The old line was much admired by enthusiasts, in part because it was, following a brief spell of complete independence, jointly owned by the Midland Railway, who supplied the locomotives and coaches, and the London & South Western Railway who supplied the signalling and maintained the stations and the track itself. Over the years, these Railways' successors took on the joint management of the line which benefitted from aggressive marketing leading to a very healthy trade in summer holiday traffic. The line also had an impressive goods trade. The climb up and over the Mendips also added to the folklore as thousands of engines over the years toiled up mountainous gradients with heavy loads in tow. Add to this the picturesque local trains and station gardens (which were invariably immaculate), the S & D became quite a legend in its own lifetime!

The Prussian Blue livery carried on S & D trains until the late 1930s simply added to the mystery of the line, later, the colours changed to maroon or green or custard and carmine. But the line remained one of the most unique in the land.

Following a programme of run down in the sixties, the line closed, and a group of enthusiasts formed the Somerset & Dorset Circle to try and preserve, at least, the memory of the line.

Some thirty years on, and the small band has grown to a small army! The base at Washford has been home for the Trust as it is called now since the mid 1970s, following a brief spell at Radstock (actually on the old line), and on the site can now be found a most impressive array of S & D artefacts, laid out in a most professional manner.

In the early days, the small band decided to preserve a genuine S & D locomotive. The only ones left were a matching pair of the heavy goods 2-8-0 locomotives, the class "7F", and no 53808 eventually made its way to Radstock and then to the West Somerset. Return to steam took quite a time, but in 1987, the "7F" once again hauled trains over steep gradients in Somerset, to become the flagship of the Trust.

The Trust always welcome new interest; a visit to the Washford site; donations towards restoring a wide variety of artefacts; or maybe joining as a new member. Details of the Trust can be had from Washford Station.

This page is not from the official West Somerset Railway Web Site