Introduction

Evercreech Junction station was located in the county of Somerset, on the northern part of the main line of the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway (S&DJR) from Bath to Wimborne, and it was the junction for the S&DJR branch to Highbridge and Burnham.

On 28-August-1852 the Somerset Central Railway (SCR) opened a single-track line from Highbridge to a terminus at Glastonbury. In 1862 the SCR merged with the Dorset Central Railway (DCR) to form the Somerset and Dorset Railway (S&DR) and in 1863 opened a continuous line to Wimborne. Evercreech station was opened in 1862 and this became Evercreech Junction in 1874 when the S&DR opened its 'Bath Extension' line from there to Bath. In 1875 the S&DR became the S&DJR when the line was leased jointly by the Midland Railway (MR) and London & South Western Railway (L&SWR). After the Grouping of the railways of Great Britain in 1923 the S&DJR remained a Joint line, but now under the control of the London, Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS) and the Southern Railway (SR), who were the successors to the MR and L&SWR respectively. The railways were nationalised in 1948 and in 1950 the Joint line west and north of Evercreech Junction came under the control of British Railways (Western Region) (BR(WR)); by mid-1958 (BR(WR)) had gained control as far south as Templecombe Junction and retained that until the S&DJR closed on 6-March-1966. There were two signal-boxes at Evercreech Junction:- the 'North' box was at the actual junction, the 'South' box was at the level-crossing next to the station.

Exterior and interior views of Evercreech Junction South signal-box

To be continued...

© CJL Osment 2020
Signal-box exterior photograph courtesy the late David Milton, interior photograph WCRA collection.