Railway Bob's Railway Ramblings: A Day On The West Somerset Railway

Today was a special treat - a visit to England's longest steam preservation railway - the 20-mile long (40 miles round trip) West Somerset Railway. Dawn's friend, Terry, is a fellow rail enthusiast so it was a natural for him to offer to take us up to Bishops Lydeard (about 4 miles north of Taunton) which is the south end of the WSR. The WSR still has rail connections to the rail network and receives quite a number of steam excursion trains from London.

Arriving in time for the 10:20 up train, we settled in to the last of 8 coaches on the train, the traditional 1950s British Railways Mark I commuter coach. British Railways must have made hundreds of these coaches which were painted a maroon or tuscan red. Except these coaches had been painted in traditional Great Western Railway chocolate and cream (and not "yellow and brown" as my friend, Colin C, has corrected me).

On the head of the train was Great Western loco 2-8-0 #3850. This was quite a surprise as I had only seen small tank engines or 0-6-0s (4-6-0 Black Five on the North Norfolk being an exception) on the Swanage, Bluebell, and North Norfolk Railways. A 2-8-0 is a larger engine than usual and is one loco below the 4-6-2s.

The engine was in extremely good shape as it was a continuous climb up, around, and over the hills of West Somerset. Unlike the usual British railway system, the Great Western was built in the more hillier parts of England. The line from Bishops Lydeard to Minehead clung to the side of the hills going first around one curve and then back the other way around the next curve forever climbing higher and higher trying to get over the height of land through the green farms and forests of the English countryside. We were in the last coach on the train and I could see this curvature as I hung out the window of the last door looking back from where we had come from. It was almost as if Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the engineer of this line, had followed the path of the snake as it twisted its way around and over the hills.

The line had been built in 1862 by Brunel to the unique broad gauge of 7' ¼", instead of the "standard gauge of 4' 8½" (although it was later converted to standard gauge in 1882) which provided for wider cuts, fills, overpasses, and bridges than is normally found on British railways.

One thing I found quite interesting was the use of "cut stone" throughout the railway line. Overpasses were built of cut stone laid by masons. Stations were built of cut stone instead of brick, although there were a number of wooden stations throughout the line. Having done some stonework decades ago, I could appreciate the work that was required to build these structures. Of course, all around the countryside there is this reddish-brown sandstone that is used throughout in every building.

We soon came out of the hills to travel alongside the seaside coast of the Bristol Channel. Across the foggy waters I could just see the coast of Wales. While it would have made a nice shortcut to take a ferry across the strait, there were no ferries to be found so one had to take the long way round to get to Wales.

Looking back, we could see the coast of the south shore in a haze.

Once at the top of the line at Minehead, we disembarked, watch the train uncouple, fill up with water, and then got a cafe latte until the down train was ready to depart at 12:20.

We took the 13:20 down train down to Washford, the site of the the Somerset & Dorset Railway museum only to find that the Museum was closed. We then reverted to Plan B which was to have lunch at the pub at the bottom of the steps to the station at Washford and wait for the next train to come along.

After a sandwich and half a pint, we then waited for the next train, a diesel multiple unit, which we took down Watchet, the next station down the line, to take a quick walk through the town.

Watchet has been a seaport and fishing town for over 1,000 years. The buildings and wharves reflect that age, although the boats are quite new and fancy. We toured the town for about an hour while waiting for the next down train. This was Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway 2-8-0 #88.

We climbed into the passenger car behind the steam locomotive and I stood in the doorway with my head stuck out the window sucking in the smell of steam, cinders, and hot oil all the way down the line, listening to the chuffa-chuffa, chuffa-chuffa, hiss, hiss of the engine as it raced around corners, over and down the hills.

Arriving back in Bishops Lydeard, we watched #88 uncouple, go through the turnouts on the runaround and fill up with water for her return trip to Minehead.