Railway

The railway was opened on 20 July 1874 and the first train was greeted by a peel of bells from the church tower. It served the village operating under a several companies and eventually closed on 7 March 1966 after a number of postponements. There were sidings in the field, now used as a car park, which enabled the processed Fuller's earth, agricultural machinery, grain and watercress to be taken away. However, the map of 1900 shows that by this time they had been dismantled. The railway was once a major throughfare into the village and it's now difficult to imagine just how important it must have once been in the life of Wellow.

R1			The village map of 1886 shows a single track becoming two through the station. This was doubled throughout the track length (exept for the tunnels) between 1892 and 1894 and this shown on the 1931 map I expect there is someone out there who can tell me what locomotive this is.

R2			The large chimney in the distance was on the Fuller's earth works.

R3			This photo was taken in 1959

R4			This is the view towards Shoscombe taken on 21 September 1936 and shows a 0-4-4T no 1387 designed in 1881 by Johnson. The sidings and goods yard is just visible in the distance.

R5			A view from the signal box on 6 July 1959 showing a class 7F no 53807 pulling the 6.05 from Templecombe. The hut by the fourth waggon was the paraffin store.

R6			Engine no 47506 passing the signal box. The station master's house is to the left of this picture which was taken in 1963. The signal box was built to a design similar to the London and South Western boxes, but with a gabled roof. This is the only S&D signal box to have survived. There is some conflicting information about whether the signal box had a 16 or 18 frame of levers.

THE RAILWAY