Train GraphicClick on the map to explore geographics
 
I need help
FAQ
Emergency
About .
Travel & transport from BBC stories as at 13:55 29 Mar 2024
- Delays at Dover as millions begin Easter getaway
- Attempted murder charge after man stabbed on train
- KFC Nigeria sorry after disabled diner refused service
Read about the forum [here].
Register [here] - it's free.
What do I gain from registering? [here]
 02/06/24 - Summer Timetable starts
17/08/24 - Bus to Imber
27/09/25 - 200 years of passenger trains

On this day
29th Mar (1913)
Foundation of National Union or Railwaymen (*)

Train RunningCancelled
12:30 London Paddington to Weston-Super-Mare
13:15 Swindon to Westbury
13:15 London Paddington to Cardiff Central
13:48 Bedwyn to Newbury
14:12 Newbury to Bedwyn
14:19 Westbury to Swindon
14:57 Bedwyn to Newbury
15:14 Swindon to Westbury
15:22 Newbury to Bedwyn
15:28 Weston-Super-Mare to London Paddington
15:50 Bedwyn to Newbury
15:54 Cardiff Central to London Paddington
16:15 Newbury to Bedwyn
16:23 Westbury to Swindon
16:55 Bedwyn to Newbury
17:36 Swindon to Westbury
18:37 Westbury to Swindon
20:13 Swindon to Westbury
21:16 Westbury to Swindon
22:30 Swindon to Westbury
Short Run
10:55 Paignton to London Paddington
12:35 London Paddington to Exeter St Davids
13:10 Gloucester to Weymouth
13:42 Exeter St Davids to London Paddington
13:55 Paignton to London Paddington
14:36 London Paddington to Paignton
15:42 Exeter St Davids to London Paddington
16:35 London Paddington to Plymouth
16:50 Plymouth to London Paddington
17:03 London Paddington to Penzance
17:36 London Paddington to Plymouth
18:03 London Paddington to Penzance
18:36 London Paddington to Plymouth
19:04 Paignton to London Paddington
20:03 London Paddington to Plymouth
21:04 London Paddington to Plymouth
Delayed
09:10 Penzance to London Paddington
10:04 London Paddington to Penzance
10:20 Penzance to London Paddington
11:03 London Paddington to Plymouth
12:03 London Paddington to Penzance
12:15 Penzance to London Paddington
13:03 London Paddington to Plymouth
13:15 Plymouth to London Paddington
13:50 London Paddington to Great Malvern
14:03 London Paddington to Penzance
14:15 Penzance to London Paddington
15:03 London Paddington to Penzance
15:15 Plymouth to London Paddington
16:03 London Paddington to Penzance
16:15 Penzance to London Paddington
etc
PollsOpen and recent polls
Closed 2024-03-25 Easter Escape - to where?
Abbreviation pageAcronymns and abbreviations
Stn ComparatorStation Comparator
Rail newsNews Now - live rail news feed
Site Style 1 2 3 4
Next departures • Bristol Temple MeadsBath SpaChippenhamSwindonDidcot ParkwayReadingLondon PaddingtonMelksham
Exeter St DavidsTauntonWestburyTrowbridgeBristol ParkwayCardiff CentralOxfordCheltenham SpaBirmingham New Street
March 29, 2024, 14:02:53 *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Forgotten your username or password? - get a reminder
Most recently liked subjects
[153] 2024 - Service update and amendment log, Swindon <-> Westbury...
[97] Infrastructure problems in Thames Valley causing disruption el...
[53] Travel for free on the m2 metrobus - Bristol - 4,5,6 April 202...
[41] would you like your own LIVE train station departure board?
[38] West Wiltshire Bus Changes April 2024
[37] Reversing Beeching - bring heritage and freight lines into the...
 
News: A forum for passengers ... with input from rail professionals welcomed too
 
   Home   Help Search Calendar Login Register  
Pages: 1 [2]
  Print  
Author Topic: Heart of Wessex - 2018. Somerset and Dorset - 1963.  (Read 6817 times)
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40692



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #15 on: March 26, 2018, 20:57:50 »

From the same 1963 timetable

Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
JayMac
Data Manager
Hero Member
******
Posts: 18896



View Profile
« Reply #16 on: March 26, 2018, 22:18:34 »

Yes, by 1963 The Pines Express was no longer running over S&DJR (Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway) metals. The last time it ran via that route was 8th September 1962.
Logged

"Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for the rest of the day. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."

- Sir Terry Pratchett.
grahame
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 40692



View Profile WWW Email
« Reply #17 on: March 27, 2018, 06:19:59 »

Was there much protest at the time about the closure?
Oh yes there was plenty but too no avail.

Yes, by 1963 The Pines Express was no longer running over S&DJR (Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway) metals. The last time it ran via that route was 8th September 1962.

Very much an organised rundown, with lots of other railways in the same period.   The Devizes line closed completely and the Melksham line to passengers the month after the Somerset and Dorset. The year also saw the end of passenger trains on the Waterside line, to Yeovil Town, at intermediate stations on lines which are still open (such as Wilton South station), Taunton to Barnstaple, the Cowes line, Wroxall and Ventnor on the Isle of Wight.

With so much going on, protests with regard any single line were in some ways "just another protest", though there were some lines threatened but survived through this period.  Without "online" and with just a handful of TV channels, the media and the voice of the individual had very different metrics in those days.
Logged

Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
eXPassenger
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 547


View Profile
« Reply #18 on: March 27, 2018, 10:11:58 »

Yes, by 1963 The Pines Express was no longer running over S&DJR (Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway) metals. The last time it ran via that route was 8th September 1962.
There is a great description of the last N bound run by the driver in his book 'Mendips Engineman'.  The train was hauled by Evening Star and was the heaviest, unassisted, load over the Mendips.
Logged
WSW Frome
Transport Scholar
Sr. Member
******
Posts: 180


View Profile
« Reply #19 on: March 27, 2018, 11:22:47 »

The last day of regular operations on the S&D (Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway) was Saturday 5 March 1966 with the various specials operating on Sunday 6 March.

