Steam on the S&D after 1966
STILL ROOM FOR STEAM ON THE S&D
The Somerset & Dorset didn’t close completely in March 1966. To conclude our 50th anniversary coverage, BOB BUNYAR explains that steam ran for almost another decade.
Go back to November 1966 - 50 years ago this month - and weeds are now growing profusely through the rusting track and decaying sleepers on the Somerset & Dorset network, some eight months after the lights went out following the final steam-hauled special excursions. The demolition teams are getting themselves organised, the crowds that bid their fond farewells are long gone, and dereliction is beginning to set in. The closure of the Bath-Bournemouth main line and its branches, from Monday March 7 1966, seems a distant memory, and the BBC and ITV cameramen who jostled with local and regional newspapers to report on the final trains are covering different stories. All I have now are memories of those final days. I recall seeing film of the station staff at Evercreech Junction carrying a coffin onto the last Up scheduled passenger train to Bath on the Saturday night. People who used the route bemoaned its closure, and letters were frequently in local newspapers about the loss of the train services and the inadequate bus replacement services, some of which didn’t last long. Some sections of the S&D were, of course, to remain open for non-passenger traffic for a while, the longest being from Broadstone up to Blandford Forum. This was for fertiliser, general goods and military traffic, the latter for the nearby Blandford Camp. Milk traffic would still run from Bailey Gate, and over a short section of the branch from Highbridge to Bason Bridge. Coal from Writhlington Colliery would be worked back to Radstock, over a new spur linking the former Great Western line, destined for Portishead Power Station.
Scrap work
A short section of track from Bath Junction to Bath Co-op Sidings in the Oldfield Park area of the city would also be used for coal traffic until November 1967, while Bath Midland Yard received regular traffic worked down over the line from Mangotsfield and through Bitton. It was mostly fuel for Bath Gas works, but it also included goods brought in for the Stothert & Pitt crane company works close to the old S&D shed. Finished items and scrap metal were taken out by rail. Wagons here (quite often bogie bolsters) were shunted by the company’s own steam crane (now preserved close to where it originally worked), long after steam finished at Bath. The S&D closure brought an end to standard gauge steam on the Western Region, which hung on after the scheduled January 3 1966 date because a local bus operator pulled out of the replacement road motor service contract at a late stage, forcing an emergency train service to be operated. Particularly on the northern section of the line from
Templecombe to Bath, this resulted in run‑down locomotives operating a timetable that was simply not fit for purpose. As I recorded in a previous article, pannier tank No. 3681 was put into steam on Monday March 7 at Bath shed and again on Friday March 11. On the latter occasion, it hauled sister No. 3758 to Bristol Bath Road depot for storage, and this would have been the last GWR‑ design locomotive to be steamed on the Western Region. However, Ivatt 2‑6‑2T No. 41283 was also revived at Bath to shunt numerous withdrawn locomotives stored there ready for moves to South Wales scrapyards, some via Bristol where they were parked up, in some cases into May. No. 41283’s last day in steam was on Thursday March 17, and the next day it was itself hauled away, with other engines, by ‘Hymek’ No. D7043.
Die‑hard cranes
Even this was not quite the end of steam at Bath Green Park. As well as the Stothert & Pitt steam crane, self‑propelled BR steam crane No. 72 made it to Bath on January 31 1967. It had come from Bristol, and was observed in use that day at Bath’s Midland Yard, coupled to a GWR 3,500‑gallon tender to assist with track alterations (not lifting). Although now mostly operated by diesels or electro‑diesels, the southern end of the S&D still had some occasional steam workings up to Blandford Forum on freight duties, as Southern Region steam was to continue until July 9 1967 (I believe the last steam to be seen at Blandford Forum was a railtour). Locomotives normally came from Bournemouth shed with their crews, and would be used for a similar working from Broadstone to Ringwood, via Wimborne, a line that had lost its passenger services from May 4 1964. Broadstone Junction Signal Box stayed open to control movements onto both the lines to Blandford Forum and Ringwood, and finally closed on October 18 1970. The section of line beyond Wimborne to West Moors was used to serve a fuel depot until 1974, but the track onwards to Ringwood was disused after August 1967. The final steam locomotive to traverse the southern end of the S&D before closure had been Bulleid ‘Battle of Britain’ 4‑6‑2 No. 34057 Biggin Hill on Sunday March 6, on a railtour from Bath Green Park to Templecombe. It hauled withdrawn BR Standard 4‑6‑0s Nos. 75072 and 75073 from Templecombe to Blandford Forum for storage, before running light to Bournemouth shed. On Friday March 18, BR Standard 2‑6‑4T No. 80146 was sent from Bournemouth to Blandford Forum to collect the ‘75s’ and take them to be stored at Wimborne for several days. At the controls of the 2‑6‑4T was the well‑known driver Johnny Walker, but it is not known if he ran round the two withdrawn engines at Broadstone, or if they were taken to Poole Yard, before heading back to Wimborne. The final destination for the 4‑6‑0s was Thomas Ward’s scrapyard at Ringwood where disposal would take place. Only two other locomotives were broken up there (BR No. 80096 from Bournemouth shed and Eastleigh’s No. 80102, although parts from other engines arrived in wagons from Eastleigh for processing. At least Nos. 30031/4/45, 30112, 30670/2 and an unidentified LBSCR Class ‘E6’, are known to have turned up. With its nearby army camp, Blandford Forum still received traffic, and on Thursday July 7, ‘West Country’ No. 34040 Crewkerne, once a familiar sight on the S&D, arrived light engine from Bournemouth ‑ quite a large engine to shunt wagons. On Friday July 22, BR Standard 2‑6‑4Ts No. 80134 and 80146 double‑headed a heavily loaded train of Army
vehicles, running bunker to bunker from Blandford, both sent separately from Bournemouth for the task. This duty came just before Blandford Forum signal box was reduced to ground frame status from the following Monday, along with Corfe Mullen Junction, Bailey Gate station and crossing boxes. This made the operation of more than one train or engine in the section more difficult. Presumably, a water supply was maintained at Blandford for steam locomotives.
