Salisbury and Yeovil Railway
Encyclopedia
The Salisbury and Yeovil Railway linked Salisbury (Wiltshire
), Gillingham
(Dorset
) and Yeovil
(Somerset
) in England. Opened in stages in 1859 and 1860, it formed a bridge route between the main London and South Western Railway
(LSWR) network and its lines in Devon
and Cornwall
. Its trains were operated by the LSWR and it was sold to that company in 1878. Apart from a short section in Yeovil it remains open and carries the London Waterloo to Exeter
service of South West Trains
.
Despite being founded after the "Railway Mania
" of the 1840s, it proved to be one of the most profitable railways in the United Kingdom. This was in part due to carrying all LSWR trains to the south west, and in part due to the very good terms agreed for the LSWR to operate the trains. When the company finally sold out to the LSWR in 1878, it held out for a price which saw the shareholder
s receive more than the face value of their shares.
in 1840 and a branch line was opened in 1848 from Bishopstoke
to Milford station in Salisbury. Within a few years efforts started on work on extend from Southampton to Dorchester
. A great debate then started within the LSWR about whether to extend further west through Salisbury (the shorter "central route" or through Dorchester (the more populous "coastal route"). The rival Great Western Railway
(GWR) was supporting the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway
as an alternative route to Dorchester, which was to be built from the north through Yeovil
. It also proposed a connecting line from Yeovil to Exeter which would have been in direct competition with either of the two proposed LSWR routes. Both companies applied for powers to construct new lines in 1846; the LSWR for a line from Basingstoke to Yeovil and both companies for different lines from Yeovil to Exeter. Neither was approved and so new applications were made in 1847, and after a mammoth 50 day hearing it was decided that the LSWR scheme was the better. Both their lines received their Act of Parliament
on 22 July 1848.
The large number of new railway schemes approved at that time caused an economic depression; it proved difficult to raise the money needed for the work and so the powers lapsed. Three years later an independent company tried to raise the money for a Salisbury to Exeter line and the LSWR agreed to take up half the shares, guarantee a 4% return on the shareholders' investment, and operate the trains. However a large faction in the LSWR now preferred the coastal route that could utilise the already constructed line to Dorchester, while still others opposed westward extension by any route. Another independent company now put forward their own proposals for a Salisbury and Yeovil Railway, and they were rewarded by an Act of Parliament on 7 August 1854.
The LSWR now applied for powers for a direct line from near to Salisbury. This had been proposed in the 1830s, authorised in 1846 but, like the original Salisbury and Yeovil line, had not been constructed. To get these renewed powers the company was forced by Parliament to commit to building the Yeovil to Exeter extension, and so the nominally independent Salisbury and Yeovil would link two otherwise isolated sections of the LSWR. The LSWR therefore agreed to subscribe to the shares, and to work the trains in return for 42½% of the receipts.
The line opened in three stages. From a new Fisherton station
in Salisbury to Gillingham
on 1 May 1859; from there to on 7 May 1860, and finally to Yeovil on 1 June 1860. It used the Bristol and Exeter Railway
’s station until a new joint Yeovil Town railway station
was opened on 1 June 1861. In the meantime, the LSWR’s line from Bradford Abbas
Junction to Exeter Queen Street
had opened on 19 July 1860. Although initially just a single track with passing loop
s at stations, work started in 1861 to double 2.5 miles (4 km) westwards from Salisbury, and 4 miles (6.4 km) east from . The whole route was doubled within ten years.
In 1861 the Dorset Central Railway arrived at . The station for this line was at a lower level than the S&YR but a junction was established to allow traffic to be exchanged. This was a rather unusual arrangement that entailed Dorset trains reversing into the S&YR station on a line alongside the main line. This space was needed for doubling the Salisbury line in 1870 so a new Templecombe Junction Railway was built by the S&YR that allowed trains from the north to run directly into the main line station. In 1874 the lower line, by now the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway
and part-owned by the LSWR, was extended to where a connection was made with the Midland Railway
. This brought even more traffic onto the S&YR in the form of goods and passengers from the North to the LSWR.
