£20m plan for Bishops Lydeard
Railway poised for a decade of big changes - pending a Heritage Lottery funding bid.
A multimillion-pound redevelopment of the West Somerset Railway’s Bishops lydeard station is about to get off the starting blocks, with a bid for lottery funding.
Titled the ‘Southern Gateway’ project, the plans for the line’s southern terminus include a display shed for the West Somerset Steam Railway Trust’s collection of GWR carriages, a new visitor centre and improved car parking, catering and shop facilities. Expected to cost around £15-20 million, the project will be carried out in phases over a period of up to ten years, with the first stage being a bid for Heritage Lottery funding towards the station’s ‘Gauge Museum’. Due to be submitted in late February or early March, the trust’s initial application is for around £60-65,000, to be supplemented with a further £10,000 budgeted from its own resources and donations. Fundraising activities and membership recruitment are also to be ramped up accordingly. This money will fund a revamp of the museum displays, to be carried out over the winter of 2017/18, and the recruitment of a learning officer. With the museum situated in the former goods shed on the Down platform, it is visited by relatively few passengers, as trains generally use the Up platform. To improve footfall, one option being considered is to extend the Down platform southwards, with a footbridge connecting it to the car park - although any such extension would be likely to entail removing the rail access to the goods shed. Chris Bolt, the trust’s treasurer and project manager for the HLF bid, said: “Bishops Lydeard is where most visitors now arrive at the railway, but current facilities are poor, with limited car parking and few undercover facilities. “We aim to give visitors plenty to see and do here, rather than simply get on the train.” Restoration of the first vehicle in the planned GWR fleet - Collett Brake Corridor Composite No. 6705, repatriated from the USA in 2007 - is expected to reach completion at Williton this year. It will be followed by ‘Toplight’ Third Corridor No. 3639, which was used on ambulance trains during the First World War. Said Mr Bolt: “Subject to funding, we will seek to step up the pace of restoration under the Southern Gateway project, as well as providing undercover storage and display.” Management of the ‘Gauge Museum’ was previously the responsibility of the WSR Association, but came under the trust’s jurisdiction from the beginning of 2017. Explains Mr Bolt: “The WSR plc, association and trust, along with local authority representatives, have formed a Southern Gateway Project Board, and in discussion all agreed that it was sensible for the trust to take over management, given that we already manage the small GWR museum at Blue Anchor station.”