2. More historically, how did these stations survive when most other similar village stations have vanished? I realise that this line only has slower stopping services, so there wasn't the same impetus to remove smaller stations to provide a faster service as has happened elsewhere, but many other local stations along the line have gone. So how did these survive? The area is still sparsely settled, so the total population ever likely to have wanted to use the stations will always have been small.
While Yetminster station is in the heart of the village, which itself is the largest of these villages (along with its neighbour Ryme Intrinseca), both Thornford and Chetnole are some distance from their small villages and from any local population. So while I'm not surprised that Yetminster has survived (though many similar haven't), I am astounded that the other two did. Obviously I am pleased that they all still do, and wished there were others, but it would be interesting to know a bit about the history behind this.
The practicalities of providing a replacement bus service if the train service ceased is the reason many of the smaller stations survived but larger centres of population lost their stations. This is why Sparkford and Limpley Stoke lost their stations as being situated on main roads meant that a bus service could easily be substituted. The Dorset halts as well as Avoncliff and Freshford survived because of limited road access.