Bradford Abbas Junction was closed on 1 January 1870, after which time all trains to Yeovil had to run via . In January 1878 the company was sold to the LSWR.
The capital
of the railway was divided into £100 shares
. An agreement was made with the LSWR, under which that company would provide the locomotives and stock required and operate the trains for 42.5% of the gross receipts. After twenty years this would be converted into a lease at a fixed price to be set once the traffic levels and costs had been determined. The 57.5% remaining with the S&YR was to pay the capital costs including a dividend to the shareholders. This was paid in two annual instalments and was never less than 4.25% per annum; in the last five years it was in excess of 8% (see table, right). The LSWR itself owned 10,000 of the shares; it nominated two directors
but had no voting powers at shareholders meetings.
The line cost £500,758 (£ as of ), to construct and when it was completed the LSWR had an option to purchase it for £567,000. In 1872 they offered to exchange £100 of S&YR shares for LSWR preference shares with a market value of £170 which would pay £7 10s (£7.50) dividend; the S&YR shareholders turned this down. In January 1878 they accepted a new offer of £250 of LSWR preference shares. A shareholder
who bought a single £100 share at face value when issued and retained it until 1878 would have received £120 5s in dividends. Once it had been exchanged for LSWR shares they could be sold for £347 16s or retained to bring an annual income of £13 in dividends. This has caused modern historians to describe the company as the most successful of all railways in Southern England.
The railway’s engineer was Joseph Locke
. Once an assistant to Robert Stephenson
, he served as engineer to the LSWR until 1849 but left them as he preferred the central route to Exeter rather than the coastal one proposed at the time. Stations were designed by William Tite
. The actual construction of the line was contracted to Thomas Brassey
, although he sub-contracted the actual work to other people.
, which opened on the same day in 1859 as the line to Gillingham
and was next door to the existing GWR station. The line ran north-westwards close to the GWR’s Salisbury Branch Line almost the whole 2.6 miles (4.2 km) to the first station, Wilton
. Here the S&YR turned west towards (8.4 mi (13.5 km) from Salisbury). The next stations were at (12.6 mi (20.3 km)) and then (17.6 mi (28.3 km)), the station for Shaftesbury
. To get to here, the summit of the line 260 feet (79.2 m) above Salisbury, it had been climbing steadily, mostly at gentle gradients and nowhere steeper than 1 in 120 (0.8%), but from Semley the line dropped down at grades as steep as 1 in 100 (1%) to Gillingham (21.7 mi (34.9 km)).
The line then climbed on similar grades for 2.5 mi (4 km) up to Buckhorn Weston Tunnel. This was 742 yards (678.5 m) long, the only tunnel between Salisbury and Yeovil. It proved difficult to construct, with many problems due to water and soft ground.
The line drops steeply for a couple of miles, followed by a brief level section in the Blackmoor Vale. The junction with the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway
at (28.5 mi (45.9 km)) was mid-way up the next climb, which ended shortly before station (30.9 mi (49.7 km)). Apart from one short climb approaching Yeovil, it was now downhill all the way and the steepest gradient on the line is found here, dropping down to (34.5 mi (55.5 km)) at 1 in 80 (1.25%).
At Bradford Abbas (38.5 mi (62 km)) the Yeovil line parted company with the LSWR main line to Exeter, swinging north-westward to cross over the GWR’s Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth line
on a bridge, then dropping down alongside this before heading west to the terminus (40 miles (64.4 km)). For the first year, until the Town station was completed, the railway continued alongside the Yeovil Branch Line of the Bristol and Exeter Railway
to reach that company’s station. This track was retained for goods traffic even after the passenger traffic at Hendford had transferred to Yeovil Town.
' hourly services from London Waterloo to .The section from Wiliton to Templecombe has reverted to single track with passing loops at Tisbury and Gillingham. Of the original eight stations (excluding Salisbury), only those at Tisbury, Gillingham, Templecombe, and Sherborne remain open. Templecombe was closed from 1966 to 1983 and nothing remains of the original station.
