Where was JayMac today, 24th June 2024?

[whole diary]

[JayMac]

Looking at the site of a former station and level crossing. Where?

[bradshaw]

Ashcott Station by the RSPB Ham Wall reserve. The latter is dog friendly and an excellent place to visit.

[JayMac]

I had a feeling it'd be you bradshaw who identified this location. Correct!

I also visited a couple of other nearby former station sites on the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway branch from Evercreech Junction to Burham-on-Sea. This stretch of line was originally the Somerset Central Railway between Glastonbury & Highbridge, opened in 1854. The oldest part of what became the S&DJR^▸ (Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway).

Shapwick, where you can't see anything of the station, with all buildings gone and a thick copse there now. Also looking the other way along the former line toward Burham-on-Sea.



And Edington Burtle, formerly Edington Junction, originally Edington Road, which was the junction for the S&DJR branch to Bridgwater North. First picture is the approximate location of the start of the platform, looking at the station master's house. Second picture is looking west along the trackbed, the platform and its buildings would've been on the left. Third picture looking east, the trackbed where my car is ran along the north bank of the South Drain across the Somerset Levels.

[bradshaw]

Marion and I visit Ham Wall quite often as we can take the dog. You can take them on a circular walk along the old railway and then cross over to return by the Glastonbury Canal. There is a snack shack selling coffee and tea and biscuits, there are also toilets.

March 6th 1966 saw me travelling on the branch on the last day before closure, going from Poole to Highbridge and then to Bristol and Bath Green Park. From there two Bullied Pacifics ( 34013 + 34057) took us up over Masbury, accompanied by a tremendous sound, to Templecombe.
(http://www.sixbellsjunction.co.uk/)