Yeovil Pen Mill railway station is one of two stations serving the town of

Yeovil Yeovil ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, 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 Somer ...

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. The station is situated just under a mile to the east of the town centre. The station is located south of , on the

Heart of Wessex Line The Heart of Wessex Line, also known as the Bristol to Weymouth Line, is a railway line that runs from to and Weymouth in England. It shares the Wessex Main Line as far as Westbury and then follows the course of the Reading to Taunton Line a ...

. The station is managed by

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

, with trains being operated by them and by South Western Railway.

History

The station was opened by the

(GWR) as part of the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth route on 1 September 1856. The route was completed to on 20 January 1857. The

Bristol and Exeter Railway The Bristol & Exeter Railway (B&ER) was an English railway company formed to connect Bristol and Exeter. It was built on the broad gauge and its engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It opened in stages between 1841 and 1844. It was allied with ...

's (B&ER) line from Taunton, which initially terminated at , was extended to connect with the GWR at Yeovil Pen Mill from 2 February 1857. Both these lines were built using the

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...

. The GWR line was converted to what become the

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

in June 1874. The B&ER line was mixed and had trains of both gauges from 12 November 1868 but broad gauge trains ceased operation after 30 June 1879 by which time the B&ER had been taken over by the GWR. The station originally had two platforms, one for each direction, with 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 ...

for protection. A fire on 18 April 1859 resulted in one building being burnt down. All trains then used the 'up' platform (that built for trains towards and

London Paddington Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a London station group, Central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services pro ...

) until the station was rebuilt in the 1880s. The GWR opened a locomotive depot at the station in September 1856, which operated until January 1959, when it was closed and the locomotives transferred to Yeovil Town depot. A connection between the GWR line and the Southern Railway line to Exeter was established during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

to allow trains direct access between and Yeovil Pen Mill. This was opened on 13 October 1943 and offered a new route for trains of war materials as well as a diversion route in the event of bomb damage.

1913 accident

A passenger train overran a signal on 8 August 1913 and hit the rear of another passenger train. Two people were killed and ten injured.

Stationmasters

*George Roberts ca. 1857 *William Clarke 1860 - 1863 (formerly station master at ) *George Pinkerton 1863 - 1872 (formerly station master at Taplow, afterwards station master at ) *George King Forster 1876 - 1887 *Richard Stonnill 1887 - 1894 (formerly station master at Aberdare, afterwards station master at ) *Samuel Martin 1894 - 1899 *J. Parry 1899 - 1907 *W.F. Vaughan 1907 - 1916 *Frank George Dunford 1916 - 1926 *P. Williams 1926 - 1933 (afterwards station master at Highbridge) *William Gard ca. 1942 *L.E. Hole 1944 - ca. 1956 (formerly station master at )

Description

Yeovil Pen Mill has two platforms: platform 1, used predominantly by trains heading north; and platform 3, used mostly by trains heading to Weymouth. Trains using platform 1 could open their doors both sides, as there are physical platforms on both sides. However, the former platform 2 is now disused, and trains open their doors on the left hand side (when arriving from the south).

Services

Yeovil Pen Mill - SWR 159003 and GWR 150261

operate the majority of services at Pen Mill on their route between and via . South Western Railway operate a few services between

London Waterloo Waterloo station (), also known as London Waterloo, is a central London terminus on the National Rail network in the United Kingdom, in the Waterloo area of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is connected to a London Underground station of ...

and Pen Mill, some via and others via . The town is also served by

Yeovil Junction railway station Yeovil Junction railway station is the busier, but less central, of two railway stations serving the town of Yeovil in England. The station is outside the town, in the village of Stoford. Although Yeovil is in Somerset, the station was in Dor ...

, on the

West of England Main Line The West of England line (also known as the West of England Main Line) is a British railway line from , Hampshire, to in Devon, England. Passenger services run between London Waterloo station and Exeter; the line intersects with the Wessex M ...

, and served by South Western Railway. Commencing December 2015 a limited regular passenger service began using the rail connection between the two lines. The two stations are just under two miles apart by road.

References

{{Somerset railway stations Railway stations in Somerset Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1854 Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations served by Great Western Railway Railway stations served by South Western Railway Buildings and structures in Yeovil DfT Category E stations