The Somerset & Dorset Railway at Midsomer Norton Updates

The Somerset & Dorset Railway at Midsomer Norton March 2019 Diesel Gala British Railways Class 08 D4095 & English Electric 0.6.0DH D1120 - Had a great weekend thanks to all involved.

 

Just got their latest magazine, superb quality and you can't help but wish them well with their expansion plans which will be boosted by a £500,000 legacy.

Dave

 

I agree totally. I received my magazine on Saturday and it is extremely informative and very good quality as usual. I've never been to MSN yet but I thoroughly enjoy being a distant member and I would encourage anyone with an interest in railways to join the society at Midsomer Norton.

 

What's the legacy tied up in, AFAIK the station site is pretty much in its original configuration, I think they have space for an out of sight shed further down the line?

 

A most welcome sum of money for sure. They mention the extension to Chilcompton so maybe this is what the extra money will support.
Of course the money may be restricted in its use. Anyway time will tell.
https://www.sdjr.co.uk/

 

Crossing Silver Street, at least work towards that would be better than a pipe dream of clearing the cutting.

 

But only going through the cutting allows the railway to 'break out' to an area with the potential for a larger site for sidings/workshops/parking etc

 

I would consider the cutting to be more practical in terms of cost to benefit. Yes it is a lot to dig out and that is expensive to do, but Silver Street is a logistical nightmare and i'm not convinced it would be any less costly.

When I say 'more practical', I am not meaning that I consider either option to be feasible in the next ten years. But when considering the options the society will have to think about the whole of the routes that can potentially be unlocked, not just the first obstacles.

Radstock - to reach it you have to cross Silver Street, which means re-aligning that road to gain clearance for the bridge without making the gradient prohibitive for road traffic. It would be part-closures of the road for a significant period, services being re-sited etc and that's before you start on the actual bridge. Then you would need to rip up the cycle path and relay it to share the trackbed, including doing some surveys of the old colliery tips etc as that was always subject to a speed restriction. The Radstock Road crossing is relatively simple in terms of what is actually needed, a long, single span skew would do it - but again that is millions in terms of surveys, engineering and disruption. Five arches would need repair to get to Radstock and then what? You're on a 1 in 50 gradient ending at a main road, where would a station go?

Chilcompton - obviously the cuttings and tunnel, plus over and under bridges that would need repair. That is all serious work and serious money. But after that there is room to get a single line through the old station site and out to the other side of Chilcompton, where the trackbed passes behind some light industrial estates on its way to Old Down and Emborough. There's no hope of reviving the old station as-was, the site is too enclosed and some would-be preservationists have set the locals firmly against it.