150 Years from WT to MD: How the Line Developed

During the 1930s the branch became increasingly busy. On a summer Saturday in 1936 there were 15 trains each way, two being through trains from London. The 9.35am from Paddington reached Minehead at 12.58pm, direct with no changes.

The first weekend in August 1937 was particularly busy. A vast amount of luggage sent in advance was received and on Friday and Saturday 2,700 visitors arrived by rail. An extra train had to be run from Taunton on the Saturday to cope with the load. Sunday also required an extra train when another huge influx of visitors arrived. It was a doubly busy day because of the extra day-trippers from Taunton and Bridgwater, requiring three evening trains to get them all home again. That was not the end of it, as another 1,000 day visitors arrived on the Monday. This represented the high point of the branch’s pre-war traffic.

To cope, during the 1930s the GWR improved the line extensively. It was a single track with loops to let trains pass, and to allow longer trains to be run, all of the loops and station platforms were lengthened. If you look at the platform walls today, you can see how the original stone platforms were extended with concrete sections.

Double track was laid between Norton Fitzwarren and Bishops Lydeard and from Dunster to Minehead. The main upgrade involved two new crossing loops, one at Leigh Bridge and the other at Kentsford, which provided additional capacity and allowed more trains to be run.

On a single line, the driver is given a metal token at each signal box to allow him to travel to the next station. Exchanging these tokens slows the trains, so automatic token-changing apparatus was installed to allow the changes to be done at speed.