I was there on the final two Saturday afternoons/evenings as a mere 14 year teenager allowed to venture out on my own (not unusual for me!) all the way from Weymouth by rail to view the demise. I attended school in Dorchester on Saturday mornings. On 26 February, after returning home (by train, of course) and a hurried lunch travelled back to Templecombe, via all three Yeovil Stations, and then went north to Bath Green Park arriving around 6pm. The return train was almost immediate, with me eventually arriving in Weymouth, via Yeovil,  around 10.30. Weather was grim that day and I do not recall any enthusiast turnout so the trains were quiet. I do have photos of this somewhere but they are not great. In the 15 minutes I had in Bath I looked in vain for some food and also decided that this part of Bath looked pretty grim then! The southbound trip was very emotive on a quiet train stopping at very dark stations with the odd staff voice heard somewhere out there. 

On 5 March, I repeated the exercise but went south from Templecombe, arriving in Poole around 6pm. It was a fine day with a major enthusiast turnout. So at least the S&D final services went out with a smile.

I still have some of the tickets from that time and I was recently reminiscing on exactly which trains I did travel on. The joys of retirement! 
Logged
bradshaw
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 1450



View Profile
« Reply #20 on: March 27, 2018, 12:58:07 »

Having used the S&D (Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway) to travel from Crewkerne to Bournemouth in the late 1950s for family holidays I was sad to see its demise but was able to travel on one of the last day specials.

There was one abortive attempt to connect to the GWR (Great Western Railway) (Wilts somerset and Weymouth) at Wyke Champflower and the earthworks could be seen until recently. This was carried out by the Somerset Central Railway around 1861. The north to east junction was from the SCR to the WSWR. However the amalgamation to form the S&D seems to have put paid to it.

There is an interesting piece on p52 of the book 'Disconnected'byChris Austin and Richard Faulkner, OPC 2016.

May I presume from the Saturday morning school, WSW Frome, that you went to Hardye's School? I taught there in there from 1976-1988.
Logged
RichardB
Hero Member
*****
Posts: 958


View Profile
« Reply #21 on: March 28, 2018, 09:21:28 »

It's worth remembering that Dr Beeching only recommended closures.

In 1964 Labour came to power with Harold Wilson pledging, in the run up to the election, to halt the closures. Labour actually accelerated them and added further line and station closures not recommended by Beeching.

Barbara Castle is the real villain. She signed the S&DJR (Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway) closure order.

I don't want to get into a political fight here but I have looked at lots of Ministry of Transport files relating to 1960s closures and the view generally was taken that BR (British Rail(ways)) saw the line up for closure as a dead loss and wanted it shut so why should civil servants or the Government (who were not, of course, railway people) take a different view unless the TUCC said there would be hardship for a lot of people and keeping the railway was the only way of solving it.

Look up a guy called F J Margetts - he was the leading BR officer in charge of closures for the key time in the 60s and he pushed the Ministry hard to get the closure decisions BR wanted.

Much more of the non Inter City or London suburban network would have gone without the principle of subsidies for loss making but socially necessary services being introduced in the 1968 Transport Act.



Logged
bradshaw
Transport Scholar
Hero Member
******
Posts: 1450



View Profile
« Reply #22 on: March 28, 2018, 13:42:24 »

The book by Charles Loft - Last Trains, Dr Beeching and rage Death of Rural England, makes interesting reading on the subject.
Also, if you get a chance to hear Colin Divall talk on the S & D, he has some interesting views.
Logged
WSW Frome
Transport Scholar
Sr. Member
******
Posts: 180


View Profile
« Reply #23 on: March 29, 2018, 16:28:15 »

Bradshaw is correct that I did attend Hardye's School in Dorchester 1962-69. A large contingent of boys travelled by train from Weymouth and intermediate stations (like Radipole Halt for me) to Dorchester West, and later South. This included Saturday mornings.

For most of the period these were specially-provided trains between Weymouth and Dorchester and in various years not shown in the public timetable. Having written my piece on the S&D (Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway) I was speculating at what time was our return train on Saturday lunchtimes. I have timetables for the mid 1960s and it is not shown but the answer was probably 12.10 or 12.15! Of course, until mid 1967 nearly all these trains were steam-hauled and later by Class 33s.
Logged
Do you have something you would like to add to this thread, or would you like to raise a new question at the Coffee Shop? Please [register] (it is free) if you have not done so before, or login (at the top of this page) if you already have an account - we would love to read what you have to say!

You can find out more about how this forum works [here] - that will link you to a copy of the forum agreement that you can read before you join, and tell you very much more about how we operate. We are an independent forum, provided and run by customers of Great Western Railway, for customers of Great Western Railway and we welcome railway professionals as members too, in either a personal or official capacity. Views expressed in posts are not necessarily the views of the operators of the forum.

As well as posting messages onto existing threads, and starting new subjects, members can communicate with each other through personal messages if they wish. And once members have made a certain number of posts, they will automatically be admitted to the "frequent posters club", where subjects not-for-public-domain are discussed; anything from the occasional rant to meetups we may be having ...

 
Pages: 1 [2]
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.2 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!
This forum is provided by customers of Great Western Railway (formerly First Great Western), and the views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that the content provided by one of our posters contravenes our posting rules (email link to report). Forum hosted by Well House Consultants

Jump to top of pageJump to Forum Home Page