The S&D at Burnham on Sea

Earlier this week we took a trip to Burnham on Sea to discover what remains of what was once the terminus of the Somerset & Dorset branch line from Evercreech Junction.

Well, the short answer to that is very little.

The trackbed of the route from Highbridge to the little terminus station is now a road although, in fairness to the town, they have made great efforts to commemorate their railway heritage, without which it probably would not have grown to become the place it is today.

The representative junction signal,, shown below, stands where the original signal stood that controlled access to the, much longer, excursion platform. 

The base of the original signal is shown in the second photo.

The next two photographs show the road that was built over the old railway trackbed. This leads down to the sea front, which can just be seen in the distance in the second photo.

In the photos below we have replica station nameboard and signal box, the latter being, roughly, in the same position as the original. There is also an Information Board, one of several that have been erected, charting the history of the railway.

This buffer stop is, more or less, where the original one stood, at the end of the head shunt, and was erected in 2015 following six years of negotiations.

Of course, the line originally continued beyond the station to a short pier, although it is believed that no passenger trains ever traversed this short section. The rails were used, however, to launch the life boat, which was housed at the end of a short private siding adjacent to the west end of the station.

The photo below shows the pier as it is today. The rails have long gone, indeed, as has the sea! This, sadly, is so often the case in Burnham (not very often) on Sea.

The Somerset & Dorset pub is still there, of course, and is still so named:

Actually, it was not the only pub to be given a railway-themed name as there is this one quite close by.

I will end, our trip to Burnham, with two more information boards located in the area, which show the layout of the station and give a potted history of the line, respectively, plus a Company Rule notice, which looks to be original and which is on the side of what was once the parcels office.