Radstock North railway station was a station on the
Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway in the county of
Somerset in
England.
History
Opened as Radstock on 20 July 1874, it was located immediately to the northeast of the
GWR's Bristol and North Somerset Railway's (B&NSR) (1854-1965). However, there was no direct connection between the two competing stations.
Due to the extensive collieries in the area sunk into the
Somerset Coalfield, the station was more extensive than others serving similar sized communities. Immediately west of the station was a line to
Middle Writhlington Colliery, leading to
Clandown Colliery and onwards to the local
gas works. Immediately to the east of the station were connections to
Ludlow Colliery, and the
wagonway to
Tyning Colliery. Further east towards Shoscombe was a junction giving access to
Lower Writhlington Colliery,
Braysdown Colliery and
Writhlington Colliery
Writhlington SSSI () is a 0.5 hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest near the town of Radstock, Bath and North East Somerset, notified in 1992.
This is the site of old mine workings on the Somerset coalfield, including 3,000 to ...
.
The station itself consisted of two platforms, a goods yard and cattle dock, wagon works, and a two-road
engine shed with coaling and watering facilities. To the east of the station and locomotive servicing facilities were the former
Wheeler & Gregory Wagon Works, and a private timber yard. Operations were controlled from two
signal box
In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...
es, with a third to the east controlling access to the colliery line's there.
The station closed to goods in 1964. After the decision to close the S&DJR in 1966, a connection was made to the west of the station with the GWR mainline. This allowed trains on the former B&NSR to traverse a short spur through Radstock North to the Lower Writhlington, Braysdown and Writhlington collieries, to transport coal to
Portishead power station. Passenger services were withdrawn when the SDJR closed on 7 March 1966.
After the last coal from the Somerset Coalfield was extracted from Writhlington Colliery on 28 September 1973, the spur was dismantled.
Accident
A
head-on collision at Foxcote near Radstock was the worst accident in the line's histor
The site today
The site is now a green space alongside a road.
References
Further reading
*
External links
Radstock @ SDJR.net
{{coord, 51.2928, -2.4468, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title
Disused railway stations in Bath & North East Somerset
Former Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1874
Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1966
Beeching closures in England
Radstock