History

We are a charitable trust of over 1000 members based at Midsomer Norton station, which is located partway up the 1 in 50 gradient from Radstock to the highest point of the old Somerset & Dorset railway at Masbury.

The Trust has been active on the station site since March 1996 when the Somerset & Dorset Trackbed Trust signed a lease to start restoration of the station building and goods shed.

The station building currently contains our gift shop, second-hand bookshop and ticket office. However with the recent granting of the Outline Planning Application (November 2019) by BANES, we are now seeking grant funding to improve the facilities on site and return the station interior back to its 1950s/1960s appearance.

The Company operates trains on behalf of the Trust on approximately one mile of railway, which currently runs as far as the infilled cutting near to Chilcompton Tunnel in the south. Planning is taking place to explore the potential to expand the line in both directions.

At Midsomer Norton you will find the restored station buildings, signalbox, goods shed and also two museums: one in the original Victorian Stable Block and the other in our WWII Pill Box (a candidate for the smallest museum in Britain).

We currently have three diesel locomotives, a fully restored Sentinel 0-4-0 vertical-boiler steam locomotive, plus freight and passenger rolling stock and static buffet coach open for refreshments.

Visit the station gift shop and the second-hand bookshop while you are there and enjoy the atmosphere and exhibits on this once-proud and much-loved holiday route.

Midsomer Norton South Station - 2P and Black 5 May 1956
Ivo Peters, courtesy Julian Peters

Latest News

Check the website regularly to read all about what is happening at the railway.   
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Signalling

Here you can read about the history of signalling on the S&D and the work undertaken by our sign...
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Locomotives & Stock

We have a collection of locomotives and rolling stock at Midsomer Norton, which have been obtai...
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