Washford (WSMR) railway station

Washford (WSMR)
General information
Location	Washford, Somerset England
Coordinates	51°09′42″N3°21′42″W / 51.1617°N 3.3616°W / 51.1617; -3.3616
Grid reference	ST048411
Platforms	1 [1] [2] [3]
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	West Somerset Mineral Railway
Key dates
April 1857	Opened for goods [4]
4 September 1865	Opened for passengers [5]
7 November 1898	Closed
1907	Reopened
1910	Closed [6] [7] [8]

v t e West Somerset Mineral Railway
Legend
Western Pier Eastern Pier Watchet Harbour West Somerset Railway to Taunton Watchet Watchet (WSR) Engine shed Washford (WSR) Washford West Somerset Railway to Minehead Torre Clitsome Roadwater Loading platform Timwood Tunnel Comberow Colton Mine Inclines Winding houses  B3224  2ft Gauge Tramway Brendon Hill Wooden viaduct Loading platform Raleigh's Cross Mine Carnarvon New Pit Carnarvon Old Pit Burrow Farm Mine Bearland Wood Mine Betsy Mine Incline Luxborough Road Horse whim Baker's Pit Langham Hill Pit Aerial ropeway Gupworthy Old Pit Kennesome Hill Mine Gupworthy New Pit Horse-drawn tramway Gupworthy Unbuilt extensions Joyce's Cleeve Heath Poult

Washford was an intermediate station on the West Somerset Mineral Railway (WSMR), which was built primarily to carry iron ore from mines to Watchet harbour in Somerset, England. The line was unconnected to any other, though it passed under what is now the West Somerset Railway south of the village of Watchet.

The line's seven stations were designed by Rice Hopkins. ^[9] Washford was one of the five which showed a clear family resemblance. It offered the usual goods and passenger facilities. ^{[10] [11]}

Services

The stone-built station opened for goods traffic in 1857. A passenger service began in September 1865, connecting Watchet with the village of Washford and the hamlets of Roadwater and Comberow. ^[12] Passengers were carried from Comberow up a rope-hauled incline to Brendon Hill and on to Gupworthy on a wagon, free of charge, but at their own risk. ^[13]

The initial passenger service consisted of four trains a day out and back. ^[14]

Like other railways built to serve one industry, such as iron ore carrying lines in Cumbria, the WSMR's fortunes were at the mercy of that industry. Iron and steel making was given to boom and bust and suffered a significant downturn in the 1870s, exacerbated by imports of cheaper and better ore from abroad. The iron mines which provided the WSMR's staple traffic stuttered to complete closure between 1879 and 1883. The line did not close immediately, two mixed trains a day continued to run until 1898, when all traffic ceased. ^[15]

In 1907 the Somerset Mineral Syndicate made an attempt to revive the line, reopening Colton mine and starting a new bore at Timwood. Apart from a reopening day special on 4 July 1907 ^[16] no passenger service was provided. The ore which was extracted in this period was ill-suited to the furnaces and was almost unsaleable, so the Syndicate built a plant at Washford station to extract relevant impurities and waste and form the resulting material into briquettes which it hoped would be cheaper to transport and more attractive to customers. ^{[17] [18] [19]}

The venture collapsed in March 1910, with the briquette kiln going for a mere £5. ^[20]

In 1911 A.R. Angus, an Australian inventor, leased the Watchet-Washford section of the line to test and demonstrate an automatic signal warning device. ^[21] He put the stretch into good order and installed a telephone line between the two stations. The demonstration of the system took place at Kentsford on 5 July 1912, which turned into something of a gala for local people, watching two hired GWR tender locos, the only tender locos to work this line, being brought safely to a halt rather than the anticipated head-on collision. ^{[22] [23] [24]} Testing of this system continued intermittently until the outbreak of war.

The line was requisitioned for the war effort in 1917, but even that was not the end. In September 1918 the Timber Supply Department of the Board of Trade applied for and were granted permission to lay a light railway on the lower trackbed and to use either Washford or Roadwater station buildings. The line was used to carry timber to Watchet from a government sawmill at Washford, using mules as motive power. The track was removed in early 1920. Recorded simply as "narrow", research continues as to its gauge. ^{[25] [26]}

Abandonment

With neither track, rolling stock nor prospects an Act of Parliament was sought and passed to abandon the railway. Its assets were auctioned on 8 August 1924 and the company was wound up in 1925. Washford station building was demolished in the 1930s and the stone reused to build a larger building on the same site. ^[27]

Evocative contemporary descriptions of the line in its later years have been preserved. ^[28]

Afterlife

By 2016 much of the route could still be traced on the ground, on maps and on satellite images. The incline from Comberow to Brendon Hill is a Listed structure.

