Bristol and North Somerset Railway

Getting an act of Parliament for the line The Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway (WS&WR) was established in 1845 to build a network of lines, running from near Chippenham on the Great Western Railway (GWR) to Salisbury and Weymouth. At that time Radstock was the most important mining centre of the Somerset Coalfield, and the included in its plans a branch from near Frome to Radstock. The found raising money for its ambitious network difficult, and the company sold its lines, not all of which were complete, to the on 14 March 1850, confirmed by the Great Western Railway Act 1851 (14 & 15 Vict. c. xlviii) obtained on 3 July 1851. The opened the Radstock branch to mineral traffic only on 14 November 1854, built to broad gauge. As early as 1863 the board of the had resolved to create a standard gauge line from Bristol to Salisbury through the district, and there were numerous independent schemes to serve the important colliery sites north of Radstock, and link them to the city of Bristol. These schemes came to nothing until in September 1862 when promoters formed an agreement to make a line from Bristol, with connections to other lines there, to a junction with the newly formed Somerset and Dorset Railway near Bruton, running through the colliery areas of Pensford and Clutton, and with a branch to Camerton, where there were further collieries. It was to connect at Bristol with both broad gauge and narrow gauge lines, as well as having a tramway to the City Docks at the Floating Harbour. The proposal became a parliamentary bill, and the '''' (26 & 27 Vict. c. clxviii) received royal assent on 21 July 1863: it was to be called the Bristol and North Somerset Railway'', with capital of £275,000 and borrowing powers of £91,000. This appeared to serve the objective admirably; the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth had a branch to Radstock, and the network also served Salisbury; if the gauge of their Radstock branch were mixed, the desired through route to Salisbury would be created via Radstock at minimum cost. The Somerset and Dorset Railway (S&DR) was independent at this time, and the made overtures to that company about an alliance or merger. This seemed to be a more fruitful way forward, and parliamentary bills were deposited to authorise the merger, and a physical connection at Shepton Mallet, but in May 1866 it emerged that the had undertaken to route major traffic flows via the Bristol and Exeter Railway, with which it connected at Highbridge. This frustrated any advantage for the in merging, and its Bill was withdrawn. On getting the Bristol and North Somerset Railway Act 1870, the company sought offers from contractors and John Perry and Sons of Stratford quoted £90,000 to complete the line, and was awarded contracts. The intention was to open at least between Bristol and Pensford by the following spring of 1871. Further problems were encountered with the quality and rate of progress of the construction, but at length the line was ready for the Board of Trade inspection. Col. Rich visited the line on 2 September 1873. His report alluded to a great number of detail matters, but he approved the opening. In fact the entire Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth network, 131 miles of line, now property, was to be converted to standard gauge, triggered by the opening of the line. The standard gauge was ready for the first time on 22 June 1874. Poor financial results On 20 July 1874 the Somerset and Dorset Railway opened its Bath extension, passing through Radstock. Running through Midsomer Norton and Radstock from the south-west it crossed over the Bristol and North Somerset Railway (B&NSR) between the two places, paralleling the through Radstock itself. There were thus two adjacent level crossings in the centre of the town. The Bath extension exhausted the Somerset and Dorset Railway Company financially, and it leased its line to the Midland Railway and the London and South Western Railway jointly on 13 July 1876, and became known as the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. The opening of the line gave easy rail access to cheap Midlands coal which was now brought into the area. The Somerset coalfield had the limitation that the seams were narrow and had exceptionally high costs, which were now massively undercut. Miners' wages were reduced leading to industrial action, and local coal production declined. the had been absorbed by the in 1850, so that the entire line between Bristol and Frome via Radstock was in control and was operated as a single unit. ==Features==

