The
Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway
Personal photo recollections from the 60's
So, you have
found this little secret place at last. We are a Bath family, though Dad found
himself in London after the War where he started his family in the East End in
1948.
Growing up with steam, horses and trams was a great adventure there, but it was
always better going back to Somerset periodically.
Grandmother
Gertrude Amelia Ferris (I love saying that!!) lived in Norfolk Crescent behind
Green Park Station, but they ended up on Moorlands, right where the S&D
disappears into Devonshire Tunnel, on that long drag up from the Junction.
I only had
5/- pocket money a week, and sacrificed a lot of things to buy a terrible little
Halina 35mm, and sent off for 100m of film to pot off cheaply at anything that
steamed, and definitely not at any tin boxes that made oily fumes!! These were
the days of the Modernisation Plan, and steam was dying. In between getting
these pictures, Beeching tried shutting the S&D, got it reduced to branch-line
status, and tankies hauled 3-car Bullied green sets through unstaffed halts for
the end days. Then Beeching got his way.
Old Donald
Beale, bless 'im, reckoned the 9F's would have saved the S&D, but the trains
went through a bundle of villages, and no-one really wanted to go from Bath to
Bournemouth anyway. But it was fun. All I would say is that it broke up a big
and wonderful family when the line closed. I never, ever got chucked out of
anywhere. Line walking, even from the end of Green Park platform, to the Box,
a cab ride, over to the sheds, up to the Junction Box, and then all up along to the Tunnel
and home for tea with the family...just watch out for yourself....is all they
would say!
It usually
rained for me, so many pictures are terrible, but they do reflect the natural
face of Green Park, and a few other shots on trips to Bournemouth. Take them at
face value, they are not posed, but a teenage boys' attempt to remember
something he loved. Then steam went, and he discovered girls at the same time,
so there were distractions to soften the blow. The photos have mouldered in a
box these forty years. Now I live in Minehead, we belong to the Washford S&D
group and the WSR, which is an invigorating experience after years of dormancy.
Wish I had stuck with the trains though.....lot less bother that women!.
Playing with
cameras and websites are OK for a winters' evening, but too many so-called
railway enthusiasts sit at home picking their oh-so-delicate noses whilst a
faithful few do all the hard work keeping the trains running and looking good. I
have got to say this. Give up one day!! Get off your lazy bottoms and do it rather than
dream...Tidy the trackside and ballast, paint the signals, do a garden....and
where are the Midland style lamps and seats at Washford, the type that the S&D once
used.
Doesn't anyone care. Are we all dreamers....?
 75052 |
 82004
53808 |
 53806 |
 47557 |
 73047 |
 76019
73062 Pines at Binegar |
 76016
comes off at Evercreech |
 75072
Branksome |
 30036
Bournemouth West |
 73012
leaves Bmth for Bath |
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Templecombe |
Templecombe |
Bailey Gate Crossing 73051 |
 80138
ex Templecombe Sep65 |
 48444
note uniform caps! worn by all S&D crews. |
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 80102
fireman works ground frame |
 76056
from Station box |
 75072
heads south past box |
 3758
pilot, gave my cab ride. note MR signal & gong |
 80039.
Driver in box chatting!! |
 82041
to Binegar. Slower trains used loop given by Bill Beeho |
 82001
Bath Junction, now home from homes. |
 Will
the dogtooth catch it or not... |
 48525
from Bristol with this...! |
 Amused
guard who missed the coal empties to Radstock gets a lift... |
 Off
the top of very high wooden MR inner home |
 George
Smart gives loop at Bath Junction |
 Bath
Junction box |
 Steep
climb out of Bath.... |
 And
into Devonshire Tunnel on full regulator!! |
 73096
ready at Green Park |
 82030
to Bristol at Junction box |
 82041
arrives at Bristol |
 Radstock,
trains till midday on New Years Day!! From Hotel |
 80041
on New Years Day 1966, Radstock |
 80039
first train to
Templecombe Oct 65 |
 80059
approaches us, Midford |
 80039
waits to reverse train |
 41296
Templecombe |
 41223 |
 80085
speeds empties through Templecombe LowLevel |
 73068
backs down to S&D |
 76057
Chilcompton |
 75072
Bath GPk |
This second batch were
taken by my uncle John Ferris, who was a draughtsman at Stotherd & Pitt whose
crane and refrigeration works are seen behind the sheds. He had no interest in
railways, but nipped out in the lunch hour with a friend to get me some candid
shots from a "layman's " point of view, since he was always very scornful of the
"Slow and Dirty". He assured me that everyone in Bath called it that, and I
never once heard it called otherwise from townspeople, though railwaymen
sometimes called it The Dorset, or the Joint, and Western men called it the
Midland. Bit like the piece of kit the enthusiasts religiously call The
Whittaker Apparatus, always invariable known as the Dogtooth Catcher since
nobody remembered that Whittaker was the CME to the Midland and South Western
Railways Somerset and Dorset Joint Managing Committee. See why they called it
the "Dorset" now!!
Swift and Delightful? Never,
M'dears. And it wasn't, either. You could cycle quicker if all those hills
didn't get in the way. And oi dawn't naw 'bout Delightful neitherrr. But
everything was very clean, and the P.Way was exemplary. One of those little
railways which ended up being for the enjoyment of the staff, and if a few
passengers happened along, that was even nicer.
And please come down and help out
at Washford rather than just dreaming. See you sometime. Oh, and have a look
around the BethanyJunction (W.SomersetRailway pages) website while you are here, from the link at the bottom.
Richard Ferris
If you just parachuted into the
Unofficial Minehead Website run by Bethany
Junction Guest House,
press the button to put up the Front page for accommodation,
Minehead website, Churches and Steam
Railway |
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Hundreds more Railway Pictures back to 1962 from
Richard Ferris's personal collection, click here and choose "RAILWAYS" |
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