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Once one of the most popular railways in Britain, the West Somerset Railway was the GWR's primary route to the north Somerset coast, trailing 22 miles from the junction at Norton Fitzwarren near Taunton through the valleys and along the coast until it reached the popular seaside resort at Minehead, a place idolised in the annals of history as the boom summer resort of the 1960s. Reaching its peak in the mid to late 1960s, the line saw summer traffic untold, with nearly every train being packed to the doors. But then just to complicate things, the BR board closed it in 1971.

But closure of this popular route was short lived and by the end of the 1970's it was up and running again as the preserved line we all know and love today!

Locomotives featured in the video:

- 7800 Class 'Manor' 4-6-0: 7828 Odney Manor was first sent to Shrewsbury shed and spent nine years there. 1961 saw it move to Croes Newydd, then two years later it found its way to Aberystwyth for a short while before returning to Shrewsbury, from where it was withdrawn in 1965, moving to Barry in 1966. It was rescued privately in 1981 and moved to the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway where restoration was completed by 1987. It worked on the Gwilli Railway, Llangollen Railway and East Lancashire Railway before coming to the WSR in 1995. Its owners sold it to the WSR in 2004. On 17 June 2011 it was renamed Norton Manor after 40 Commando's base alongside the railway at Norton Fitzwarren. The Great Western Railway had intended to give this name 7830 but the order for this locomotive was cancelled. It has been repainted in the BR lined green livery that it carried in 1957.

- Andrew Barclay 0-4-0DH: This pair of shunters with hydraulic transmissions were built in 1972 for the Royal Ordnance Factory at Puriton in Somerset. Surplus to requirements since 1991, they are on long term loan to the WSR and are based at Dunster for shunting the permanent way depot. They are both painted green but neither currently carries visible numbers. They can be distinguished as number 1's Barclay works plates have blue backgrounds, while number 2's are red.

- British Railways Class 115 DMU: The Class 115 units were built by British Railways at Derby Carriage and Wagon Works and originally used on services out of London Marylebone station and in the Liverpool area. Eventually replaced by the Class 165 Thames Turbo units, they found a short life for themselves on the line from Redhill to Tonbridge prior to electrification for Eurostars in the late 1990's, the final sets being withdrawn in 1998.

- Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway 7F 2-8-0: The S&DJR had a number of these large locomotives based at Bath Green Park for working heavy freight trains over the Mendip Hills, but they also took their turn on summer Saturday passenger trains. Number 88 was built by Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns in 1925. After it had been taken into the London Midland and Scottish Railway fleet it became number 9678, but this was later changed to 13808 so its British Railways number was 53808. It then received a second hand boiler from Midland Railway 4P 4-4-0 41092. It was sold and moved to Woodham Brothers' Barry scrap yard in 1964, but was rescued by the SDJT in 1970. Their museum at Radstock was closed in 1976 and so their locomotives were moved to the WSR. 88 finally returned to steam in 1987; its boiler was last overhauled and recertified in 2005. The blue S&DJR passenger livery that it carries is unprototypical -- SD&JR goods locomotives carried a plain black livery by the time 88 was built.

- 9351 'mogul' 2-6-0: Great Western locomotives were built from a range of standardised components, which were assembled in different ways to suit different traffic needs. The basic parts of the 'large prairie' 2-6-2Ts were considered at different times as being the possible basis of a small 2-6-0 'mogul', but this was never followed through. 5101 Class number 5193 was purchased by the WSR in 1998 when its owners were unable to complete its restoration after its rescue from Barry in 1979. Because of the degree of work needed to restore it as a tank locomotive, and because a small tender locomotive was thought more useful on the lengthy railway, it was decided in 2000 to convert it to this mooted 2-6-0. Work was completed in 2004 when it appeared in plain GWR green livery.

Enjoy the West Somerset Railway in wonderful sun blazed glory! :D

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