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
), Gillingham
Gillingham, Dorset
Gillingham is a town in the Blackmore Vale area of Dorset, England. The town is the most northerly in the county. It is 3 miles south of the A303 lying on the B3092 and B3081. It is near to the town of Shaftesbury which lies 7 miles to the south east. Neighbouring hamlets included Peacemarsh, Bay...
(Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
) and Yeovil
Yeovil
Yeovil is a town and civil parish in south Somerset, England. The parish had a population of 27,949 at the 2001 census, although the wider urban area had a population of 42,140...
(Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
) in England. Opened in stages in 1859 and 1860, it formed a bridge route between the main London and South Western Railway
London and South Western Railway
The London and South Western Railway was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Its network extended from London to Plymouth via Salisbury and Exeter, with branches to Ilfracombe and Padstow and via Southampton to Bournemouth and Weymouth. It also had many routes connecting towns in...
(LSWR) network and its lines in Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
and Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
. Its trains were operated by the LSWR and it was sold to that company in 1878. Apart from a short section in Yeovil it remains open and carries the London Waterloo to Exeter
West of England Main Line
The West of England Main Line is a British railway line that runs from , Hampshire to Exeter St Davids in Devon, England. Passenger services run between London Waterloo station and Exeter...
service of South West Trains
South West Trains
South West Trains is a British train operating company providing, under franchise, passenger rail services, mostly out of Waterloo station, to the southwest of London in the suburbs and in the counties of Surrey, Hampshire, Dorset, Devon, Somerset, Berkshire, and Wiltshire and on the Isle of Wight...
.
Despite being founded after the "Railway Mania
Railway Mania
The Railway Mania was an instance of speculative frenzy in Britain in the 1840s. It followed a common pattern: as the price of railway shares increased, more and more money was poured in by speculators, until the inevitable collapse...
" of the 1840s, it proved to be one of the most profitable railways in the United Kingdom. This was in part due to carrying all LSWR trains to the south west, and in part due to the very good terms agreed for the LSWR to operate the trains. When the company finally sold out to the LSWR in 1878, it held out for a price which saw the shareholder
Shareholder
A shareholder or stockholder is an individual or institution that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a public or private corporation. Shareholders own the stock, but not the corporation itself ....
s receive more than the face value of their shares.
History
The LSWR was completed to SouthamptonSouthampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
in 1840 and a branch line was opened in 1848 from Bishopstoke
Eastleigh railway station
Eastleigh railway station serves the town of Eastleigh in the county of Hampshire in England. It is located on the South Western Main Line and is the junction station for two other routes, the Eastleigh-Fareham Line and the Eastleigh-Romsey Line...
to Milford station in Salisbury. Within a few years efforts started on work on extend from Southampton to Dorchester
Dorchester South railway station
Dorchester South railway station is one of two railway stations serving the town of Dorchester in Dorset. The station is located on the London Waterloo–Weymouth main line.- History :...
. A great debate then started within the LSWR about whether to extend further west through Salisbury (the shorter "central route" or through Dorchester (the more populous "coastal route"). The rival Great Western Railway
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
(GWR) was supporting the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway
Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway
The Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway was a broad gauge railway that linked the Great Western Railway at Chippenham in 'Wilts' with Weymouth in Dorset, England. Branches ran to Devizes, Bradford-on-Avon and Salisbury in Wiltshire, and to Radstock in Somerset. The majority of the line survives...
as an alternative route to Dorchester, which was to be built from the north through Yeovil
Yeovil
Yeovil is a town and civil parish in south Somerset, England. The parish had a population of 27,949 at the 2001 census, although the wider urban area had a population of 42,140...
. It also proposed a connecting line from Yeovil to Exeter which would have been in direct competition with either of the two proposed LSWR routes. Both companies applied for powers to construct new lines in 1846; the LSWR for a line from Basingstoke to Yeovil and both companies for different lines from Yeovil to Exeter. Neither was approved and so new applications were made in 1847, and after a mammoth 50 day hearing it was decided that the LSWR scheme was the better. Both their lines received their Act of Parliament
Act of Parliament
An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...
on 22 July 1848.
