THE GLORIOUS YEARS
The Indian Summer of the S&D
One railway anniversary overshadows every other this spring - it’s been 50 years since one of Britain’s best-loved lines was wiped off the map in March 1966. Somehow, the Somerset & Dorset seems to epitomise everything that is fondly remembered about the steam-age railway; a characterful cross-country route winding its way through beautiful scenery, carrying thousands of happy holidaymakers to the seaside every summer Saturday; a line with a family atmosphere, where the friendly staff all knew each other and had time for a chat; a world where the pace of life was slower and more relaxed. Add to the mix spectacular gradients, exotic motive power, and some of the most unusual double-headed combinations to be found anywhere on the railway network, and it’s no wonder that these 71 miles of track over the Mendips between Bath and Bournemouth achieved truly legendary status. Although this ‘Glorious Years’ commemorates the anniversary of the S&D’s demise, we won’t dwell too much upon its fifinal sad years, which weren’t ‘glorious’ at all - rather, a sorry textbook example by the Western Region of how to spitefully destroy a former rival, matched only by the London Midland Region’s equally vindictive running down of the Great Central during the same period. Instead, we shall remember its heyday, when classic combinations of Bulleid ‘Pacififics’ and ‘2Ps’, ‘4Fs’ and its famous ‘7F’ 2-8-0s still toiled their way over the neverto-be-forgotten ‘Serene & Delightful’…