50 Years Gone but not Forgotten DVD: A Celebration of the Somerset & Dorset Railway

Description

A celebration of the Somerset & Dorset Railway.

Launched to coincide with the anniversary in March 2016 of the closing of the much-loved Somerset & Dorset line from Bath to Bournemouth.

This programme is full of archive film, much of it has never been seen before.

Added to this there are interviews with railwaymen and women who once worked on the line.

We hear stories of how they operated the signal boxes, locomotives and stations, often with humorous events taking place!

The programme has a review of stations and structures that still remain, some fifty years later.

We delve into the preservation of parts of the old S&D with sequences at Midsomer Norton, Shillingstone and near Templecombe at the Gartell light railway.

Scenes at Bath Green Park station with the visit of No. 53809 in 2006.

A large portion is devoted to the Somerset & Dorset Railway Trust who have developed their base at Washford on the West Somerset Railway.

We see their first attempts to set up at Radstock and then the move, by rail, of their S&D locomotive No. 53808.

The museum at Washford is studied and the restoration of and operation of tank engine Kilmersdon.

March 2016 will see the 50th anniversary of the closure of quite possibly the most celebrated of all our lines closed in the 1960s.

This dvd examines the final years of the railway and what has happened to the line and its stations during the past fifty years.

Many ex-S&D staff recall their times working on the railway and we visit the various preservation sites that have sprung up along the route.

The programme has unseen archive footage of the line and is produced in association with the Somerset & Dorset Railway Trust based at Washford on the West Somerset Railway. 

An added bonus of an archive film along the branch to Highbridge and never-before-seen out-takes from the BAC film unit film with original sound track.

Archive film never seen before includes a trip down the line from Bath to Bournemouth in 1964 and along the branch from Evercreech to Highbridge.

A survey of the line following closure.

Visit in 2006 to Bath Green Park of 7F No. 53809.

Latest film on the preservation schemes at Midsomer Norton and at Shillingstone.

Special feature on the S&D Railway Trust at Washford from 1976 to 2015.

Approx. 120 minutes.

This dvd is being sold on behalf of and with full permission of the copyright owner – Kingfisher Productions.