The large number of new railway schemes approved at that time caused an economic depression; it proved difficult to raise the money needed for the work and so the powers lapsed. Three years later an independent company tried to raise the money for a Salisbury to Exeter line and the LSWR agreed to take up half the shares, guarantee a 4% return on the shareholders' investment, and operate the trains. However a large faction in the LSWR now preferred the coastal route that could utilise the already constructed line to Dorchester, while still others opposed westward extension by any route. Another independent company now put forward their own proposals for a Salisbury and Yeovil Railway, and they were rewarded by an Act of Parliament on 7 August 1854.
The LSWR now applied for powers for a direct line from near to Salisbury. This had been proposed in the 1830s, authorised in 1846 but, like the original Salisbury and Yeovil line, had not been constructed. To get these renewed powers the company was forced by Parliament to commit to building the Yeovil to Exeter extension, and so the nominally independent Salisbury and Yeovil would link two otherwise isolated sections of the LSWR. The LSWR therefore agreed to subscribe to the shares, and to work the trains in return for 42½% of the receipts.
The line opened in three stages. From a new Fisherton station
Salisbury railway station
Salisbury is a railway station serving the city of Salisbury, Wiltshire. Located southwest of London Waterloo, the station is the crossing point of the West of England Main Line and the Wessex Main Line...
in Salisbury to Gillingham
Gillingham (Dorset) railway station
Gillingham railway station is in Gillingham in Dorset England. It opened in 1859 on the London Waterloo to Exeter line from London, and is managed by South West Trains.-History:...
on 1 May 1859; from there to on 7 May 1860, and finally to Yeovil on 1 June 1860. It used the Bristol and Exeter Railway
Bristol and Exeter Railway
The Bristol & Exeter Railway was a railway company formed to connect Bristol and Exeter.The company's head office was situated outside their Bristol station...
’s station until a new joint Yeovil Town railway station
Yeovil Town railway station
Yeovil Town railway station was a railway station serving the town of Yeovil in Somerset, England. The station was located on the Yeovil to Taunton Line and also had shuttle services to Pen Mill and Yeovil Junction stations. The station opened on 1 June 1861, replacing an earlier Yeovil Hendford...
was opened on 1 June 1861. In the meantime, the LSWR’s line from Bradford Abbas
Bradford Abbas
Bradford Abbas is a village in north west Dorset, England, three miles south east of Yeovil and five miles south west of Sherborne. The village has a population of 936...
Junction to Exeter Queen Street
Exeter Central railway station
Exeter Central railway station is the most centrally located of the railway stations in Exeter, Devon, England. It is smaller than St Davids which is on the west side of the city but it is served by trains on the London Waterloo to Exeter main line, and is also by local services to , and . From...
had opened on 19 July 1860. Although initially just a single track with passing loop
Passing loop
A passing loop is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at a station, where trains or trams in opposing directions can pass each other. Trains/trams in the same direction can also overtake, providing that the signalling arrangement allows it...
s at stations, work started in 1861 to double 2.5 miles (4 km) westwards from Salisbury, and 4 miles (6.4 km) east from . The whole route was doubled within ten years.
In 1861 the Dorset Central Railway arrived at . The station for this line was at a lower level than the S&YR but a junction was established to allow traffic to be exchanged. This was a rather unusual arrangement that entailed Dorset trains reversing into the S&YR station on a line alongside the main line. This space was needed for doubling the Salisbury line in 1870 so a new Templecombe Junction Railway was built by the S&YR that allowed trains from the north to run directly into the main line station. In 1874 the lower line, by now the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway
Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway
The Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway – almost always referred to as "the S&D" – was an English railway line connecting Bath in north east Somerset and Bournemouth now in south east Dorset but then in Hampshire...
and part-owned by the LSWR, was extended to where a connection was made with the Midland Railway
Midland Railway
The Midland Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 to 1922, when it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway....
. This brought even more traffic onto the S&YR in the form of goods and passengers from the North to the LSWR.
Bradford Abbas Junction was closed on 1 January 1870, after which time all trains to Yeovil had to run via . In January 1878 the company was sold to the LSWR.
