A Good Friday At The East Somerset Railway - 10th April 2009

Its Good Friday and that means that the East Somerset Railway located near Shepton Mallet was running Timetable C and as I have always wanted to pay the East Somerset Railway a visit so I popped down for a look.

The East Somerset railway was founded by the artist David Shepherd who had bought two steam engines, BR standard class 9F No.92203 and standard class 4MT No.75029 and need somewhere to store them and so after buying Cranmore station the only station on the railway with the same structures used in steam days.
So from there the ESR was born!

The ESR is now a 2 mile line running from Cranmore to Mendip Vale with 2 stops in between which are Cranmore West (where the lines engine shed is situated) and Merryfield Lane which was the terminus of the line until 1985 when the extension to Mendip Vale was complete.
The mileage of the line is as follows -
0.0 Cranmore
0.5 Cranmore West
1.0 Merryfield Lane
2.0 Mendip Vale

From Mendip Vale onwards there are plans to extended the line towards Shepton Mallet when the railway was set up the line to Shepton Mallet was still in place but because the ESR did not manage to raise enough money the line was ripped up. However there is still hope as the ESR plan to extend to Canards Grave, south of Shepton Mallet.

The line running east of cranmore is now owned by Network Rail.
The line is used for quarry trains from Merehead quarry. The line can still be used for special excursion trains which is good news for the ESR.

Today the locomotives running were

0-4-0ST no.1719 'Lady Nan' working on 'Driver-for-a-Fiver' duties
GWR ex-Port Talbot Railway 0-6-0ST Saddle Tank 813 - on normal trains.

The plan I did was

14:00 Cranmore to Mendip Vale
14:20 - Mendip Vale to cranmore
16:00 Cranmore to Mendip Vale
16:20 - Mendip Vale to Cranmore

In the video we see lots of footage of 813 in action as she storms the bank towards Merryfield Lane and of her running round at either Cranmore or Mendip Vale. We even see her arriving at stations and departing.
We also see Lady Nan on the Driver for a Fiver and pay a visit to the engine sheds and workshops were we see the work of the over haul of taffy tank 5637.

The East Somerset Railway is a very nice little line to visit so if you ever get the chance the ESR is a MUST.

Enjoy!

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• East
• Somerset
• Railway
• ESR
• Cranmore
• West
• Merryfield
• Lane
• Mendip
• Vale
• The
• Countryside
• 0-4-0ST
• no.1719
• 'Lady
• Nan'
• GWR
• ex-Port
• Talbot
• 0-6-0ST
• Saddle
• Tank
• 813
• Great
• Western
• David
• Shepherd
• Good
• Friday
• Steam
• trains
• Locomotives
• steam
• near
• Shepton
• Mallet
• east
• taffy
• tank
• 5637
• storming
• banks
• Holiday
• weekend
• miles

[ADMIRALSCORNER]

I enjoyed that! Thanks for uploading! Next best thing to being there!

[jakeyboygen]

thanks for the comment

[AndrzejMastalerz]

Very nice locomotive. Well filmed.

[jakeyboygen]

thanks

[BIASpotter]

oops sorry i apolgize i didnt relise it sayed it in the info box :) my mistake

[jakeyboygen]

lol its ok thanks for the comment

[60103Henry]

Great Video, Liked! :)

[noelist]

ah, just read your very informative blurb, got here because I just watched GWRDEC's vid from here on 27th Aug 2010, you've answered some of the questions I asked, never saw 813 when I last visited over 10 years ago I think, in fact never seen one like it before, great to see work being done in the shed, plenty volunteers on a damp day, must get down there again some time, great to hear an extension is in the offing, hope it goes well, cheers.

[BIASpotter]

have they exstended the line yet do u know?

last time i been there was over 6 yrs ago, and i heard they was going to exstend it ?

good vid

[jakeyboygen]

cheers josh