Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway - Geography

Geography

The S&D main line ran south from Bath Queen Square (later renamed Green Park) to Radstock, at one time the centre of the Somerset coalfield, and then over Masbury summit, at 811 feet (274 m) above sea level crossing the Mendip Hills, via Shepton Mallet and entering the catchment area of the River Stour to Wincanton and Blandford, joining the L&SWR Weymouth line at Poole, the S&D trains continuing to the L&SWR station at Bournemouth West.

The branch line from Highbridge to Evercreech Junction had been the original main line, when attracting steamer traffic across the Bristol Channel had been an objective. It traversed an area of very low population density, and when the marine connection ceased, only Glastonbury and Street in the centre of the route contributed any worthwhile income. There had been other, shorter branches, but these too generated very little traffic and they had all closed by the early 1950s.

Serving only a string of medium-sized market towns between its extremities, the S&D generated a modest internal traffic, and it had daunting operational costs due to the difficulty of its main line. Its strategic significance was the formation of a through route between the Midlands and the South Coast, by connecting with the Midland Railway at Bath. The Midland Railway linked Bath to Bristol and via Gloucester to Birmingham and the North. Heavy summer holiday passenger traffic and healthy through freight business was the result, but the long and difficult main line was very expensive to support the business.

There was only one intermediate connection on the route, at Templecombe where the Salisbury – Exeter route was crossed. There was an awkward layout there, requiring through trains to reverse along a spur between the S&D main line and the east-west L&SWR main line. The throughout journey time for ordinary passenger trains was typically four hours, although the limited stop holiday expresses managed it in two hours.

Much of the S&D was single track, but the main line was double track from Midford to Templecombe, and from Blandford to Corfe Mullen. Crossing trains on the single line sections always added operational interest to the line, but the focus was the quirky operation of trains calling at Templecombe. These had to reverse from Templecombe station to Templecombe junction (for southbound trains, and the reverse for northbound). The station pilot at Templecombe was kept busy with these evolutions and the light engine movements associated with them. In at least one case a northbound train set back on to a southbound train at Templecombe Junction, to be pulled into the station by the southbound train engine; after station duties the equipage was pulled back to the junction by the northbound train engine, and the two trains were then uncoupled to continue on their separate ways.

A sample timetable is shown in outline at the end of this article.