Yeovil Pen Mill to Taunton (via Martock)

[30907]

It is indeed a bit surprising for anyone who knows Weymouth is aware that the No 1 source of all the holiday traffic is Bristol, and a fair amount of the business/commercial links, like major lawyers etc, are likewise. Notably more so than Southampton.

Bristol to Frome via the old Radstock line is 17 miles, it's not far, but going round by Trowbridge is double that, 34 miles. What a shame the old line was abandoned so early.

Though apart from the one connection off the boat train mentioned by HowardGWR the GW chose not to use it for through passenger traffic. Steep gradients and low speeds meant it wasn't much faster and it didn't have any major intermediate traffic centres.

 

[HowardGWR]

Yes Weymouth from Bristol was the same as Blackpool was (is?) to Bristolians. I am a Bristolian, but my father would never go there, as he said it was like being back at work at BAC Filton if one walked along the promenade! It was the automatic choice for church choir outings, whether by charabanc or rail. I would like to have gone via Martock as one would have had a fast run to Taunton and then a very pleasant run across to Yeovil Town and then, if there had been a connection, down to Weymouth. Was the WW2 connection in both directions (Yeovil Town to Weymouth or Pen Mill to Junction)? I don't have the R.A.Cooke track maps for Yeovil.

 

[30907]

The WW2 connection is the one that survives - Pen Mill to Junction.

 

[Taunton]

At Yeovil the trains from Taunton generally ran through Town to Pen Mill, and connected (sort of) with the Weymouth trains there. This was also the route taken by Sunday excursions which ran right through.

I, too, have chanced across several Bristolians (the inhabitants, not the onetime named train) on that seafront at Weymouth, If you wonder why they go to the sea there you only have to go to Severn Beach. Just the once ...

 

[Cowley]

At Yeovil the trains from Taunton generally ran through Town to Pen Mill, and connected (sort of) with the Weymouth trains there. This was also the route taken by Sunday excursions which ran right through.

I, too, have chanced across several Bristolians (the inhabitants, not the onetime named train) on that seafront at Weymouth, If you wonder why they go to the sea there you only have to go to Severn Beach. Just the once ...

Severn Beach is pretty grim, but the north coast of Somerset is quite pleasant and many Bristolians would have headed there I assume?

 

[Dai Corner]

Severn Beach is pretty grim, but the north coast of Somerset is quite pleasant and many Bristolians would have headed there I assume?

I'm not sure Somerset has a north coast, but the coast of North Somerset was popular with Bristolians and Brummies when I lived there. Coach trips to Weymouth were popular with locals wanting a change.

The GWR had big ambitions for Severn Beach as a destination and built a station worthy of a holiday resort rather than a small village. It's now more of a commuter town for Bristol.

 

[Calthrop]

...the coast of North Somerset was popular with Bristolians and Brummies when I lived there.

Hasn't Weston-Super-Mare been, at least at one time, also a popular holiday venue for people from South Wales -- English and exotic enough to be interesting, but also comfortingly close to home: one can see Wales from Weston and vice versa, isn't that so?

 

[Dai Corner]

Hasn't Weston-Super-Mare been, at least at one time, also a popular holiday venue for people from South Wales -- English and exotic enough to be interesting, but also comfortingly close to home: one can see Wales from Weston and vice versa, isn't that so?

Quite possibly. You can certainly see across the Bristol Channel. There were also day trips by steamer.

Bur we're getting rather off-topic now!

 

[HowardGWR]

At Yeovil the trains from Taunton generally ran through Town to Pen Mill, and connected (sort of) with the Weymouth trains there. This was also the route taken by Sunday excursions which ran right through.

I, too, have chanced across several Bristolians (the inhabitants, not the onetime named train) on that seafront at Weymouth, If you wonder why they go to the sea there you only have to go to Severn Beach. Just the once ...

My emphasis. Just to be 100% certain. There was no possibility (either pre- or post-WW2) of going direct to Dorchester line from Yeovil Town was there? So 'right through' means a reversal at Pen Mill?

My earlier post envisaged only one reversal for my fantasy direct service from Bristol to Weymouth, at Taunton.

 

[Taunton]

Hasn't Weston-Super-Mare been, at least at one time, also a popular holiday venue for people from South Wales -- English and exotic enough to be interesting, but also comfortingly close to home: one can see Wales from Weston and vice versa, isn't that so?

Ah, Weston-on-the-Mud.

It was indeed a popular Sunday trip on the old paddle steamer across from South Wales (actually they weren't that old, some of the last ever built in the late 1940s), more than anything else because in those days the pubs in Wales were all closed on Sundays, while the ones in England ... weren't. From Taunton the bargain basement resort was Burnham-on-Sea, accessed by odd Sunday excursion trains right into the 1960s although the station closed to timetabled services in the early 1950s. It needed two shunts each way at Highbridge, about a mile short of Burnham, to get across from the GW main to the S&D branch. I believe I went on one once, but was too young to take it in.

More promiising were Minehead, or (sixpence each cheaper) Blue Anchor. Minehead beach is unfortunately nothing much, but at least you have the town (though scarcely anything open on a Sunday then). Blue Anchor had a better beach right next to the station, but zero facilities. All these resorts faced drearily north, and the Bristol Channel was freezing. Which all brings us back to Weymouth, which even then had everything. And to quite an extent still does today!

My emphasis. Just to be 100% certain. There was no possibility (either pre- or post-WW2) of going direct to Dorchester line from Yeovil Town was there? So 'right through' means a reversal at Pen Mill?

My earlier post envisaged only one reversal for my fantasy direct service from Bristol to Weymouth, at Taunton.

No, none. The link between the two lines was put in during WW2, never used apparently, taken out again, and only reactivated after Taunton to Yeovil closed. It faced the other way, allowing GWR services to the west to be diverted from Castle Cary down to Yeovil Junction and Exeter. Taunton to Weymouth needed a reverse at Pen Mill. If the Taunton-Yeovil line was closed for the night or on Sundays you could always go up to Castle Cary.

I always thought a far more useful curve, though needing more engineering, would have been a north-to-west link at Cowley Bridge, keeping sufficiently clear of river flood levels.

 

[DelW]

My emphasis. Just to be 100% certain. There was no possibility (either pre- or post-WW2) of going direct to Dorchester line from Yeovil Town was there? So 'right through' means a reversal at Pen Mill?

My earlier post envisaged only one reversal for my fantasy direct service from Bristol to Weymouth, at Taunton.

Here (I hope) is a screenshot from a 1927 map on the NLS website that I think answers your question:
View attachment 75644
(map excerpt showing lines through Yeovil town)

EDIT: I posted before I'd read Taunton's reply above. Now I'm confused as to what that map is actually showing!

EDIT 2: OK, got it now, that curve connects to the Southern line not GWR. Apologies for confusion I may have caused

 

[randyrippley]

My emphasis. Just to be 100% certain. There was no possibility (either pre- or post-WW2) of going direct to Dorchester line from Yeovil Town was there? So 'right through' means a reversal at Pen Mill?

My earlier post envisaged only one reversal for my fantasy direct service from Bristol to Weymouth, at Taunton.

Correct anything from Yeovil Town to Weymouth had to reverse at Pen Mill