Introduction

The station and signal-box at Shepton Mallet were situated on the main line of the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway (S&DJR), on the section from Bath Junction to Evercreech Junction in the county of Somerset which was known historically as the 'Bath Extension'. The Somerset and Dorset Railway (S&DR) opened its 'Bath Extension' from Evercreech Junction to Bath in 1874 and a station was provided at Binegar. At first the line was single-track throughout with just a few passing-places, but the line through Shepton Mallet was doubled in stages in 1886 and 1892. [Click here to read more about early S&DR/S&DJR Signalling and the Bath Extension]. The S&DR became the S&DJR in 1875 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 became a Joint line 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. When the railways were nationalised in 1948 the Joint line came under the control of British Railways (Southern Region) (BR(SR)), but in due course control of the old Bath Extension section passed to British Railways (Western Region) (BR(WR)) until the line closed on 6-March-1966.

Waterloo Road was the name of a temporary ground-level signal-box which existed at different periods during 1946 and 1947 close to Bath Road Viaduct (Bridge No 81), which was about 1 mile north of Shepton Mallet station. It controlled a temporary layout of Single Line Working in conjunction with repairs to the viaduct after the collapse of the Up side in 1946.

Note: on 26-September-1949 the S&DJR signal-box at Shepton Mallet was renamed Shepton Mallet Charlton Road in order to distinguish it from the one at the former Great Western Railway (GWR) station in the same town, which became Shepton Mallet High Street. It would appear that the actual station may have had the 'Charlton Road' suffix from as early as 1883, but the ex-GWR station did not acquire the 'High Street' suffix until 1949. The original name of just 'Shepton Mallet' is used generally in RailWest in the context of discussion about the S&DJR.

Exterior and interior views of Shepton Mallet signal-box in British Railways days

To be completed...

© CJL Osment 2023-24
All images from WCRA collection.