Finances
| Year | Dividend |
|---|---|
| 1861 | 4.375% |
| 1862 | 4.25% |
| 1863 | 4.625% |
| 1864 | 5.00% |
| 1865 | 5.25% |
| 1866 | 6.50% |
| 1867 | 6.50% |
| 1868 | 6.25% |
| 1869 | 6.25% |
| 1870 | 6.25% |
| 1871 | 6.75% |
| 1872 | 7.25% |
| 1873 | 8.75% |
| 1874 | 8.75% |
| 1875 | 9.75% |
| 1876 | 11.25% |
| 1877 | 12.50% |
The capital
Financial capital
Financial capital can refer to money used by entrepreneurs and businesses to buy what they need to make their products or provide their services or to that sector of the economy based on its operation, i.e. retail, corporate, investment banking, etc....
of the railway was divided into £100 shares
Share (finance)
A joint stock company divides its capital into units of equal denomination. Each unit is called a share. These units are offered for sale to raise capital. This is termed as issuing shares. A person who buys share/shares of the company is called a shareholder, and by acquiring share or shares in...
. An agreement was made with the LSWR, under which that company would provide the locomotives and stock required and operate the trains for 42.5% of the gross receipts. After twenty years this would be converted into a lease at a fixed price to be set once the traffic levels and costs had been determined. The 57.5% remaining with the S&YR was to pay the capital costs including a dividend to the shareholders. This was paid in two annual instalments and was never less than 4.25% per annum; in the last five years it was in excess of 8% (see table, right). The LSWR itself owned 10,000 of the shares; it nominated two directors
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
but had no voting powers at shareholders meetings.
The line cost £500,758 (£ as of ), to construct and when it was completed the LSWR had an option to purchase it for £567,000. In 1872 they offered to exchange £100 of S&YR shares for LSWR preference shares with a market value of £170 which would pay £7 10s (£7.50) dividend; the S&YR shareholders turned this down. In January 1878 they accepted a new offer of £250 of LSWR preference shares. A shareholder
Shareholder
A shareholder or stockholder is an individual or institution that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a public or private corporation. Shareholders own the stock, but not the corporation itself ....
who bought a single £100 share at face value when issued and retained it until 1878 would have received £120 5s in dividends. Once it had been exchanged for LSWR shares they could be sold for £347 16s or retained to bring an annual income of £13 in dividends. This has caused modern historians to describe the company as the most successful of all railways in Southern England.
Key personnel
The chairman of the company was Henry Dandy Seymour. He died in 1877 and was succeeded by John Chapman. The secretary was Mr H Notman, who held the second largest block of voting shares. Another notable shareholder was Louis H Ruegg, who persuaded his fellow shareholders to reject the LSWR buy-out offer of 1872. He was a local journalist and published a history of the company in 1878.The railway’s engineer was Joseph Locke
Joseph Locke
Joseph Locke was a notable English civil engineer of the 19th century, particularly associated with railway projects...
. Once an assistant to Robert Stephenson
Robert Stephenson
Robert Stephenson FRS was an English civil engineer. He was the only son of George Stephenson, the famed locomotive builder and railway engineer; many of the achievements popularly credited to his father were actually the joint efforts of father and son.-Early life :He was born on the 16th of...
, he served as engineer to the LSWR until 1849 but left them as he preferred the central route to Exeter rather than the coastal one proposed at the time. Stations were designed by William Tite
William Tite
Sir William Tite, CB was an English architect who served as President of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He was particularly associated with various London buildings, with railway stations and cemetery projects....
. The actual construction of the line was contracted to Thomas Brassey
Thomas Brassey
Thomas Brassey was an English civil engineering contractor and manufacturer of building materials who was responsible for building much of the world's railways in the 19th century. By 1847, he had built about one-third of the railways in Britain, and by time of his death in 1870 he had built one...
, although he sub-contracted the actual work to other people.
Route
The railway made an end-on junction with the LSWR at its new Salisbury railway stationSalisbury railway station
Salisbury is a railway station serving the city of Salisbury, Wiltshire. Located southwest of London Waterloo, the station is the crossing point of the West of England Main Line and the Wessex Main Line...