Preceding station		Disused railways		Following station
Watchet Line and station closed		West Somerset Mineral Railway		Torre Line and station closed

References

1. Sellick 1981, p. 31.
2. Dale 2001, p. 37.
3. Jones 2011, pp. 225, 306 & 347.
4. Sellick 1981, p. 5.
5. Thomas 1966.
6. Oakley 2002.
7. Sellick 1981.
8. Quick 2009, pp. 399 & 459.
9. Jones 2011, pp. 100-104 & 377.
10. Sellick 1970, pp. 95–6.
11. "The station and village". West Somerset Mineral Railway Project.
12. Carpenter 1988, p. 44.
13. Sellick 1981, p. 6.
14. Sellick 1970, pp. 104–5.
15. Jones 2011, p. 399.
16. Scott-Morgan 1980, p. 10.
17. Sellick 1970, pp. 95-6 & Opposite p.65.
18. "The briquetting plant next to Washford station". West Somerset Mineral Railway Project.
19. Jones 2011, pp. 325–7, 330–1.
20. Sellick 1970, p. 76.
21. Leleux, Sydney A. "West Somerset Mineral Railway". The Industrial Railway Record. Industrial Railway Society. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
22. Madge (1975), pp. 63–64.
23. Dale 2001, p. 36.
24. Jones 2011, pp. 340–2.
25. Sellick 1970, p. 83.
26. Jones 2011, pp. 352–3.
27. Jones 2011, p. 370.
28. Sellick 1970, pp. 66-67 & 76-77.

Sources

• Carpenter, Roger (Winter 1988). Karau, Paul; Beale, Gerry (eds.). "Comberow Incline - West Somerset Mineral Railway". British Railway Journal. Didcot: Wild Swan Publications Ltd (20). ISSN   0265-4105.
• Dale, Peter (2001). Somerset's Lost Railways. Catrine: Stenlake Publishing. ISBN   978-1-84033-171-4.
• Jones, Michael H. (2011). The Brendon Hills Iron Mines and the West Somerset Mineral Railway. Lydney: Lightmoor Press. ISBN   978-1-899889-53-2. OCLC   795179029.
• Madge, Robin (1975) [1971]. "7: Watchet–Brendon Hill". Railways Round Exmoor. Dulverton: Exmoor Press. ISBN   978-0-900131-18-9.
• Oakley, Mike (2002). Somerset Railway Stations. Wimborne Minster: Dovecote Press. ISBN   978-1-904349-09-9.
• Quick, Michael (2009) [2001]. Railway passenger stations in Great Britain: a chronology (4th ed.). Oxford: Railway & Canal Historical Society. ISBN   978-0-901461-57-5. OCLC   612226077.
• Scott-Morgan, John (1980). British Independent Light Railways. Newton Abbot: David and Charles. ISBN   978-0-7153-7933-2.
• Sellick, Roger J. (1981) [1976]. The Old Mineral Line (2nd ed.). Dulverton: Exmoor Press. ISBN   978-1-84114-692-8.
• Sellick, Roger J. (1970) [1962]. The West Somerset Mineral Railway and the story of the Brendon Hills Iron Mines (2nd ed.). Newton Abbot: David and Charles. ISBN   978-0-7153-4961-8.
• Thomas, David St John (1966). Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: The West Country v. 1. Newton Abbot: David and Charles. ISBN   978-0-946537-17-4.

Further reading

• Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (1990). Branch Line to Minehead: Preservation Perfection. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN   978-0-906520-80-2.

External links

• "The station on a 1902 OS map with overlays". National Library of Scotland.
• "Line and features overlain on OS maps". Rail Map Online.
• "The station and its history". Disused Stations.
• "A walk on the West Somerset Mineral Railway". Friends of the West Somerset Railway.
• "West Somerset Mineral line inclines". Dr. Mark Hows.
• "West Somerset Mineral Railway". Industrial Railway Record.
• "West Somerset Mineral Railway". Exmoor National Park.
• "West Somerset Mineral Railway". Transport Trust.
• "West Somerset Mineral Railway". John Speller.
• "West Somerset Mineral Railway Project". Exmoor National Park.
• "West Somerset Mineral Railway Project". The Project itself.
• "West Somerset Mineral Railway". The Train Web.
• "West Somerset Mineral Line Association". The Association itself.