Minehead

West Somerset Railway

Minehead

Although I probably had enough trains to use for my book I wanted another that was working with the smoke billowing from the chimney as it moved tirelessly down the track. With this in mind  we headed to our final destination the West Somerset Railway.

As a working railway there are a number of stops along the line and the first port of call was to Blue Anchor which is run by a small team of volunteers. With its quaint little station built in 1870 next to the seaside village with a long sandy beach the station has a small gift shop and ticket office on the one platform and museum and book stall the other. Whilst speaking a volunteer working in the museum regarding my college project he asked whether we would like to see the signal box and after quickly arranging access we were allowed entry and a description of the signals and purpose of all the levers which operated the track, lights and level crossing.

After photographing the steam train and signal box and a few hours to spare before heading to Minehead we stopped at Dunster which is also the next stop on the trains’ destination. The town was built around the Norman castle which is now owned by the National Trust. This is worth a visit especially the castles gardens with the river meandering through.

The final stop on the route following the railway was Minehead, a coastal town which grew in popularity in the 1800s as a seaside holiday destination and the station was built in 1874. As we were too early for the arrival of the last train we wandered along the promenade towards the harbour to gain some fresh sea air.

As the time was close to arrival we made our way to the station and waited for the train to arrive. In the distance we caught sight of the steam as the train was puffing its way through the countryside towards the town. As it came closer I realised that it was a different steam train to the one I photographed in Blue Anchor. Once all the passengers had alighted from the train she was uncoupled from the carriages and with the tracked changed she then puffed her way back into the shed for the evening after completing the last journey. The photographs taken during the day are shown below.