TAles of the West soMerset rAilWAy

EDITED BY IAN COLEBY, ALLAN STANISTREET AND IAN TABRETT

• West soMerset steAM rAilWAy

trust

A relevant and valuable historical record.

Little of note.

PRICE: £8.99 (plus £1 postage) RATING:

While the West Somerset Railway is wrestling with financial problems and the need for major track repairs, it’s worth recalling that the line has been in dire straits before, and pulled through to become one of the movement’s major preserved lines. This new book provides that timely reminder.

Published by the West Somerset Steam Railway Trust and now available from Bishops Lydeard or Minehead shops, it marks this summer’s 40th anniversary of the reopening of the line to Bishops Lydeard in June 1979. Some doubted in those early days that such a long railway could be viable, and indeed they were almost proved right – but Nick Jones, the railway’s first operating superintendent, writes herein: “Somerset County Council, who had purchased the line from BR, began to take an interest in the still disused part of the line south of Williton for road improvements. There is no doubt in my mind that only half of the WSR would have survived unless we showed we remained serious about using the whole line.”

That is just one of many illuminating and often entertaining memories collected in this book from some of the staff and volunteers who worked on the WSR in its formative years. Their accounts of the line’s struggle to get off the ground with inadequate motive power, primitive facilities and a shoestring budget emphasise just how far the railway has come since, and such stories deserve to be recorded for future generations. (TJ) E: booksales@wssrt.co.uk ISBN: 9781527238770