West Somerset Railway General Discussion

Some of the locations chosen for evacuation were none too clever.

My mother was evacuated with her school from Wimbledon to Eastbourne. After a few months of the phoney war they returned to London just in time to watch the Battle of Britain overhead..... But then Eastbourne would have been right in the front line in case of an invasion. When the overnight bombing of London started her school was evacuated again, this time to Llanelli. After a month or two Llanelli was bombed. The area of Wimbledon where her family lived had a few bombs, but the road she lived in was only seriously damaged towards the end of the war by a V1 flying bomb. By then she had started work and was down at Dorking.

Not all evacuations were from London. Many people left cities like Southampton and Portsmouth and stayed a few miles outside.

Cheers, Neil

 

Indeed. My mum's family moved from Southampton to Kimbridge in the Test valley. With hindsight, this wasn't a good choice, since it was very close to a loop on the railway where ammunition trains from Dean Hill were held before proceeding to Portsmouth docks. Fortunately, none of these trains were attacked while they waited there.

 

Is the water tower at Minehead near turn table working now?

 

West Somerset Railway - Then, Then and Now #84

Williton 1965 / 1970 / 2017

A most interesting and powerful triple.

Everything there in 1965.

But by 1970: loop shortened; water tower and column gone; footbridge gone. Closure notices up and oblivion beckoning for the Minehead Branch as the folk of the Bristol Division of British Railways worked their particular 'magic' on local Railways...

But fortunately there was a meeting over a pub in Taunton and the rest is (recent) history...

Copyright Joe Moss / E.Wilmshurst / Robin White

1965


1970


2017

 

Interesting to see the new arrangement with the reinstated full length loop compared with the old one. I might add that the new arrangements make more sense than the old

 

Between the photographer and the road bridge is an underline bridge which carries the Railway over the Monksilver Stream. This had to be renewed on 1968. By then the long loop was no longer needed (the normal train was a 3- or occasionally 6-car DMU). All trains called as well, so a low speed short radius turnout was installed which also had the 'merit' of fitting the trackwork between the stream bridge and the level crossing.

Robin

 

You have to wonder why BR bothered to remove water tower, water crane and footbridge if they were just going to close the line. The writing must have been on the wall, even back in the mid '60s.

 

Water tower and water crane, understandable with dieselisation. Perhaps it was a case of maintain the bridge or demolish. Perhaps the scrap value was being realised!
Robin L

 

Someone who was around at the time told me that the BR view was that it was preferable to demolish the bridge rather than paint it.

Robin

 

The second photo shows the gap (as mentioned by Robin in a previous post) on the signalbox where the "passengers are requested" notice was and now is. Is the matching sign on the opposite platform shown on the first photo a candidate for reinstatement too?

 

These notes encouraged me to look at Ian Coleby's excellent book again, as memory said the loop extended beyond the road bridge in the Taunton direction only post the 1930s line improvements, although the road bridge was built to dual track standards.

Page 211 has three Williton diagrams : 1935 when the loop junction was before the road bridge, 1937 loop extended beyond bridge with the junction on the Up side of the road bridge and 1968 with the truncated loop as per BR.

Ian explains that in the 1933-36 upgrade Williton was virtually untouched ie all non stopping trains still had to slow to 15mph to effect hand token exchange when passing through on the loop. However when new high speed (40 mph) turnouts were installed their length was such that they had to be on the Up side of the road bridge. Whitaker apparartus was installed at the same time. (This change occurred in 1937).

Michael Rowe

 

The NLS website indicates that the up (Taunton) end of the station remained largely unchanged at least up to 1929, with the loop finishing short of the river bridge. Interestingly, the down (Minehead) end of the loop got extended some time between 1902 and 1929.

1887 - http://maps.nls.uk/view/106021694#zoom=4&lat=9915&lon=4642&layers=BT
1902 - http://maps.nls.uk/view/106021697#zoom=4&lat=9915&lon=4642&layers=BT
1929 - http://maps.nls.uk/view/106021700#zoom=4&lat=9915&lon=4642&layers=BT

Tom

 

It is.

I have been on the lookout for some time.

Of course, if someone had one to donate....?

Robin

 

What's likely to be in the wagon consist of the 47 ex Wilton to Minehead later. Wondering If I should leave early to see that from this boring meeting. Thxs

 

Just seen this in latest Steam Railway:








All sounds rather concerning, particularly that an "unnamed senior board member" thought it a good idea to brief a journalist? Why would they do that, what was his/her agenda? Rather smacks of "airing dirty linen in public" does it not?

 

Without particular reference to the WSR could "big chufferitis" knocking track around play its part? It may be happening elsewhere as well. I agree with @Alistair that it is not really something to broadcast.

PH

 

Not being big in technical railway engineering but surely any damage done is done by high axle weights .So the largest locos regularly on the WSR are the 7Fs with 6 axles on the loco + tender . So would that do more damage than the 0-6-0 , 4 F ? Or 6960 ? I did hear that the line was upgraded years ago from branch line status , so heavier locos like the Kings or large Pacifics were safe on the track . If I have any of my ' facts' wrong I apologise , feel free to put me right .