The original stations were in most cases built to a standard but distinctive design by the architect William Clarke, featuring large canopies and three tall chimneys. The was one of the railways carried on the Midford viaducts (see photograph above). This had three levels: the traversed a river valley on a bridge which crossed by the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway which crossed the line and the river valley on an almost perpendicular course on a viaduct. The biggest civil engineering project on the line was the Pensford Viaduct over the River Chew. The viaduct is long, reaches a maximum height of to rail level and consists of sixteen arches and is now a Grade II listed structure. Until 1966 there was no running connection between the North Somerset route and the Somerset and Dorset line; occasional wagon exchange took place through Ludlow Pit private siding; the owner charged 1s 0d per wagon exchanged in this way. Topography The line was single throughout. The line left the Bristol to Bath main line at North Somerset Junction, a little east of station. An east curve was later built giving access towards Bath, in connection with the enhanced goods facilities at East Depot in 1892. This line trailed in at Marsh Junction, where the Bristol Relief line immediately diverged, towards Pylle Hill. Passenger stations on the line were then: • • , opened 1925 • • • ; the Camerton line trailed in • , opened 1927 • Welton; renamed Welton and Midsomer Norton in 1898, and renamed Midsomer Norton and Welton in 1904 • Radstock; renamed Radstock West in 1949 • On the Camerton line from Hallatrow, the passenger stations were: • Paulton Halt, opened 1914 • Radford and Timsbury Halt, opened 1910 • Camerton • Dunkerton Colliery Halt, opened 1911 • Dunkerton • Combe Hay Halt • Midford Halt, opened 1911 • Monkton Combe, opened 1910 The line joined the Bathampton to Bradford on Avon line at Limpley Stoke. The main line was steeply graded; leaving Marsh Junction it climbed at 1 in 62 to Brislington station, continuing at 1 in 60 to Whitchurch, a single platform halt, continuing to climb to the bridge for the Norton Malreward road. The line then fell at 1 in 66 to Pensford, where there was a sixteen arch viaduct. The line then climbed again, passing Pensford Pit; reaching another summit it fell at 1 in 169, and then 1 in 71 towards Clutton, first passing sidings that accessed a siding serving Fry's Bottom Pit. The sidings at Clutton handled coal from Greyfield Pit. The line now fell at 1 in 58 to Hallatrow, where the Camerton line trailed in. There was a short bay platform for Camerton branch passenger trains. Rising again, the line climbed at 1 in 65 and then fell again to Farrington Gurney Halt, where passengers obtained tickets at the Miner's Arms public house. Farrington Pit was alongside. Continuing to fall, the line reached Midsomer Norton and Welton passenger station and finally Radstock, later named Radstock West. ==Services==

The passenger service was typical for a rural railway; in 1884 there were five passenger trains in each direction. By 1910, there were eight trains a day on Thursdays and Saturdays, fewer on other weekdays, and not all of those ran through to or from Frome. On 28 December 1946 the dirt batch at Pensford Pit slipped, burying and blocking the line; it was closed there for three months, with passenger operation from Bristol to Pensford and from Clutton to Frome. In the 1950s new and efficient bus services were introduced in the greater Bristol area; there had been good business from passengers travelling to work in Bristol, and the bus services hit passenger carryings on the line. In September 1958 the passenger service on the line was halved. Nonetheless, the line was stated to be losing £18,542 annually, and the last passenger train ran on 31 October 1959. ==Later events==

The line crossed the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway at Radstock, and when that line closed to all traffic on 6 March 1966, there was a need to continue to serve a colliery at Writhlington, a little east of Radstock. As the Bristol and North Somerset line was still open for mineral traffic, a connection between the two lines was formed at Radstock, and for a period Writhlington was served in that way. Somerset coal continued to be transported to the Bristol area, although not in the former volumes, until the embankment near Pensford was washed out in the summer of 1968. It was considered uneconomic to reinstate it, but the former line to Frome was intact, although it had been dormant since April 1966. Accordingly, the line to Frome was re-opened and Somerset coal ran to Bristol via Frome. The Bristol and North Somerset line was finally closed north of the washout site to Marsh Junction, Bristol. Nonetheless, the coalfield was in terminal decline, and the last pit closed in 1973; the final revenue movement of coal on the line was on 16 November 1973. There was an independent wagon repair activity at Radstock, and that continued to be rail served for a time. ==The Camerton branch==

