the 9th September was placed into the hands of the Blandford Estate Agency for the sum of £20,000. The North Dorset Railway Trust on the 13th September decided unanimously to actively pursue a course of action to secure the station site, and launched a restoration fund to buy the lease from the council. The Trust was completing with thirteen other interested parties who had placed offers, the shortlist was then reduced to six, of only two when they were approached maintained their interest. Following three years and two months of correspondence and negotiations, on 13th August 2003 Dorset County Council granted the lease of Shillingstone station to the Trust. A Right of Access agreement was signed by the council on November 5th 2003, as of November 8th Trust members were allowed access to the site to carry out urgent restoration work. The lease after much consultation was signed on 22nd July 2005.

Shillingstone Station (as it looked back in 1982) (c) Roger Winnen

The dilapidated site consisted of the station building and both up and down platforms. Restoration work got under way and unearthed the remains the foundations of the signal box and the remains of the cattle dock, a number of railway artefacts were also discovered. The Trust’s intentions was to restore the station to how it would have looked back in the 1950’s.

Over the following years the station building has been fully refurbished, and now home to the railway’s gift/book shop and a cafe, with additional seating outside on the platform or in the buffet car. 120 metres of the down line has been re-laid in the station area, and is gradually extending in the direction of Blandford. A Rushton 0-4-0 diesel shunter is often seen giving demonstrations. The rebuilt signal box was opened in October 2011. A railway museum containing S&D artefacts is situated in the station hut. Inside the former parcel office can be found a model railway of Shillingstone, giving visitors an insight how it once looked pre the Beeching cuts.

Restoration work gets underway at Shillingstone

A ‘Magic Runround’ appeal is currently underway. It is their aim to create a loop of track with points to allow the flexible movement of rolling stock, as a precursor to running an working heritage railway operation.

The Shillingstone Railway Project aims not only to restore the station and available surrounding area to how it was in the early 1950s and 1960s, but also to enhance it. Much has already been achieved, including ...

• Renovation of the station buildings to include a shop, café, museum and model railway exhibition.
• Repair and reconstruction of the platforms, fencing, signal box, platform shelter and other outbuildings.
• Restoration of the station gardens and greenhouse.

Current projects include ...
• Re-laying track to the main line and sidings.
• Constructing a locomotive shed with gantry crane and all necessary engineering equipment required to allow the restoration and maintenance of the Trust’s locos and rolling stock.

Shillingstone signal box under reconstruction in March 2011 (c) Toby Watkins

Shillingstone signal box under reconstruction (March 2011)

Two steam locomotives joined the rolling stock at Shillingstone in January 2016. The locomotives are an American wartime design sent to various countries in Europe at the time of World War II which so impressed the Yugoslavians that they started to build their own. Bob Bunyar, press officer of Project 62, said: "30075 was constructed in 1960 and worked at the Store Steel works from where it was originally purchased for preservation in 1990 and transported to the UK. 30076 was similarly in industrial use in Bosnia & Herzegovina, and acquired by Project 62 members from the Arcelor Mittal Zeneca works in 2006. This locomotive is six years older than 30075, having been built in 1954.”