the new wave of S&D DVDs begins here

First Take's excellent 2010 DVD 'The Somerset and Dorset Railway' is now available through the New S&D. Remember ALL profits go towards restoring the line.

This is possibly the best S&D DVD yet. At 90 minutes it has plenty of time to give the background history of the whole route, including the branches. It also visits all the main stations and iconic locations en route, both through excellent archive footage (some Ivo Peters, some new) and present day visits. Midsomer Norton, Shillingstone and Washford are also featured - Geoff Akers is as eloquent as usual talking about the line on the up platform at Midsomer Norton.

One of the best bits for me was an in depth look at the importance of Bournemouth West, and the holiday traffic from the Midlands and the North, to the development of Bournemouth as a major resort. The S&D created Bournemouth, to a much greater extent than the LSWR, yet Bournemouth West is almost forgotten today.

But the best thing about this DVD is that, for the first time, it's looking also at the future of the S&D, and not just in the form of a couple of tiny heritage groups. It's almost taken for granted throughout that the S&D has an important role in the future as a vital trunk route, and that consequently the line will be rebuilt. The message is getting across and what was once considered a fringe or even impossible idea is now becoming more and more mainstream thinking.

Remember that by buying this DVD from us the profits will go directly to actually restoring the line as a proper community and trunk route for our children and grandchildren!

namecheck!

This has always been first and foremost a community site for the Trust at Midsomer Norton, even though in recent months it's expanded its range somewhat.

But for regular volunteers at MN there is now the extra kudos of having indexed tags so you see or read about yourselves quickly and easily via the sidebar!

Hopefully in future years this will be expanded to cover Gartell, Shillingstone and the 'New'.

steam

I'd never been a great fan of steam, my main interest was in the lines themselves, the infrastructure, atmosphere and potential for the future. But as the likelihood that steam will become the main source of power in the future grows every day then my interest has been awakened! Also Geoff Akers' impassioned descriptions of the power of steam have entered my conciousness and I'm finally becoming aware as to how important steam as a concept is. It drives our nuclear reactors and with consumate ease can drive huge trains of many hundreds of tons. The technology is simple and understandable, efficient and long-lasting. It is sustainability incarnate and will still be operational centuries after fossil-fuel dinosaurs like cars, lorries, buses and diesel locomotives are just rusting old exhibits in nostagia museums.

Steam has everything. The sights, sounds and smells, the ability to create atmosphere - something our washed-out 'modern' society totally lacks, to our spiritual disadvantage - the sheer power and elegance. Steam railways are not popular because of that vile human weakness, nostalgia, but because they represent a wonderful vision for a future we can have if we fight for it. A human-scale sustainable society that puts happiness as its aim, rather than this pointless manufactured 'ambition' that so many (rather brainless) 'individuals' fall for these days. What would you rather be - a jet-setting millionaire with a hard-set frown or a signalman at Midford or Midsomer Norton?