The Camerton branch had been authorised by the original act of Parliament for the Bristol and North Somerset Railway, but not proceeded with by the impecunious company. Coal had been extracted for some time at Camerton – the Camerton New Colliery had been opened in 1800 – and in the 1873 session of Parliament the received authority to build the branch; the '''''' (36 & 37 Vict. c. clxviii) was passed on 21 July with capital of £40,000; the was permitted to fund the construction. The development of this scheme for a relatively short branch line seems to have been ill-prepared. Only after the passage of the act of Parliament was Clarke, the company's engineer, told to prepare detailed estimates for the construction. At a board meeting on 30 June 1875 was it decided to start negotiations with the Somerset Coal Canal Company to get permission to cross its canal. On 24 October 1875 the accepted a tender for the construction from W. Monsley in the sum of £19,000. Evidently the had persuaded the to handle the management of the work. In October 1880 and again on 21 May 1881 Major-General Hutchinson performed the formal inspection of the line and, with some comments, approved the line for opening. The construction had cost £42,214. It appears that the had funded the construction on the basis of a promise of reimbursement by the , for Vincent records that "a special meeting was held of the North Somerset's board of directors on 31 March 1882 which then allowed the company to raise the Camerton branch capital". Although authorised for opening in 1881, no colliery company applied for a siding connection, and for a period the line remained in suspense. In fact it opened for passengers and goods and mineral traffic on 1 March 1882. The line was three miles long and very steeply graded, falling at 1 in 47 from Hallatrow, that is, against the loaded direction. Train loads were limited to fifteen wagons. The opening of the branch hit the Somerset Coal Canal hard, and by 1898 it was derelict. In 1903 the purchased the canal for £2,000, and extended the Camerton branch along the canal alignment to Limpley Stoke, there forming a junction with the GWR line from Bath to Trowbridge. The first section, about a mile in length from Camerton, reached Dunkerton Pit, and was opened on 26 August 1908, and the remainder on 9 May 1910. From that time most of the coal was routed via Freshford sidings. A passenger service was operated on the Camerton branch from the time of opening as a through line; but despite serving mining communities, there was little business. Attempts to run an economic service with railmotors were made, but the passenger service was discontinued during the First World War, ceasing on 22 March 1915. It was restored in the summer of 1923 (on 9 July) as an experimental service, omitting Midford Halt, but was finally abandoned on 21 September 1925. Goods services on the section from Hallatrow to Camerton ceased on the same day; the track was lifted on this section about 1930. Goods and mineral traffic continued, accessed at the Limpley Stoke end only, but that finally closed too on 15 February 1951 and the track was taken up in 1958. The Titfield Thunderbolt viaduct at Midford The Camerton line achieved some fame after closure. The Ealing Studios film, The Titfield Thunderbolt, was shot in 1952 using the line. The plot of the film involved a rural line being closed to passengers by British Railways, so local people club together and, against all the odds, run their own passenger service. ==Future potential reopening==

Numerous proposals have been made to reopen the railway line in some form, most involving the still-existing branch line from Frome to Radstock. A consultation report produced by Halcrow Group in 2014 outlines the feasibility reinstating service on that branch which was estimated to cost £40 million in 2013. Furthermore, the possibility of opening a heritage railway line has been discussed. The former line through Bristol via Brislington and Whitchurch has been described by pressure group Transport for Greater Bristol as 'technically feasible' but would require a large land acquisition budget due to most of the old route being built over. In January 2019, Campaign for Better Transport released a report identifying the line from Frome to Radstock as Priority 2 for reopening. Priority 2 is for those lines which require further development or a change in circumstances (such as housing developments). ==Notes==