Yeovil Pen Mill is one of two railway stations that serve the town of

Yeovil Yeovil () is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Somerset, England. It is close to Somerset's southern border with Dorset, west of London, south of Bristol, west of Sherborne and east of Taunton. The population of the bui ...

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, England. It is situated just under a mile to the east of the town centre. The station is located south of , on the Heart of Wessex Line. It is managed by

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

, who operate services along with

South Western Railway South Western Railway Limited, trading as South Western Railway (SWR), is the British state-owned train operating company that took over the services of the South Western Railway (2017–2025), operator of the same name from FirstGroup and MTR ...

History

The station was opened by the

(GWR) as part of the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth route on 1 September 1856. The route was completed to on 20 January 1857. The Bristol and Exeter Railway's (B&ER) line from Taunton, which initially terminated at , was extended to connect with the GWR at Yeovil Pen Mill from 2 February 1857. Both these lines were built using the

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , more known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union countries ...

. The GWR line was converted to what become the

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

in June 1874. The B&ER line was mixed and had trains of both gauges from 12 November 1868 but broad gauge trains ceased operation after 30 June 1879 by which time the B&ER had been taken over by the GWR. The station originally had two platforms, one for each direction, with a

train shed A train shed is a building adjacent to a station building where the tracks and platforms of a railway station are covered by a roof. It is also known as an overall roof. Its primary purpose is to store and protect from the elements train car ...

for protection. A fire on 18 April 1859 resulted in one building being burnt down. All trains then used the 'up' platform (that built for trains towards and London Paddington) until the station was rebuilt in the 1880s. The GWR opened a locomotive depot at the station in September 1856, which operated until January 1959, when it was closed and the locomotives transferred to Yeovil Town depot. A connection between the GWR line and the Southern Railway line to Exeter was established during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

to allow trains direct access between and Yeovil Pen Mill. This was opened on 13 October 1943 and offered a new route for trains of war materials as well as a diversion route in the event of bomb damage.

1913 accident

A passenger train, hauled by GWR City Class 4-4-0 No. 3710 ''City of Bath'', overran a signal on 8 August 1913 and hit the rear of another passenger train. Two people were killed and ten injured.

Stationmasters

*George Roberts ca. 1857 *William Clarke 1860 - 1863 (formerly station master at ) *George Pinkerton 1863 - 1872 (formerly station master at Taplow, afterwards station master at ) *George King Forster 1876 - 1887 *Richard Stonnill 1887 - 1894 (formerly station master at Aberdare, afterwards station master at ) *Samuel Martin 1894 - 1899 *J. Parry 1899 - 1907 *W.F. Vaughan 1907 - 1916 *Frank George Dunford 1916 - 1926 *P. Williams 1926 - 1933 (afterwards station master at Highbridge) *William Gard ca. 1942 *L.E. Hole 1944 - ca. 1956 (formerly station master at )

Description

Yeovil Pen Mill has three platform faces but only two are in use. Platform 1 is used predominantly by trains heading north and platform 3 is used mostly by trains heading south to Weymouth. The former platform 2 is now unused; there is only a single track between platforms 1 and 2 but trains open their doors on the platform 1 side.

Services

operate the majority of services at Pen Mill on their route between and , via .

operate a few services between London Waterloo and Pen Mill, some via Yeovil Junction and others via . The town is also served by , around two miles away, on the West of England Main Line; it is also served by South Western Railway. Commencing in December 2015, a limited regular passenger service began using the connection between the two lines.

References

{{Somerset railway stations Railway stations in Somerset Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1854 Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations served by Great Western Railway Railway stations served by South Western Railway Buildings and structures in Yeovil DfT Category E stations