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EyeWitness - 3 July 1999
The "Cheddar Cheese"
I travelled down to West Somerset on Saturday 3 July 1999 for a days photography and to see old friends along the line. The choice of day, made with some considerable help from my wife, Jean, turned out to be quite lucky, as there were to be two extra diagrams - one a steam trip over the twenty mile from Bishops Lydeard to Minehead and back for passengers from a "Sparkle Express" who transferred by bus(es) from Taunton Station to Lydeard; and the other, the "Cheddar Cheese" through excursion from Preston and Manchester to Minehead. These in addition to the two steam diagrams and a dmu turn to boot! The weather wasn't too bad, although more sun would have been ideal.
Photography started with the 10.25 ex Lydeard at Washford, with BR(W) 2-6-2T filling the viewfinder. Moving on towards Crowcombe for the "Cheddar Cheese", I stopped at Cottisford Bridge near Williton to catch the 12.25 from Lydeard, which as it happened had been joined with the "Sparkle" stock to make a 12 coach train, headed by BR Class 4 4-6-0 no 76079 and GWR 2-8-0T no 4277.
At Crowcombe, a welcome is always guaranteed, whoever is Station Master of the Day, and this day was no exception, as Ted Cubitt and his wife, Jan were on duty.
Before we had time to catch up on family news, the down home board came off, the signalman descended the steps to wait on the platform with the staff for the section to Williton, and with a toot, the "Cheddar Cheese" appeared under Lydeard Bridge, with Class 47 no 47787 "Fiona Castle" at the head. The maroon and gold EWS loco drew in and with staffs exchanged, opened up to drag the 12 coach "Regency Rail" stock, half of it still on the 1 in 81 gradient, through the delightful station and onwards down the hill to the coast. This gave the chance to see the celebrated stock, and what an interesting collection it was, with some in chocolate and cream, the rest in the "Regency" blue and cream, with a touch of maroon and blue also in the consist.
The special had stopped at Weston-super-Mare, where many passengers had left the train for a tour of the Cheddar area of the Mendips (hence the name of the excursion) but a goodly few had opted for the trip down to West Somerset.
Now the chase! I am not amused by those who chase trains and in my time I have seen the most stupid and potentially fatal antics that some drivers get up to. So my chase is more sedate and with my lengthy knowledge of local roads and conditions and the likely progress of the train, I set off for Doniford, some eight miles away. At Woolston Moor, the road is back with the line and the special could be seen. Taking a chance, I reckoned I could still intercept it at Doniford, but alas I arrived there to see the loco appearing round the bend. Dismayed, I went on to Watchet, but again, the train passed by as I pulled up. On to Blue Anchor and, despite a long stretch of 30mph max along the sea wall, success at last, with minutes to spare.
Now to Minehead to collect the family and deliver to niece's new house for a cuppa and a chat and to see how little baby has grown. Me, I excuse myself and go off to Washford to photograph the returning "Sparkle" with no 4277 up front. Back to Minehead, collect the family, and follow the returning "Cheese", getting photos at Blue Anchor, Castle Hill and Lydeard.
Not a bad day's bag of photos with three steam locos, one mainline diesel and a dmu in action. A quick "Hi" and chat to several old hands, and away eastwards we went once again. This was my first visit to the line since Easter and the last til August sometime, hence the rather frantic "shoot any thing that moves".
As for the Railway, it seemed to go OK. The "Cheese" was returned to Railtrack on time. The "Sparkle" people got a good steamy round trip despite being late arriving at Lydeard in the morning. It still seems a far cry from the days of Bagnall saddle tanks.