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Trust awarded £15K in resilience funding
Today, Wednesday 20 June, we have received the news that our application for £15,000 of resilience funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund has been successful.
This is fantastic news as this will enable us to employ consultants to improve on the retail and marketing aspects of our operations at Washford, as well as our induction process for new volunteers. More detailed information will follow in due course!
Don't forget our Annual Special Train on Sunday 8 July
Our Annual Special Train runs from Bishops Lydeard to Minehead at 11.15 am on Sunday 8 July, calling at Washford and Dunster. It will return from Minehead at 5.15 pm.
You can travel on this service at very special fares - Adult £12, for example - and since the train is provided without charge by the WSR as part of the hire agreement for our S&D 7F No. 53808, the Trust retains all proceeds.
What's more, if you book by 27 June, you can order an optional lunch for the outward journey or a cream tea for the return, making this great day out more of an occasion. Note that normal buffet/bar facilities will be available.
You don't need to be an S&DRT member to come on this train, so do come along - see our Special Train page to book!
Beer Festival + food at Washford, 8 - 10 June during the WSR Diesel Gala.
The Beer Festival at Washford - part of the WSR's Diesel Gala - got off to a good start on Friday and continues through the weekend.
We've also got pies, pasties, tea and coffee available and many visitors have been looking around Coach 4, our restored 1886 S&D First Class carriage.
Why not drop in? Beer is being served from 12 noon until the evening on Saturday and until around 3pm on Sunday.
Please note that the train is the recommended way to the Festival as car parking and evening buses are limited.
These are the beers, all from breweries in the South-West:
Art Ales - Lemon (4.2), Beat Ales - Rockola (5.3), Black Bear - Strong Ale (5.1), Black Tor - Wheat (4.5), Branscombe - Hells Bells (4.8), Bristol Beer Factory - TBA, Croft Ales - BSA (4.0), Electric Bear - Mosiac (4.8), Fine Tuned - Pitch Perfect (3.8), Gleed Brewery - Bretts Best (4.6), Hatties Brown - Light (4.0), Isle of Avalon - Pompile Porter (4.5), New Bristol - Japan (4.8), Pitchfork - Pitchfork (4.3), Pitchfork - Hop Gun (4.3), Ralphs Ruin - Dark One (TBA), Twisted Oak - Spun Gold (4.5).
Read more...Our Annual Special Train on Sunday 8 July is not to be missed!
Don't miss our Annual Special Train on Sunday 8 July!
It'll be travelling from Bishops Lydeard to Minehead at 11.15 and back at 17.15, stopping at Washford (for our museum) and Dunster (for the village and castle). Due to be hauled by the Trust's S&D 7F, 53808.
Adult fares are just £12 - a real bargain - and you can order an optional lunch for the outward journey and cream tea for the return when you book. See our Special Train page: http://www.sdrt.org/Special-Train/
Read more...Video of Kilmersdon at the Helston Railway
Kilmersdon helps the Helston Railway run a great 'Back to the 40s' event from Somerset & Dorset Railway Trust on Vimeo.
Here's the video of our Peckett 'Kilmersdon' hauling the first steam passenger trains on the Helston branch in over 55 years.
Starting from Prospidnick Halt and calling at Trevarno, the video includes footage from the footplate. Later, we see the superbly authentic recreation of Truthall Halt and in the quietness of this remote country location we soon hear the distant panting of a steam engine as it hauls its coach up the grade....
Thanks are due to the footplate crew of Callum and Ernie.
Kilmersdon helps the Helston Railway run a great 'Back to the 40s' event
The weather was perfect on Bank Holiday Monday 28 May 2018 as Kilmersdon hauled some of the first steam passenger services on the Helston branch in Cornwall for over 55 years.
On some services, the 72-seater coach ran full and there was no doubting the Helston's appreciation at having Kilmersdon available. They had already hired a Peckett - built in 1949 and rather appropriately named William Murdoch after the Cornish mining engineer - but the engine's overhaul was not completed in time for this weekend.
Later in the summer, it is hoped that the pair can run together in an unusual example of double-heading.
The photos here are all extracted from video footage - the video will follow shortly.
Pausing at Trevarno, the intermediate station on the 1.25 mile line.
At Trevarno.
Poster advertising Kilmersdon at Trevarno.
Later in the day, arriving at Truthall Halt with the 15.30 service, the last of the weekend.
Hand on the regulator on the return journey.
Scenic delights on the return journey.Ex-military brake van receives overhaul at Washford
Well in advance of their '40s weekend on 15/16 September, the West Somerset Railway is using space at Washford to overhaul a brake van that will see service over that weekend.
The van is an SR pill box design but of military origin, this explains the presence of the vacuum brake cylinder on the right end platform. On the other platform are the refurbished metal lookouts waiting to be refitted. The leader of the wagon team is Mike Wiseman, a regular driver on the WSR.
[Photo by Dave Temple]
Operational demonstration of our replica Midford signalbox
One of the attractions at our base at Washford station on the West Somerset Railway is a working replica of the interior of the the S&D's Midford signalbox.
Controlling the divergence of the line - single track from Bath and double track on to Wellow - times were busy for the signalman on summer Saturdays as through trains as well as regular local services passed along the single line bottleneck through Devonshire and Combe Down Tunnels.
The video demonstration shows a train being accepted from Bath Junction and then offered on to Wellow, all with authentic bell codes.
[Video by Matt Stevens]
Read more...