Somerset & Dorset Railway Heritage Trust

The Somerset & Dorset Railway Heritage Trust
Midsomer Norton Station,
Silver Street,
Midsomer Norton BA3 2EY
How to find us
(map & directions).

Telephone
01761 411221 (Sundays and Mondays).
Please note, due to limited opening days, phone messages cannot be checked daily, email is the best form of contacting us.

Open Sundays and Mondays for sales & viewing. For special events see Opening & Events page.

New visitors to the website:
Please see the General Information page for an overview of the Trust's work at Midsomer Norton.

Read the webmaster's regularly updated diary notes of what has been happening on and off the scene.

Last updated: 17.01.12

Help raise money with your internet searches
You can help us raise more money for the Trust just by using the link on the Fundraising page or clicking the logo above. Bookmark and use this link every time for all your internet searches and help our fundraising campaign. Start your internet search here.

We need your stamps!
We can recycle and sell your used postage stamps to raise money for the project at Midsomer Norton. Please see the fundraising page for further information.

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Latest news updated 04.02.12

PLEASE HELP US & DONATE
There are many projects at Midsomer Norton which rely on income and your generous support. We very much welcome your donations and ask that if you haven't already signed a Gift Aid declaration with us, that you do so in order that we can claim the tax back on your donations. Please us if you require a Gift Aid declaration form.

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About the S&DRHT
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S&D line map
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Volunteers needed
The railway project needs more volunteers, particularly with the current big push forward with new tracklaying. Volunteers are needed in all departments though, not just for manual work. If you have any skills we could use or time you wish to offer, please see the volunteering section on the membership page and get in touch to find out more.

Somerset & Dorset Railway Trust at Washford on the West Somerset Railway. Event diary dates here.

Website design: Ovals
Webmaster:

Current issue of the S&D Telegraph magazine:
Telegraph 37 front cover

Issue 38, August edition of The S&D Telegraph features:

• Planning for 2016's 50 years since closure anniversary
• Pigeon specials on the S&D
• Mapping the S&D: Stalbridge and Henstridge
• Bailey Gate milk traffic
• Wrap-around cover: action photo of No. D1120 at work
• All the latest news, views, comment and restoration latest

*Become a member and get your copy FREE

YouTube videos
Welcome to our YouTube service, please submit any videos to the Webmaster for consideration.

Latest addition: Diesel D1120 propels a ballast hopper wagon spreading ballast on the line on the 'extension' January 2012

	Motive power boost delivered On Tuesday January 31, another arrival at Midsomer Norton sparked new interest and excitement. No, not steam yet, but a very capable diesel shunter: an ex-BR Class 08. The Trust purchased the locomotive with donations and loans from members, meaning there is now very able assistance for the sometimes hard-pushed D1120 resident, and previously only, diesel shunter. This Class 08, built in 1961 at Horwich, is in fine external condition and liveried in all over BR green, with black and yellow 'wasp' stripes on the front and rear ends and red bufferbeams, and is numbered with its pre-TOPS (BR classification no. 08881) number of D4095. The shunter arrived on a low-loader from Toddington on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire railway, where it was previously owned and run by Andrew Goodman. It seems somewhat fortuitous that the Trust got the loco as it was recently slated to be sold and shipped to Libya in a deal which fell through. The loco is 49 tons, 260hp, maximum tractive effort of 35000 lb/ft, 0-6-0 coupled wheel arrangement and a 15mph maximum speed. It saw service in Scotland, based at Motherwell depot, Glasgow, before being withdrawn from service with EWS a few years ago. The capabilites are well proven, and in BR days they could be seen shunting loads of up to 45 or more wagons. The irony of a loco of this class here, is that they took part in dismantling the S&D in the late 1960s, and this one will now assist rebuilding it again at Midsomer Norton! D1120 is now back on site again, having returned from tyre turning at Bristol, as reported below. Click on the images to see the larger ones.
	D1120 away for tyre turning Resident Midsomer Norton diesel shunter, English Electric D1120 has been away from site for the first time in many years, to have its tyres turned. Moveright International haulage collected the loco on Thursday January 26th and it was held on the low-loader in the station forecourt overnight, before departing for Bristol St. Phillips Marsh depot early on Friday morning. Tyre turning is necessary on locos and stock because although the wheels look like a one-piece affair to the naked eye. they in fact have a band of steel heat-shrunk onto the wheel (like old cart wheels once were) and these occasionally need replacing or turning on a purpose-built lathe to re-profile them. Although D1120 doesn't run massive distances at MSN, the tyres wouldn't have been 'as-new' when it first arrived and the jointed rails and use on the same stretch of track with the same curves are likely to mean the tyres have incurred excessive wear in specific places. The loco should be returned to Midsomer Norton on Monday January 30th, where it will await a new stablemate - to be anounced. The photos show D1120 on the low-loader at MSN on Thursday night awaiting departure; on the wheel lathe at Bristol; and in the yard ready for reloading onto the low loader. Click the images to see larger versions.
	Track laying progress approaches half a mile With recent track laying and finishing work on both the Down and Up lines at Midsomer Norton, the sum total of running line from the bufferstops at Silver Street, to the current end of the Down line is 30 chains, or 3/8ths of (getting on for half) a mile. The track gang has recently been working hard adding the recently-delivered ballast consignment, jacking and packing the Down line to running standard, almost up to the end of the current leased property. George Morris's photo of 8th January shows the gang working on the Down line at the farthest southern extent of the current line, with the incomplete point to the Up line at the bottom right of the picture. Click on the thumbnail image to enlarge.
	Follow the S&D at Midsomer Norton Yes, we're even social networking these days! If you're a user of Facebook and want to see some other chat, information, photos and videos regarding the project, then just click on the Facebook logo link, left, and click 'Like' to regularly get updates from us.
	DMU sees first 'action' The newly-arrived DMU has seen it's first use already, on Saturday November 19th it was in use for driver training to ready staff for putting it into service as soon as possible. The owner and two members of the DMU restoration group were in attendance, going over the fine points of running and operating the two-car set on our railway. There is a buzz around at the station as members get used to the unit's presence and anticipate starting running 'proper' passenger services soon with this welcome new arrival. Click on the image, left to view a larger photo; taken outside the goods shed at MSN on Saturday November 19th
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