LAST HURRAH FOR WASHFORD AS TRUST SEEKS NEW HOME
Mid-Hants Railway offers to provide temporary base for part of S&D Trust’s collection.
The Somerset & Dorset Railway Trust opened its Washford museum for what is expected to be the last time on August 29/30, before a move to a new home.
Having been served notice to quit the site by the West Somerset Railway plc in February (SR503), the trust is seeking a new permanent base. In the meantime, the MidHants Railway has offered to house some of its extensive collection of rolling stock and S&D artefacts. The trust’s principal asset, SDJR ‘7F’ 2-8-0 No. 53808, has already moved from the WSR to the ‘Watercress Line’ on loan for the remaining two years of its boiler certificate (see story, right).
Although it has some funds to begin the process of moving, the trust is now appealing for further donations. It stated: “Our membership has been extremely generous so far, with over £15,000 raised through our ‘Safeguarding Our Future’ Appeal of earlier this year. We have now launched an extension to that appeal under the banner ‘Progressing Our Future’ to enable our site at Washford, home of the trust for over 40 years, to be removed and located elsewhere.
“Our membership has increased substantially over the past year and we send out a warm welcome to anyone wishing to join us in an exciting future for the trust which will develop the story of, and memories of, the S&D.” For details or to make donations, visit www.sdrt.org
The trust’s deadline to leave Washford is still February next year, confirmed director Nigel Davies, with most of the recent negotiations between the trust and WSR plc having been regarding the future of the ‘7F’.
“The site has taken a bit of a back seat, because the first thing was to get ‘88’ earning money for its overhaul,” he said.
Asked whether the track in the yard (including a former S&D three-way point from Radstock) and the shed – all of which belongs to the trust – will also be moving, he responded: “We’ll leave it if the WSR pays us for it – if not, that’s where a lot of the money for moving comes from.”
Martin Rice, the group’s financial director, commented: “It’s difficult to ask people to dismantle something they’ve spent years tending.”