Washford railway station

Washford railway station is a station on the West Somerset Railway, a heritage railway in England. The station is situated in the village of Washford, which is itself within the civil parish of Old Cleeve in the county of Somerset.

Washford
Station on heritage railway
LocationOld Cleeve, West Somerset
England
Coordinates51.1618°N 3.3690°W / 51.1618; -3.3690
Grid referenceST043411
Operated byWest Somerset Railway
Platforms1
History
Original companyMinehead Railway
Pre-groupingGreat Western Railway
Post-groupingGreat Western Railway
Key dates
1874Opened
1971Closed
1976Opened in preservation

History
British Rail Class 47 D1661 'North Star' at Washford, 2013

The station was opened on 16 July 1874 by the Minehead Railway. The railway was operated by the Bristol and Exeter Railway which was amalgamated into the Great Western Railway in 1876. The Minehead Railway was itself absorbed into the GWR in 1897[1][2] which, in turn, was nationalised into British Railways in 1948.

The signal box was closed in 1952, goods traffic ceased in 1964, and the station was unstaffed from 1966. The line was eventually closed on 4 January 1971, but was reopened by the West Somerset Railway on 28 August 1976.

Description

Washford is the second highest station on the line and is situated in a gap between the coastal cliffs and the Brendon Hills. It is accessed by two very steep inclines for steam trains – climbing up from Blue Anchor trains face a 1 mile (1.6 km) section at 1 in 65 (1.5%), the steepest on the line. The station has a single platform on the south side of the line, although there is an extensive yard on the opposite side of the line from the platform which is where the Somerset and Dorset Railway Trust is housed.

Somerset and Dorset Railway Trust Museum
Kilmersdon in the S&DJRT's workshop

The Somerset and Dorset Railway Trust Museum contains relics of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway (S&DJR), including station nameboards, lamps, tools, signalling equipment, tickets, photographs, handbills, rolling stock and steam locomotives.[3] The Trust's Peckett and Sons 0-4-0ST No. 1788 "Kilmersdon" is normally based here.

Next to the original stone station building of 1874 is a much smaller wooden building, which originally was the Great Western Railway's signal box. This structure now houses a recreation of the interior of the S&DJR signal-box at Midford. A second signal box is used as part of a signalling display in the yard and was formerly used on the S&DJR at Burnham-on-Sea.[4]

Services
5553 restarts its train to Minehead

Trains run between Minehead and Bishops Lydeard at weekends and on some other days from March to October, daily during the late spring and summer, and on certain days during the winter.[5]

Preceding station   Heritage railways Following station
Blue Anchor   West Somerset Railway   Watchet

References
  1. MacDermot, E T (1931). History of the Great Western Railway. 2 (1863–1921) (1 ed.). London: Great Western Railway.
  2. Coleby, Ian (2006). The Minehead Branch 1848–1971 (1 ed.). Lydney: Lightmoor Press.
  3. "The Museum". Somerset and Dorset Railway Trust. Retrieved 7 June 2010.
  4. Oakley, Mike (2006). Somerset Railway Stations. Bristol: Redcliffe Press. pp. 121–122. ISBN 1-904537-54-5.
  5. "Timetables". West Somerset Railway. 2014. Retrieved 6 July 2014.

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