How it all began….

The West Somerset Railway Association was founded by a group of volunteers on 7th May, 1971, with the principal aim of supporting the West Somerset Railway Company Limited in its efforts to reopen the Minehead Branch line, which had been closed by British Railways (Western Region) from the 4th January of that year. Two years later  the company was still  dealing with the inevitable bureaucracy entailed with the reopening of a railway, while members of the Association were busy organising trips to Woodham Bros scrapyard in Barry to rescue various essential items of equipment which would be needed in the future.  The first two items of motive power – Victor and Vulcan – arrived in Taunton south yard on 23rd November, 1973 and Harry Lee and his gang set to work to put Victor into working order in time for the reopening, which it was confidently expected would be in the near future.

By May of 1974, BR had granted access to the infrastructure for the purposes of weeding and general “tidying up” and on 18th of that month, the first working party, set to work to begin clearing the result of three years of neglect at Bishops Lydeard.  There were further working parties along the line until reopening.  On 28th March 1976 the line re-opened from Minehead to Blue Anchor and over 2000 passengers took the round trip. This was soon extended to Williton on 28th August 1976 and then to Stogumber on 7th May 1978 and finally to Bishops Lydeard on 9th June 1979.

The company ran into severe financial difficulties not long after reopening and the  Association injected substantial sums of money to keep the company afloat.  The Association was also instrumental in providing a good deal of the early publicity, in the shape of the Guide Book, the Stations and Buildings Book, the Stock Book and not least, the Journal (from January, 1978).  The majority of the labour on the line in the various departments was provided by Association members and still is.

The Association became a Charity and a Company limited by Guarantee on 23rd September, 1994