Templecombe railway station
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Templecombe railway station serves the town of
Templecombe Templecombe is a village in Somerset, England, situated on the A357 road five miles south of Wincanton, east of Yeovil, and west of Salisbury. The village has a population of 1,560. Along with the hamlet of Combe Throop, it forms the parish of ...
in
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. It is situated 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 Ma ...
, down the line from . The main station opened in 1860 but a smaller station on the lower line opened in 1862. It was closed in 1966 but was reopened in 1983 following local community pressure. It is currently operated by South Western Railway.


History

The
Salisbury and Yeovil Railway The Salisbury and Yeovil Railway linked Salisbury (Wiltshire), Gillingham (Dorset) and Yeovil (Somerset) in England. Opened in stages in 1859 and 1860, it formed a bridge route between the main London and South Western Railway (LSWR) network a ...
(S&YR) opened the second part of its line on 7 May 1860, extending westwards from Gillingham through Templecombe to . The S&YR never operated any trains, which were provided by 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). On 3 February 1862, the Dorset Central Railway opened its own Templecombe Lower station as the terminus of a line which connected with the
Somerset Central Railway The Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, also known as the S&D, SDJR or S&DJR, was an English railway line connecting Bath (in north-east Somerset) and Bournemouth (now in south-east Dorset but then in Hampshire), with a branch from Evercree ...
's line from ; on 31 August 1863 this was extended beneath the S&YR line to join up with the remainder of that Dorset company's line to Bournemouth. By now the two 'Central' companies had joined together as the Somerset and Dorset Railway. From November 1875 this became the
Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway The Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, also known as the S&D, SDJR or S&DJR, was an English railway line connecting Bath (in north-east Somerset) and Bournemouth (now in south-east Dorset but then in Hampshire), with a branch from Evercreech ...
(S&DJR), which was partly owned by the LSWR, and in January 1878 the LSWR also bought the S&YR. The two railway lines were initially linked by a north-to-east curve; trains from the S&DJR reversed and ran along a separate line next to the single-track Templecombe to Gillingham line to reach the Upper station to allow passengers to connect with main line trains. In March 1870 this connection was closed and a new north-to-west curve was opened that brought S&DJR trains directly to a third
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 ...
at the Upper station; this allowed the S&YR line to be doubled. A second locomotive was coupled to the back of the train to facilitate the reversals necessary to move the S&DJR trains in and out of the station. In January 1887 the Lower station was closed and replaced by Templecombe Lower Platform a little further south, but since 1867 many S&DJR trains had called only at the Upper station. The original Lower station was absorbed into the goods yard and
locomotive depot 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 shed ...
. On 20 July 1874 the S&DJR's Bath Extension was opened, connecting it to the
Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...
at . This northern connection brought more traffic to Templecombe where interchange could be made with the LSWR network in
Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
, Somerset,
Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
and
Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
. A large goods yard was needed to handle this traffic, and it was placed on the north side of the LSWR line to the west of the LSWR (or Upper) station. Goods for the Templecombe area were always handled in a separate goods yard and
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 ...
on the south side of the line; the main station offices were also on this side of the line. The LSWR became a part of the Southern Railway in 1923 as a result of the Railways Act 1921. In 1938 the station was modernised, a footbridge replaced the subway and the platforms were extended to cope with trains 14 coaches long. An ambulance train was stationed at Templecombe 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 opposing ...
and kept in constant readiness to move casualties from ports on the south coast to military hospitals. On 5 September it was needed to treat casualties at Templecombe station itself. Three bombs were dropped while two trains were standing in the station. Five railwaymen and eight passengers were killed, and many more were injured.


Closure and reopening

In 1948, the Southern Railway was nationalised to become the
Southern Region of British Railways The Southern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948 until 1992 when railways were re-privatised. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s. The region covered south London, southern England and the south ...
. Two years later, the former goods and locomotive facilities were rationalised. All locomotives were concentrated in the Lower yard, and goods traffic was exclusively handled in the Upper yard. 1958 saw the S&DJR line north of Templecombe transferred to the Western Region, and in 1963 all lines west of followed. Following these changes, most trains were transferred to other routes. Goods traffic at Templecombe ceased on 5 April 1965 and the Lower Platform was closed on 3 January 1966. The S&DJR route was closed on 7 March 1966 along with the Upper station. The station buildings were demolished in 1968, but the signal box was retained, and from April 1967, the line from Templecombe to Gillingham reverted to a single track. The first suggestion of reopening the station came in 1975, and Somerset County Council carried out a survey of people living in and around the village to establish whether such a move would be supported by area residents. The results were encouraging, and an approach was later made to British Rail. In 1978, the council stated that £12,000 a year would be needed to subsidise the service, a figure that it could not then afford. The local community formed the Templecombe Station Working Committee (TSWC) to campaign for the reopening. On 5 September 1982, the TSWC arranged for a train to to call to test the demand for a service, and 270 passengers bought tickets. More trains were called on an experimental basis, and tickets were sold for a total of 2,273 passengers. Each time a train called at the station, it had to be manned by members of the TSWC, and temporary lighting had to be provided if they called when it was dark. It was finally agreed that the station could be reopened on a three-year trial. The cost of works was kept to just £9,200 by TSWC members carrying out much of the work themselves. Reopening came on 3 October 1983. The services proved so successful that a new waiting shelter was provided in 1988, and an extension with toilets was added two years later. A 'new' footbridge was erected to connect the platform with the car park; it had originally been erected in 1893 at . The signal box doubles as a ticket office, and for many years the station was staffed full-time because of the need for a member of staff to operate the points and signals for the double track west of the station. After the commissioning of a new signalling system, controlled from Basingstoke, in March 2012, ticket office staffing hours were reduced. However, because the platform was only accessible by crossing the track, staff were still required to operate a level crossing for wheelchair users and other passengers unable to use the footbridge. To resolve this, the disused platform on the south side, where there is level access to the car park and streets beyond, was extended out across the disused trackbed up to the active set of tracks, and was provided with a basic shelter and lighting, an automatic ticket machine, and information boards.


