Minehead railway station is situated in

Minehead Minehead is a coastal town and civil parish in Somerset, England. It lies on the south bank of the Bristol Channel, north-west of the county town of Taunton, from the boundary with the county of Devon and in proximity of the Exmoor National P ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, England. First opened in 1874 as the terminus and headquarters of the

Minehead Railway The West Somerset Railway (WSR) is a heritage railway line in Somerset, England. The freehold of the line and stations is owned by Somerset County Council; the railway is leased to and operated by West Somerset Railway plc (WSR plc); which is ...

, it was closed by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

early in 1971. It reopened in 1976 and is now the terminus and headquarters of the

West Somerset Railway The West Somerset Railway (WSR) is a heritage railway line in Somerset, England. The freehold of the line and stations is owned by Somerset County Council; the railway is leased to and operated by West Somerset Railway plc (WSR plc); which is ...

, a

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

History

The station was opened on 16 July 1874 by the Minehead Railway. The railway was operated by the

Bristol and Exeter Railway The Bristol & Exeter Railway (B&ER) was an English railway company formed to connect Bristol and Exeter. It was built on the broad gauge and its engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It opened in stages between 1841 and 1844. It was allied with ...

which was amalgamated into the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

in 1876. The Minehead Railway was itself absorbed into the GWR in 1897, which in turn was

nationalised Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

into

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

in 1948. The station was originally built with just one

platform Platform may refer to: Technology * Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run * Platform game, a genre of video games * Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models * Weapons platform, a system or ...

. The station offices were on the platform and a

goods shed A goods shed is a railway building designed for storing goods before or after carriage in a train. A typical goods shed will have a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, although sometimes they were built ...

was opposite, while an

engine shed The motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is the place where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained when not being used. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine shed ...

was provided behind the platform. In 1905 a second track was added on the opposite side of the platform and a new

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

was brought into use. An iron hut was added to provide more accommodation but was removed in the 1920s when the main building was extended towards the town. The next major alterations came in 1934 when the original single track line was replaced by a double line to cope with the heavy holiday traffic, and a new signal box built. The platforms were extended at the same time. They were now long and a canopy was provided to give extra shelter at the town end. The engine shed was closed in 1956, goods traffic ceased in 1964, and the signal box became redundant on 27 March 1966. The railway was closed on 4 January 1971.

Preservation

The station reopened on 28 March 1976 as a

by a new

. The goods shed was converted into an engine shed and extended in 1999. Meanwhile, the station building was altered to be used as offices, and a new ticket office provided. A new

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, overpass ...

has been laid across the line a little beyond the platform end to carry a new relief road to the sea front, and the former signal box was moved to control trains at Minehead. A new carriage workshop was opened in 1991 near the Dunster end of the station, The original

turntable A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

was removed from the station in 1967, after steam trains and

GWR Autocoach The GWR Autocoach (or auto-trailer) is a type of coach that was used by the Great Western Railway for push-pull trains powered by a steam locomotive. The distinguishing design feature of an autocoach is the driving cab at one end, allowing the ...

services were completely replaced by

Diesel Multiple Unit A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...

s. The WSR acquired both the turntable and water tower from

Pwllheli railway station Pwllheli railway station is a railway station serving the small coastal town of Pwllheli on the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd, Wales. It is the terminus of the Cambrian Coast Railway. History In 1861 the Aberystwith and Welsh Coast Railway was g ...

in anticipation of reinstalling a facility at the station, but later sold the water tower to the

Welshpool and Llanfair Railway The Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway (W&LLR) ( cy, Rheilffordd y Trallwng a Llanfair Caereinion) is a narrow gauge heritage railway in Powys, Wales. The line is around long and runs westwards from the town of Welshpool ( cy, Y Trallwng) ...

in 1999. In 2007, the company agreed plans for a £6M development with Somerset Council, to provide a new site for the turntable, together with a viewing area, extended car parking and some ancillary buildings. The turntable was extended using genuine-GWR engineering pattern drawings to , and then installed at its new location, brought into use in May 2008. The station currently serves as the headquarters of the West Somerset Railway, as well as the base for the: Operating; Mechanical Engineering; Civil Engineering; Signal & Telegraph; and Administration departments.

Description

The station is on the sea front and close to the town centre. A wide, single platform has tracks on both sides. The main track on the seaward side is platform 1, while platform 2 stops short of the stone-built station buildings. The old

is opposite the station building and is now used as a locomotive workshop, and a newer carriage workshop is close by. Opposite platform 2 is the turntable, overlooked by a cafe operated by the railway. The buildings on the platform include a booking office and a shop selling souvenirs. The signal box is at the far end of the platform near the level crossing. Sidings on both sides of the station are used to hold stock, both operating vehicles and others awaiting repairs in the workshops. The station is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Services

88 pulls into Minehead Pulling the Quantock belle

Trains run between Minehead and at weekends and on some other days from March to October, daily during the late spring and summer, and on certain days during the winter. Occasional charter services, either steam or diesel hauled, run through from the National Rail network.

References

External links

Minehead Station on West Somerset Railway website

The website of the West Somerset Steam Railway Trust

{{Somerset railway stations West Somerset Railway Heritage railway stations in Somerset Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1874 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1971 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1976 Former Great Western Railway stations Grade II listed railway stations Grade II listed buildings in West Somerset

Railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

Railway turntables