| • Celebrating 50 years of Exmoor National Park...
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The West Somerset Railway is joining the celebrations of the 50th Anniversary of the Exmoor National Park by recreating a classic Southern Railway locomotive. When steam ended on British Railways in the 1960s many locomotives were sent to breakers’ yards including no 34022 "Exmoor" – one of 66 express passenger engines built after World War II. The class were known as Bulleid ‘West Country’ light pacifics and were employed on the Southern Railway’s main routes out of Waterloo and Victoria to the South Coast and West Country resorts such as Ilfracombe, Padstow and Bude. They were designed by one of the famous names of railway engineering – O.V.S.Bulleid, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Southern Railway.
The West Country class locomotives were all named after locations in the South West and carried red nameplates with some having an additional town crest. Several had names associated with Exmoor including nos 34022 "Exmoor", 34030 "Watersmeet", 34038 "Lynton", 34043 "Combe Martin" and 34099 "Lynmouth". Sadly none of these survived the end of steam but fortunately 11 of the class still exist and one of them no 34027 "Taw Valley" is visiting the West Somerset Railway’s Spring Steam Gala from 25-28 March. Classmate no 34046 "Braunton" is undergoing restoration at Williton Depot, which will be open to visitors to the Gala.
The Railway has decided to join in the National Park’s 50th birthday celebrations by changing the identity of "Taw Valley"to long lost sister locomotive no 34022 "Exmoor". New nameplates and numberplate are being made with sponsorship from the Railway and the National Park Authority. An unveiling ceremony is planned for 10.00am on Thursday 25 March at Bishops Lydeard station prior to the departure of the 10.38 train to Minehead. This will be hauled by no 34022 "Exmoor" with a special headboard ‘The Exmoor Express’. Representatives of the National Park who are attending the unveiling of the new nameplates are invited to travel on this train. The owner of one of the original nameplates of no 34022 "Exmoor"will be bringing it along to display at the station. The Railway is also celebrating 25 years since the re-opening of the WSR to Bishops Lydeard and is launching a new booking office at the station on the Thursday morning. Passengers will be able to travel on ‘The Exmoor Express’ to Minehead at the 1979 fare of £2.70 return.
2004 is a year of anniversaries and milestones. Not only is Exmoor National Park celebrating its 50th birthday but it is also the 200th anniversary of the first railway in the world. It is also 40 years since the Beatles filmed scenes for their first film ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ on the Taunton to Minehead. Coincidentally Paul McCartney is returning to Somerset this June to headline the Glastonbury Festival. Lastly popular Great Western Railway tank engine no 5542 is expected to achieve one million miles operating trains since 1928 during the Gala weekend.
Railways in the Greater Exmoor are enjoying something of a revival at present. This summer sees the first passenger trains on a short section of the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway since the line closed by the Southern Railway in 1935. The Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway remains as popular as ever. There is much interest in preserving what remains of the old West Somerset Mineral Railway from Watchet to the Brendon Hills. The West Somerset Railway itself has become one of the West Country’s leading attractions with 187000 passengers carried in 2003. A recent economic study of the line’s impact on West Somerset suggests it generates more than £6 million a year for the local economy. In the future there are plans for the railway to make a larger contribution to sustainable tourism and transport in the region by upgrading the junction with the main line near Taunton.
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