Chard Central railway station was the principal

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

in Chard,

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It was opened in 1866 and closed in 1962, during which time it was known by three different names.

History

The first railway to serve Chard was the

London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exeter ...

(LSWR) which opened Chard Road on its new

Yeovil Yeovil ( ) is a town and civil parish in the district of South Somerset, England. The population of Yeovil at the last census (2011) was 45,784. More recent estimates show a population of 48,564. It is close to Somerset's southern border with ...

to Exeter line in 1860. On 8 May 1863 a second station was opened at as the terminus of a branch from Chard Road. A second railway was opened on 11 September 1866 by the Bristol and Exeter Railway (B&ER). This line terminated at a new station a short distance north of Chard Town and was served by trains from . Eleven weeks later, on 26 November, a connecting line was opened between Chard Town and the B&ER station, which was known at this time as 'Chard Joint', and the station was then used as the terminus for both railways. Both railway companies provided staff and there were even separate signal boxes controlling train movements at each end of the station The LSWR was built to standard gauge but the B&ER was a broad gauge until 19 July 1891. From 1 January 1917 the Great Western Railway (GWR, which had

amalgamated Amalgamation is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form. Amalgamation, amalgam, and other derivatives may refer to: Mathematics and science * Amalgam (chemistry), the combination of mercury with another metal **Pan am ...

with the B&ER in 1876) took over the operation of trains on the LSWR branch. This allowed some economies to be made, although the trains to Taunton and Chard Junction were still mostly advertised as separate services. In 1923 the LSWR became a part of the larger Southern Railway (SR). The SR platform and sidings were removed by the end of 1927 and the following year their signal box was closed. It was renamed as plain 'Chard' on 1 March 1928, but it appeared as such in GWR timetables before that date. 1948 saw the SR and GWR nationalised as British Railways and from 26 September 1949 it was known as 'Chard Central'. Passenger trains were withdrawn from both branches on 10 September 1962. Public goods traffic continued until 3 February 1964 but goods trains still ran until 3 October 1966 to serve a private siding. After this all track was lifted.

Description

The station was built in stone and brick in one of the styles favoured by

Isambard Kingdom Brunel Isambard Kingdom Brunel (; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was a British civil engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history," "one of the 19th-century engineering giants," and "on ...

, although he was not the engineer of the line as he died seven years before it was opened. The

platform Platform may refer to: Technology * Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run * Platform game, a genre of video games * Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models * Weapons platform, a system or ...

and offices were on the west side of the line, the side closer to the town centre. A

train shed A train shed is a building adjacent to a station building where the tracks and platforms of a railway station are covered by a roof. It is also known as an overall roof. Its primary purpose is to store and protect from the elements train car ...

spanned the main platform and track. A terminal platform was provided at the north end for trains to Taunton, and at the south end for LSWR services. A

goods shed A goods shed is a railway building designed for storing goods before or after carriage in a train. A typical goods shed will have a track running through it to allow goods wagons to be unloaded under cover, although sometimes they were built ...

was situated in the yard to the north west of the station and a private siding was provided behind it for B.G. Wyatt on the site of the Chard Canal wharf. A loop at the north end of the station allowed locomotives to run around their trains at the end of their journeys. The GWR signal box was on the east side of the line alongside the loop, and the LSWR one was west of the line at their end of the station. The station building and train shed still stand and are in use as commercial premises, and is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Locomotive shed

locomotive shed The motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is the place where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained when not being used. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine she ...

was provided opposite the north end of the passenger platform when the station opened. Built in brick, it was long and wide, covering just one track. A wooden platform outside the shed was used to store coal for the locomotives. A

turntable A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

was provided on its own siding south of the shed. The shed was closed as a depot on 14 July 1924 although the shed line remained in place until 1933 and the turntable until November 1935. Two GWR locomotives were allocated to Chard in 1901, a 517 Class 0-4-2T and a 1076 Class 0-6-0ST.

Services

From Chard Branch Line

References

{{Reflist

External links