Last Saturday I was lucky enough to visit the West Somerset Railway for their Spring steam gala commemorating the 50th anniversary of the closure of the much lamented S&D line. The stations were all renamed after suitable S&D stations for the week, and an impressive loco lineup was formed, with GWR locos banished into the…
Finally, for our return journey from Williton back to Bishop’s Lydeard, we passed Kinlet hall at Crowcombe Heathfield. Once we arrived back there was time to explore the station, as when we arrived everything was still being set up. Once again Odney Manor greeted us, this picture shows quite well the fact that the boiler…
Our penultimate stop off at the WSR gala was at Williton. This is one of the main passing places on the line so is a good place to watch the trains go by. Also at Williton are some of the railway’s workshops. Here they restore some of the WSR’s stock as well as undertaking contract…
We spent an hour or so at Minehead, the railway’s seaside terminus, during the gala, although there was so much to do we never got to see the sea. The most important thing first of all of course was to find lunch, a perusal of the menu in the turntable cafe suggested a breakfast bap…
After leaving Washford, we had a brief pause at Blue Anchor station. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to get off here, but I stuck my camera out of the window and it looked a delightful station; we’re looking at staying in the area at some point soon to take in the rest of the…
Our first stop off on our WSR gala trip was at Washford station. This station is quite exposed with quite a lot of the things to look out being outside, it was this time, naturally, then, that it absolutely tiddled it down. Washford is the base of restoration for the S&D trust. There were some…
Last weekend I attended another Spring Steam gala, lucky me! This time it was to the West Somerset Railway, for their gala themed around “Steam in South Wales”. It was an excellent event and I took lots of photos, but rather than look at it loco by loco I thought I’d just go through my…
I write on this subject with a degree of caution, as it is a complex issue that I have only been following closely for the past few months, and seems to have been going on for a considerable amount of time. the WSRA, which is the main support body of the WSR as a…
The second glimpse of steam this week is a couple of pictures taken at Crowcombe of the West Somerset Railway. This is S&DJR 7F 2-8-0 number 88 a beautiful locomotive, soon
Loco Yard 