On the 24 th March 1997, EWS (English Welsh and Scottish Railways) began to operate one of their largest 'short term' flows through Taunton. This unique service was to originate from the Mendip Quarries (Merehead and Whatley) and deliver in excess of 105,000 tonnes of stone to Minehead for use in the 'Sea Defence' scheme. The sheer size of the task undertaken on the sea defences required large amounts of hard wearing, non-porous rock to prevent further breeches of the sea wall in future years, by the often violent winter storms which batter this coast each year.
The West Somerset Railway played a key role in delivering this large quantity of rock to Minehead. Both Whatley (ARC) and Merehead (Yeoman) Quarries had rail hubs used for the loading and delivering stone all over the country on a daily basis. With this contract, the WSR were able to provide the missing rail link, making it possible to keep a potential 4250 lorry loads of stone off Somerset's roads in particular the twisting A358 between Taunton and Minehead.
The working, known as the 'Minehead Stones', was operated mainly by a single EWS 'heavyweight' Class 37 hauling a rake of open 'Turbot' wagons which had been specially refurbished for the service. Much of the stone carried we boulders although some smaller material was also carried in mineral wagons as required. The large rocks were unloaded on specially cleared land near Minehead Station. This job fell to a mechanical grab which stock piled the stone into various grades and sizes, before then loading it into lorries for the short trip to the sea front.
Initially, the service from either quarry operated on an 'as required' basis depending on the daily demand for the stone. A few weeks into the contract, the train operated on a daily basis and, very occasionally two loaded trains arrived on the Branch on the same day. Average tonnages delivered each day varied between 500 and 1050 tonnes.
The services operated between two separate periods – 24th March – 17th December 1997 and 6 th January to 16th June 1998. The first train onto the Branch was hauled by 37711. A total of 48 different Class 37s visited the Branch together with two Class 47s and two Class 33s (which appeared double-headed on 1 st October 1997). Heritage traction also played its part when, for example, D1010 'Western Campaigner' took the opportunity to pilot the train from Bishops Lydeard on 27 th March 1998 and steam locos 1450 and 4160 were also used to pilot trains along the branch. Full details of all the locomotives that worked a loaded stone train and other running information are shown in the
WSR LOG.
The last loaded train ran on 16 th June 1998 hauled by 37264 carrying a small commemorative headboard. In total, the WSR handled 239 loaded trains (and also a corresponding number of empty workings back off the Branch). This is a remarkable success story and much credit goes to all involved particularly when Stone trains were running on the Branch as well as normal passenger services and also during the winter months of 1997.