The
Salisbury and Yeovil Railway (S&YR) opened the final part of its line from on 1 June 1860. Near to
Bradford Abbas, it crossed over the
Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth line of the
Great Western Railway (GWR) on a bridge, then ran alongside it and the
Yeovil Branch Line of the
Bristol and Exeter Railway (B&ER) to reach that company's terminus at , on the west side of Yeovil. Just a few weeks later, on 19 July, the
London and South Western Railway (LSWR) opened its Yeovil and Exeter line. This left the S&YR at Bradford Abbas Junction and crossed over the GWR line to its own station at Yeovil Junction, and then continued on towards
Exeter Queen Street. The station was a junction because another line led back to join the S&YR at River Junction, so trains could run from Exeter direct to Hendford (the terminus was moved to a joint B&ER/LSWR
Yeovil Town railway station from 1 June 1861). The original eastwards connection from River Junction to Bradford Abbas was closed in 1870, after which most main line trains only called at Yeovil Junction where passengers could change onto a connecting train for the short journey to Yeovil Town. The LSWR operated all trains over the S&YR and bought the smaller company in 1878. The station at this time had two
platforms serving three tracks. The northern side was the track for trains to and London Waterloo; the middle track was covered by a
train shed and could be used from either platform and was for the trains to Yeovil Town; the southern track was for trains to Exeter. Goods traffic was handled on the north side of the main line and a
turntable was placed on the south side. On 13 June 1864, a new line was opened from the GWR up to a goods station at
Clifton Maybank adjacent to the LSWR station. The GWR was a
broad gauge line until 1874; broad and
standard gauge wagons could be brought alongside each other at Clifton Maybank to allow goods to be
transhipped between them. Yeovil was now in the middle of a single track section between Sherborne and . This soon proved a rationalisation too far and the double track was restored between Sherborne and Yeovil Junction on 1 October 1967, but all trains had to use the eastbound main line platform. A limited passenger service to Yeovil Pen Mill was reinstated in 2015, since when this has gradually increased in frequency. A permanent way depot was established in the old goods yard on the north side of the station in 1965. A small
Ruston and Hornsby four-wheel
diesel locomotive no. DS1169 was kept here for shunting until 1972. In 2001, the area was used by the Somerset and Dorset Locomotive Company as a depot for its fleet of hire locomotives, although this use has now ceased. The turntable has been retained on the south side of the line and is often used for turning the locomotives of steam-hauled excursions. This, and the Clifton Maybank site, has been the home of the
Yeovil Railway Centre since 1993. Signalling here is now supervised from the Basingstoke area signalling centre.
Accidents and incidents There have been a number of accidents at Yeovil Junction over the years, although most were minor with few injuries: • 20 September 1860: the rear coach of a Yeovil Junction to Hendford train derailed on the points leading onto the branch • October 1860: a goods train going towards Hendford collided with a passenger train coming the other way • 12 June 1886: a collision between a goods train and a passenger train to Yeovil Town, due to confusing signals. • 13 July 1887: a locomotive collided with the coaches to which it was going to couple, knocking them almost along the track and injuring nine passengers • 26 July 1887: an empty passenger carriage derailed while it was being added to a London train • 4 July 1914: a coupling of an eastbound goods train broke; the rear part collided with the front from Yeovil Junction, knocking the wooden upper storey off the West signal box • 20 August 1918: a collision between locomotives occurred, due to the signalman not following rules. ==Location==