Great Western Coffee Shop

My new home town, Chard in Somerset, once had three stations.

Chard Junction (formerly Chard Road) on the Salisbury-Exeter line, opened by the London & South Western Railway in 1860. This station was over 3.5 miles from Chard town centre. So...

...three years later the LSWR opened a branch from Chard Road to site close to the town centre, opening Chard Town station in May 1863.

In September 1866 another railway reached the town. The Bristol & Exeter Railway built a broad gauge branch off their main line, southward from Creech St Michael near Taunton, to a terminus in Chard, 600 yards from the LSWR's Chard Town. This B&ER station was initially called just Chard. Two months later, in November 1866, a line was laid connecting Chard to the LSWR branch. Chard was renamed Chard Joint. The connecting line left the LSWR's Chard Town station on a stub. LSWR services from Chard Junction called at Chard Town then reversed out and proceeded to Chard Joint. There were no through services between Chard Junction and Taunton due to the gauge difference. Chard Joint maintained separate B&ER (later GWR) and LSWR staff and booking offices, with each company having a separate signal box at their respective ends of the station.

In 1871 Chard Town gained a platform on the connecting line, with the station on the stub seeing few passenger services from that date. Chard Town eventually closed completely to passengers in 1917, the site being converted to a goods station. The B&ER branch was converted to standard gauge in 1891.

In 1917 the Great Western Railway (successor to the B&ER) took over operations on the LSWR branch and began services from Taunton through to Chard Junction. Chard Joint reverted to its (brief) original name, plain Chard, in 1928. It was renamed again in 1949, by British Railways, to Chard Central.

Chard Central closed in September 1962. Chard Junction closed in March 1966.

A fascinating and complicated railway history for a fairly small town. Largely the result of competing interests in the early days, but quickly showing the benefits of cooperation  between railway companies.

A picture of Chard (1866), Chard Joint (1866-1928), Chard (1928-1949), Chard Central (1949-1962) as it is today.

(https://drive.google.com/uc?id=0B8VBuNEcQ7EgU2Zqbk9XOXBPcVk)

Can't see the photobon an iphone/safari

It's working on my iPad.

Fascinating description thank you ... nice to see the building still there at least.  Did I see that there are some suggestions of rebuilding / re-opening Chard Junction ... or is that just a pipe dream?

Chard Junction reopening would only really work as a Parkway station. That would require a lot of road improvements.

I'd rather see the branch relaid offering a light rail shuttle.

Another pipe dream. 

Here's another picture of Chard Joint/Central. Symmetrical building equally divided between railway companies. Fashion and Homewares on the B&ER side. Footwear and Electricals on the LSWR side.

(https://drive.google.com/uc?id=0B8VBuNEcQ7EgM1dZcVE0ZE1wRVE)

Out photographing the Chard station sites again this morning. In much nicer weather.

Starting with the first to close to passengers, Chard Town. Not easy to precisely photograph where the station buildings and platform were, with the site now a Tesco, but my guesstimate is where the trolley park is, with me stood on the trackbed:
(https://drive.google.com/uc?id=0B8VBuNEcQ7EgU1dIN3hlUF9BTWs)

To Chard Road/Junction. One platform face still in situ. Original buildings gone. The third picture looks down the trackbed of the branch to Chard Town. The branch never had a direct connection to the main line. The only way for rolling stock to get on and off the branch was via a reversal through the goods yard between main and branch:
(https://drive.google.com/uc?id=0B8VBuNEcQ7EgSjIyTzQ5NzloOWs)
(https://drive.google.com/uc?id=0B8VBuNEcQ7EgeFpUMzZ3dlhicVU)
(https://drive.google.com/uc?id=0B8VBuNEcQ7EgUEV5UnJNUXprZk0)
Chard Junction is now just the name of the village either side of the main line. Not unlike Verney Junction, a place name inherited from a former station. Can anyone think of any more such place names?

And back down the branch to Chard Joint/Central Station. A couple of pictures of the interior. The station had an overall roof over the single line:
(https://drive.google.com/uc?id=0B8VBuNEcQ7EgQVpzNVg3UFBsSlE)
(https://drive.google.com/uc?id=0B8VBuNEcQ7EgaGxaWlhfVVhXTWs)
Originally there were also outside bay platforms at each end. One for the LSWR and one for B&ER/GWR. After asking permission to photograph inside (denied yesterday) I was also shown the back offices where there were pictures on the walls of the station interior and exterior taken in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Finally, Chard maintains a link with the 21st century railway. Opposite Tesco, and on more of the LSWRs former goods yard and sidings, is engineering company Brecknell Willis (https://www.wabtec.com/business-units/brecknell-willis/about-us). They are currently manufacturing the pantographs for the Class 80x Hitachi trains (http://www.somersetcountygazette.co.uk/news/11054686.display/) soon to be seen in passenger service in our area.

I think you need to look further back, underneath the petrol station. The current Tapstone Road is new, and at the time there was a Tapstone Lane further to the south-west, leaving more space for the station.

Having studied some more old maps online, and using a modern map overlay (thanks National Library of Scotland), I concur. Chard Town station was indeed where the Tesco petrol station now is. So, there's still a 'station' on the site!

Interesting thread and photos. The roof over the track at Chard Joint especially. Chard Central does make it sound rather metropolitan!

An extremely interesting thread.


Seaton Junction ?

Llandudno Junction.

Isn't Llandudno Junction station still very much open?

Not just junction stations.  How about Grampound Road?

It is indeed.

I wondered about Riccarton Junction ... but then there's precious little community nearby; other lost names are places like Trent (but not called "Junction") and Barmouth Junction ( but station still open) ... Afon Wen ... Holt ... Moat Lane ... Three Cocks.   Very fuzzy subject depending on your criteria.

Criteria being a place name on OS maps.

Halwill Junction.

Grampound Road

Something else I learned about my new home town today. Chard, Somerset saw the first ever powered aircraft flight.

Should that be "model aircraft"? Or maybe it was flown by a muppet?

Still a first. Size isn't everything.  :P

[pedant]Besides which, a model is typically a smaller scale version of an original object. The aircraft flown in Chard was the original.[/pedant] 

I did think that, but "model" is also the usual term for a reduced-scale prototype of something bigger to be built later. As in this case, except it never was (built, that is).

Oh, and of course that should be "Muppet".

Stringfellow flew these steam powered aircraft on the top floor of one of the lace mills in the town. They were also taken up to London to try them there.
The Chard ones were really small scale prototypes, using a version of a flash boiler. The museum in Chard has more information.