Ref: thisisbristol - 11:00 - 28 March 2006
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WONDERFUL DAYS OF THE OLD S&D
11:00 - 28 March 2006
In the heyday of the Somerset and Dorset railway - lost to the infamous "Beeching Axe" 40 years ago this month - there were 20,000 miles of track in Britain. Now, alas, there are only 11,500. Bernard Goodsall recalls the friendly line
Talk about the long-lost Somerset and Dorset railway and many people will recall a delightful journey from Bath's Green Park station right down to Bournemouth and the south coast, crossing some of Britain's most beautiful countryside on the way. You changed for Burnham at Evercreech junction, which was - according to poet and steam train buff the late John Betjeman - the Clapham Junction of the West Country.
This branch line to Burnham was used by people from all walks of life - from commuters and shoppers to those taking part in the frequent Sunday school outings.
It also had a couple of useful twigs - one to the beautiful cathedral city of Wells and another to busy, bustling Bridgwater.
It was known as a friendly branch, run by friendly railwaymen and used by equally friendly passengers. One of the drivers, the late Ronald "Chummy" Andrews, claimed the much-coveted station sign as a souvenir of his happy years spent on the line.
This esprit de corps, extending right down from senior management to trainee porters, paid handsome dividends by way of efficiency and staff morale.
A comprehensive rule book was issued to all new employees - if you were illiterate they would read it to you. When it had all sunk in the employee would make his mark on the acceptance form.
A daily ritual on the branch was that of the train crews loading milk churns, not full of fresh milk but fresh drinking water, part of life on the line right up to the 1960s.
These churns were for the crossing keepers and their families, the majority of whom had no mains water in their cottages. Some were even without electricity for many years and had to cope with oil lamps.
It was all very enchanting. The stations along the branch are now but a distant memory; the flickering coal fires in the waiting rooms; the hand bell announcing the train's arrival at the small village of Edington; the neat, tidy and clean Bason Bridge; the serenity of Ashcott and the cider barrels at West Pennard where there was always a tipple of two for the train crew. For supping back home, of course.
Another common sight were "didicoys" - or gipsies - camped alongside the track. Thoughtful firemen - with the drivers blessing - would throw them lumps of best coal to help keep the winter chill away.
However, this charming idyll was completely lost on the politicians and accountants of the day - and especially on Dr Richard Beeching, already busy sharpening his axe to cut out branch lines throughout the country.
Just why the mere mention of those heady days of steam still stirs the emotions some 40 years after British Rail ditched coal for less glamorous forms of motivation is an enigma.
But the good old S &D never succumbed - sticking with its reliable steam engines until the very end.
One of those giants of steam - the F7 53808, a product of the Swindon works which once hauled the legendary holiday Pines Express - has now been fully restored.
With fire once more in its belly it's earning its keep on the West Somerset Railway steaming through the Quantocks between Taunton and Minehead - just one way the S &D Trust is helping to preserve the past for future generations
The Burnham branch ran across a flat expanse of peat land dominated by Glastonbury Tor, that focus of myth and mystical powers. But even these hidden forces couldn't prevent the rhynes and rivers from overflowing their banks from time to time - with disastrous results for homes as well as the line.
At Highbridge the S &D crossed the mighty GWR's track - and it seems it was never forgiven the trespass. When the S &D became part of the Western Region following nationalisation in 1948, the GWR took its revenge.
The S &D management had a short love affair with the sea. It was the age of paddle-steamer and they endeavoured to combine the Pines Express with the briny through an idea way ahead of its time - to link the Bristol and English channels.
From Burnham station the line was extended to the pier jetty. Here passengers disembarked from the paddle steamers, boarded the S &D train to Poole, and then got back on a steamer to sail to the Continent.
Unfortunately this venture failed to attract enough holiday-makers to pay dividends. Today, this journey can take up to two hours longer by road.
The S &D mangement had great plans for an enormous port to be called Highbridge Wharf - today only dereliction remains.
Betjeman wrote: "S &D hopes have died, they flow like driftwood down the tide, out, out into the open sea; Oh sad forgotten S &D".
But Burnham has the railway to thank for its current prosperity. All summer long, trains brought in hundreds of daytrippers and weekly holiday-makers heading for bed and breakfast establishments. On the Sabbath, dozens of Sunday school outings arrived for fun and games on the sands.
The S &D was a quintessentially English line. At Evercreech Junction, for example, a couple of bowls of primroses on the waiting room table gave that little bit of extra cheer.
Affectionally nicknamed the "slow and dirty" or "the swift and delightful", after its closure, some wag scrawled in the dust at Evercreech Junction, "sabotaged and destroyed".
At Highbridge the nippy sprinters still run through on the main line.
But alas, the powerful and solid Castle's and King's, once the pride of British locomotive engineering, have disappeared, along with the S &D track bed. The M5 motorway has taken over.
Despite its loss some 40 years ago, the spirit of the Somerset & Dorset is still kept alive by a thriving Railway Trust. It has an ever increasing membership - but there's plenty of room for more.
Gone: This SLS Special, seen here in 1966, was one of the last trains to run on the Somerset and Dorset line before the cutbacks of the 1970s