Steam Gala Weekend - Midsummer at Midsomer

Last weekend Andrew took his 1952 vintage lorry along to a special steam weekend at our local heritage railway station.

 

 

 

Midsummer at Midsomer, held annually around Midsummer's Day (suprisingly enough) featured vintage vehicles, short train rides along the line, lunch in the buffet carriage and a well-designed World War II pillbox musuem.

 

 

 

The pillbox was originally part of the WW2 GHQ Stop Line Green aimed at protecting the rest of the country in the unlucky event of a Nazi invasion into South West England.

Nowdays, it's been rather ingeniously redesigned into a musuem filled with World War II relics and memorabilia.

 

 

 

Midsomer Norton South station was one of the unlucky ones closed by the delightful Dr Beeching report in the mid 1960's. It was part of the infamous 'Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway', sometimes called 'sweet and delightful', other times called 'slow and dirty' and after Beeching, called 'sabotaged and defeated'. My in laws can still remember hopping on the train for a seaside day out in Exmouth or Bournemouth - back in the days when there were cross country trains to random places such as the 'Exmouth to Cleethorpes service'.

 

 

 

The station today is only small but the volunteers have grand plans to extend the line further and events like last weekend go that little way to helping fund their dreams.