Right Lines 4!

Members,

Expect mail soon, as one of two hundred and fifty copies of the first edition of our new look Right Lines will be popping through your door if you are a UK member of the New S&D soon! This edition outlines the latest progress at Speitsbury and Midford and other S&D groups' sites too, plus a past and future section to give you plenty of reading material! Overseas members will receive copies in due course.
Enjoy your new look magazine!

The Editorial Team.

the best fun you can have wearing an anorak

Up and running for just a few days is the Rail Thing Facebook page. This is a totally random site where anyone can upload photos and add comments. We've been to a lot of strange places in the few days it's been open! Miami, Monsal Dale, Snailbeach, Corfe Castle, Itchen Abbas, Switzerland and a host of other places (and times). ANYTHING is welcome! To join up please click this link.

S&D@WSR

There have been changes to the locomotive line-up for the West Somerset Railway’s Autumn Steam Gala which takes place on the 20 miles of line between Bishops Lydeard and Minehead over the 4 days October 4th to 7th.

Sadly the Midland Railway Centre has been unable to release the Caprotti British Railways 5MT 73129 but in its place the WSR has been able to hire Ivatt 4MT 2-6-0 43106. The "doodle bugs” came to the S&D before their original steaming problems were resolved but they were part of "Joint Line” history. In addition not merely is 43106 the only survivor of the 162 which were built but it will be the first time that any member of the class to work on the line to Minehead.

The superb recreation of Green Park in 4mm scale by the Taunton Model Railway Group will be open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday in their Club Room at Bishops Lydeard station.

92203 "Black Prince” will be heading a non-stop "Pines Express” in both directions on Saturday 6th and there is pre-bookable dining space on the trains for those who wish to join various visitors including Peter Smith and Aubrey Punter on a special day out. More details and bookings via 01643 704996 or online. Or if you prefer a different view of the line there are a limited number of places to travel in the brake vans of the goods trains.

So the full line up of engines due to be at the Gala is as follows:-

9F 2-10-0 92203 "Black Prince”:- "Black 5” 4-6-0 45379 (making its WSR debut):- Ivatt 4MT 2-6-0 43106;- Somerset and Dorset "7F” 88:- GWR 4936 "Kinlet Hall”;- GWR 3850:- GWR 4160:- GWR 6960 "Raveningham Hall:- GWR 7828 "Norton Manor”; GWR designed "Mogul” 9351.

The loco diagrams will be part of the Souvenir Guide which is now at the printers and will be on sale for £4 at West Somerset Railway Stations (or can be ordered in advance by ringing 01643 with card details or by sending a cheque to West Somerset Railway, The Railway Station, Minehead, TA24 5BG).

Alan Hammond will be book signing on all four days and some of the newly issued range of buildings based on Shillingstone are on sale in the Minehead station shop (01643 700387 direct line)
And of course the Washford Museum will be open, offering an essential place to visit for all lovers of the Somerset and Dorset.

it's all happening

Both Midford and Spetisbury will be having work parties tomorrow. Remember that as a New S&D member you can just turn up at each station, make yourself known, and start work right away - all for no pay! Non-members can also join on site and will be covered by insurance immediately.

There will also of course be work parties at Midsomer Norton and Shillingstone. The days of the S&D being a dead line are long gone!

spetisbury

SUNDAY 23rd SEPTEMBER - WORK PARTY

 Dear Member/ Volunteer,

 I am going up to the station on Sunday, and hope that you can join me. I hope to be there between 10:00 and 11:00am.
Could you let me know if you are coming up to help.

Dean Cockwell
 

pining ...

 

Almost everybody approaches the S&D from a different angle. Some love the locos that worked the line, others the trains, others the stations, many (like myself) the whole look and feel of the line. Others celebrate its history and many also are working to build a new S&D that will serve its communities throughout the 21st century.

 

To this end quite a lot of Facebook groups have sprung up celebrating different aspects of the route and one of the more unusual is one which celebrates the Pines Express. To take a look (and hopefully join) please click here.

publicity

(Picture copyright and courtesy Kevin Mitchell)

This is great! The New S&D now has a permanent sign at Spetisbury echoing the classic SR totems that were such a feature of the railway scene from about 1960 to 1980. The addition of the website address will no doubt increase the number of the visitors to the website.

This is announcing to passers-by that the station is at last waking from its long sleep - it was closed the same year as I was born, ten years before the rest of the S&D.

bath green park

Just found on Facebook is a page just for Bath Green Park. It would be nice if all S&D stations had a Facebook group as it will be a way of gradually building up a network of interested people joining the great S&D revival via their local station. Facebook group for this iconic (and surviving!) station here.

midford - today!

From Stuart Seale

‎Tom Seale and I will be down at Midford doing some tree clearance work from 16:45 tomorrow (Wednesday 12 Sept) if anyone fancies a bit of graft.

shillingstone/templecombe memories

 

(Copyright Dave Clarke)

It's not all electrification and super modern trains on the New S&D! We also are putting together an archive of the original line. Latest addition (see the website) is the following short piece from Vince Everleigh.

As small children living in Child Oakford we used to board at Shillingstone Station and travel to Templecombe to visit my grand parents . My grand mother worked on the station for many years in the buffet ( Doris Sanger ) and my Uncle Ron was Porter there . Time wise this was maybe 1965? I remember running along the platform and talking to the driver and fireman and then crossing the overhead connecting bridge . Those wonderful smells of smoke and hot oil ...

Happy days indeed.

 

helping out another vital line

 

(Ashbury, further along the route, 1960s. Copyright The Rail Thing)

The excellent Launceston Steam Railway is having problems with its local council which seems to have lost the plot big time!

The railway has been working with Cornwall County Council for some time with the intention of extending to Egloskerry - and on the strength of this purchased land in Egloskerry for the new line.

But now the council is planning to build a multi purpose route (walking, bikes, horses) which the railway fears may make it's future unviable if they can't get through to Egloskerry. Personally I don't believe anything - least of all a mere trailway - will stop the huge rail revival in the UK, but all the same it will make extension more difficult if too many users object to the railway returning, not an issue at all now but could be in the future.

To this end I think we should ALL sign the petition to CCC to get them to rethink this plan. the petition can be signed here.