Signal boxes

Points and signals were initially controlled from the trackside, but eventually five signal boxes controlled movements: * Templecombe A – Upper station L&SWR opened in 1875 * Templecombe B – Upper station S&DJR * Templecombe No 3 Junction — junction between the original S&DJR main line to the north and the new 1870 spur to the Upper station * Templecombe No 2 Junction — junction between the new spur to the Upper station and a link back down to the S&DJR main line * Templecombe No 1 Junction – junction between the link line from No 2 Junction and the S&DJR main line and the south. The No 1 Junction box was closed in 1887 and after that the former S&DJR main line between it and No 3 Junction became a dead-end, accessed only from No 3 Junction and serving the S&DJR loco shed and lower yard. In 1933, the B box was closed and the frame in the A box was altered (and possibly extended) to control the S&DJR movements. In the same year the No 3 Junction box was closed and its functions transferred to the No 2 Junction box, in which the lever-frame was extended. A new 60-lever signal box was provided a few years later at the Upper station as part of the station modernisation, opening on 15 May 1938. It was situated at the west end of the Up platform where the signalman had a good view of the goods yards and the junction between the S&DJR platform and the main lines. When the station was closed the box was retained, and from 1967 it controlled the end-on junction between the single track to Gillingham, and the double track to , with its lever-frame being shortened to just 16 levers. When the station reopened a part of the box was modified to act as a ticket office with a single member of staff acting as both signal operator and ticket office clerk. Signalling on the line between Salisbury and Exeter was modernised in 2011/12 and a system for controlling the line remotely at the main Basingstoke
Rail Operating Centre A rail operating centre (ROC) is a building that houses all signallers, signalling equipment, ancillaries and operators for a specific region or route on the United Kingdom's main rail network. The ROC supplants the work of several other signa ...
was installed. This was commissioned in February and March 2012 and the line's redundant signal boxes were decommissioned.


Locomotive sheds

The first
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 opened by the Dorset Central Railway by the Lower station in 1863. This was also used by the LSWR until they opened their own shed in the Upper yard in 1867. The LSWR shed had been demolished by 1936 but locomotives were still kept here until 1950, out based from . The S&DJR shed had in the meantime been enlarged and took over responsibility for all locomotives in the area until it too closed in 1966. The S&DJR shed had 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 ...
. Its allocation was typically about 15 locomotives, with an 82G shed code in Western Region days.


Description and facilities

The station has two platforms, one on each side of a single track, but only the platform on the south side of the line is open to passengers. The platform on the north side of the line is no longer in use for passengers. A footbridge connects the two platforms but has a locked gate to prevent public access. The opposite side of this platform is where the S&DJR trains to Bath and Bournemouth used to reverse after connecting with trains on the Exeter to London line. The area once occupied by the large Upper Yard beyond the signal box is now overgrown by trees. The platform on the south side, which is still in use for passengers, has a ticket office and a shelter and is adjacent to the car park.


Services

South Western Railway operate hourly services to
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 .


Locomotives named ''Templecombe''

The first locomotive to carry the ''Templecombe'' name was a West Country Class
4-6-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and two trailing wheels on one axle. The locomo ...
steam locomotive number 34098. It was built at Brighton in 1949 but, despite its West Country name, spent most of its early years working from or . In later years it was allocated to
Exmouth Junction Exmouth Junction is the railway junction where the Exmouth branch line diverges from the London Waterloo to Exeter main line in Exeter, Devon, England. It was for many years the location for one of the largest engine sheds in the former Lo ...
and would have been seen regularly on trains through its named town. It was withdrawn in June 1967. The next locomotive to receive the name was Class 33
Bo-Bo B-B and Bo-Bo are the Association of American Railroads (AAR) and British classifications of wheel arrangement for railway locomotives with four axles in two individual bogies. They are equivalent to the B′B′ and Bo′Bo′ classifications in ...
diesel-electric number 33112. This was named at Templecombe on 17 October 1987. The name was then transferred to Class 47 Co-Co number 47708 in June 1991. Both these locomotives worked passenger trains on the line. When locomotive-hauled trains were replaced by Class 159 three-car
diesel multiple units A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...
new ''Templecombe'' nameplates were fitted to 57875, the centre car of unit 159003, in a ceremony at the station on 3 October 1993.


See also

*
Southern Railway routes west of Salisbury This article describes the history and operation of the railway routes west of Salisbury built by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) and allied companies, which ultimately became part of the Southern Railway in the United Kingdom. Salisb ...


References


Bibliography

*


External links


1940s Ordnance Survey map showing Templecombe




{{DEFAULTSORT:Templecombe Railway Station Railway stations in Somerset DfT Category E stations Former London and South Western Railway stations Former Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1860 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1966 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1983 Reopened railway stations in Great Britain Railway stations served by South Western Railway Beeching closures in England 1860 establishments in England