, which opened on the same day in 1859 as the line to Gillingham
Gillingham (Dorset) railway station
Gillingham railway station is in Gillingham in Dorset England. It opened in 1859 on the London Waterloo to Exeter line from London, and is managed by South West Trains.-History:...
and was next door to the existing GWR station. The line ran north-westwards close to the GWR’s Salisbury Branch Line almost the whole 2.6 miles (4.2 km) to the first station, Wilton
Wilton South railway station
Wilton South railway station is a disused railway station which formerly served Wilton in Wiltshire, England. It was situated on the West of England Main Line from London Waterloo station to Exeter and close to the Great Western Railway’s Wilton station on its Salisbury branch from .It was opened...
. Here the S&YR turned west towards (8.4 mi (13.5 km) from Salisbury). The next stations were at (12.6 mi (20.3 km)) and then (17.6 mi (28.3 km)), the station for Shaftesbury
Shaftesbury
Shaftesbury is a town in Dorset, England, situated on the A30 road near the Wiltshire border 20 miles west of Salisbury. The town is built 718 feet above sea level on the side of a chalk and greensand hill, which is part of Cranborne Chase, the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset...
. To get to here, the summit of the line 260 feet (79.2 m) above Salisbury, it had been climbing steadily, mostly at gentle gradients and nowhere steeper than 1 in 120 (0.8%), but from Semley the line dropped down at grades as steep as 1 in 100 (1%) to Gillingham (21.7 mi (34.9 km)).
The line then climbed on similar grades for 2.5 mi (4 km) up to Buckhorn Weston Tunnel. This was 742 yards (678.5 m) long, the only tunnel between Salisbury and Yeovil. It proved difficult to construct, with many problems due to water and soft ground.
The line drops steeply for a couple of miles, followed by a brief level section in the Blackmoor Vale. The junction with the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway
Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway
The Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway – almost always referred to as "the S&D" – was an English railway line connecting Bath in north east Somerset and Bournemouth now in south east Dorset but then in Hampshire...
at (28.5 mi (45.9 km)) was mid-way up the next climb, which ended shortly before station (30.9 mi (49.7 km)). Apart from one short climb approaching Yeovil, it was now downhill all the way and the steepest gradient on the line is found here, dropping down to (34.5 mi (55.5 km)) at 1 in 80 (1.25%).
At Bradford Abbas (38.5 mi (62 km)) the Yeovil line parted company with the LSWR main line to Exeter, swinging north-westward to cross over the GWR’s Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth line
Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway
The Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway was a broad gauge railway that linked the Great Western Railway at Chippenham in 'Wilts' with Weymouth in Dorset, England. Branches ran to Devizes, Bradford-on-Avon and Salisbury in Wiltshire, and to Radstock in Somerset. The majority of the line survives...
on a bridge, then dropping down alongside this before heading west to the terminus (40 miles (64.4 km)). For the first year, until the Town station was completed, the railway continued alongside the Yeovil Branch Line of the Bristol and Exeter Railway
Bristol and Exeter Railway
The Bristol & Exeter Railway was a railway company formed to connect Bristol and Exeter.The company's head office was situated outside their Bristol station...
to reach that company’s station. This track was retained for goods traffic even after the passenger traffic at Hendford had transferred to Yeovil Town.
Surviving features
Most of the line remains open and carries South West TrainsSouth West Trains
South West Trains is a British train operating company providing, under franchise, passenger rail services, mostly out of Waterloo station, to the southwest of London in the suburbs and in the counties of Surrey, Hampshire, Dorset, Devon, Somerset, Berkshire, and Wiltshire and on the Isle of Wight...
' hourly services from London Waterloo to .The section from Wiliton to Templecombe has reverted to single track with passing loops at Tisbury and Gillingham. Of the original eight stations (excluding Salisbury), only those at Tisbury, Gillingham, Templecombe, and Sherborne remain open. Templecombe was closed from 1966 to 1983 and nothing remains of the original station.