Final destination
The very last Down scheduled passenger train to depart from Blandford Forum on Saturday March 5 1966 had originated from Bath Green Park at 6.10pm, then becoming the 9.03pm from Templecombe to Bournemouth. This was made up to six coaches and hauled by No. 80138 from Bournemouth shed with driver Albert Kiddle and fireman J. Parkes on the footplate; this working returned both the rolling stock, engine and crew back home. On Sunday March 6, two specials had passed at Blandford Forum when a southbound SLS tour, headed by ‘8F’ 2‑8‑0 No. 48706 and 2‑6‑4T No. 80043, waited to be passed by ‘Merchant Navy’ 4‑6‑2 No. 35028 Clan Line heading north on an RCTS special. Later that day, the SLS special was to head back north from Bournemouth to Bath, making it the last passenger train to traverse the line through Blandford Forum before closure. It wasn’t long before a passenger train would visit the Dorset town. On May 21, the British Young Travellers Society’s Hampshire Explorer’ tour started at Southampton with ‘USA’ 0‑6‑0T No. 30073. It first visited the Fawley branch, with BR Standard 2‑6‑0 No. 77014 from Totton, through Bournemouth, Poole and Broadstone and then up to Blandford Forum. It ran round and headed back to Broadstone, giving
way to ‘West Country’ No. 34006 Bude, which had been used on an LCGB special over the S&D on March 5 with No. 34057 Biggin Hill. The Bulleid took over for a run up to Ringwood, before taking the tour back to its origin. An engine that was once a common sight on the S&D made a return on October 16 1966, when BR Standard 2‑6‑0 No. 76026 was at the head of yet another train to Blandford Forum. The LCGB’s ‘Dorset & Hants Rail Tour’ (eight coaches) was hauled from Waterloo to Broadstone by No. 34023 Blackmore Vale, where it was replaced by No. 76026. To save time running round, an additional engine ‑ No. 77014 ‑ was also attached to the rear at Broadstone. The train was only slightly down on its booked timings at Blandford Forum, arriving at 4.06pm and departing after a 14‑minute stop. It ran with these two engines back to Poole, before reversing and traversing the Hamworthy branch. On return to Hamworthy Junction, Nos. 34019 Bideford and 34023 returned it to London. It probably wouldn’t be allowed today, but earlier in 1966, a special passenger train actually originated from the closed Blandford Forum station. On June 11, ‘West Country’ No. 34012 Launceston worked nine empty coaches up to the town, and ran round to head off as a day excursion organised by the local brewery to Brighton. Launceston was in charge throughout. A Class 33 diesel was provided in 1967, but the return trip was terminated because trains could not run over freight‑only lines in darkness. What I believe to be the last steam working to Blandford Forum, certainly passenger, occurred on March 25 1967, when Ivatt 2‑6‑2T No. 41320 worked the Manchester Rail & Travel Society’s ‘Hants & Dorset Branch Flyer’ from Southampton Central. It visited the Fawley branch (closed to passengers on February 14 1966) and the Lymington branch before No. 41320 from Bournemouth shed took over at Brockenhurst for the run up to Blandford Forum (for a 15‑minute photo stop), via Poole and Broadstone. It continued to Wareham and the Swanage branch. Steam is re‑appearing at several former S&D sites, notably Midsomer Norton. The Great Central Railway’s LMS ‘Jinty’ 0‑6‑0T No. 47406 ran there during the 50th anniversary closure event in March this year, alongside newly revived resident Sentinel No. 7109, followed by Llangollen‑based ‘4MT’ 2‑6‑4T No. 80072 in September. Shillingstone station will also welcome back steam when the first of the two newly arrived ‘Yugo‑Yankee’ tanks, No. 30075, is overhauled, followed by ‘Project 62’s’ No. 30076 two years after that. It must be remembered that the first preserved steam to run on the S&D occurred when the Somerset & Dorset Circle set up at Radstock. The old station buildings and the ‘Up’ platform at Radstock North were rented from BR, along with space in the shed that housed a Class 08 shunter used at Writhlington Colliery. S&D ‘7F’ 2‑8‑0 No. 53808 was rescued from Barry and, from August 1972, industrial locomotives were steamed for brake van rides on open days to the colliery. In January 1973 the ‘Circle’ changed its name to the Somerset & Dorset Railway Museum Trust, but dropped the word ‘Museum’ ten years later. A company was set up in 1974 to buy the Radstock station site and the now‑disused line to Writhlington Colliery (closed September 1973). The economic climate was not good however, and the inability to raise the money in time meant the company was dissolved in 1976. The locomotives, rolling stock and S&D artefacts moved to Washford station on the West Somerset Railway. It may soon be possible to ride from Midsomer Norton to Chilcompton or Shillingstone to Sturminster Newton, or maybe even further. The S&D certainly lives on.