Volunteers at Midsomer Norton South Station are busy preparing for the arrival of Roger Hibbert’s 0-6-0 Jinty 47406, which is being hired from the Great Central Railway at Loughborough at very short notice and will be hauling passenger trains on 27th/28th February and 5th/6th March from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. each day. Seating will be limited on these trains and will be on a first come first served basis.

47406 will be the first mainline steam engine to haul passenger services at Midsomer Norton since the line closed in March 1966. We expect demand to be high, but we hope to operate as many services as possible, so, if passengers are unable to ride on the first train, there should be the opportunity to ride on a following service.

There will be no available parking for visitors at the station, but please park either at Norton Hill School close to the station, Somervale School in the middle of the town, or at South Road, Midsomer Norton, which are both around a ten minute walk to the station. If possible, please use public transport as there are regular buses that stop nearby.

Over 5th/6th March there will be a vintage shuttle bus from Somervale School and the town car park to the site, running throughout the day as demand that weekend is expected to be greater. We will have the usual attractions on site, including the buffet car, museum and shop. As we will be using the signalbox as well for this event with full signalling, access to the

signalbox will not be possible. The official commissioning of the signalbox will take place on Saturday, 5th March when the leader of Bath and North East Somerset Council will cut the ribbon.

This will be the first time that 47406 has graced the Somerset and Dorset line, as for all its working career it was based at sheds in the north, although sister engine 47506 was a Bath Green Park allocated loco from late 1963 and the very end of the line. Jinties were seen practically every day at Midsomer Norton and a number were based at Radstock shed as well for working the local collieries and as banking engines for freights up to Masbury.

When withdrawn from service at Edge Hill, Liverpool, in late 1966, it ventured south along with a number of other examples to Barry, where it languished for some years in the famous Woodhams Bros scrapyard. It was the last Jinty to be rescued and as such, needed a massive amount of restoration, but Roger Hibbert and his team at the Great Central Railway worked wonders to get her back in steam for the first time in 33 years in 2010.

Thus it truly is a case of one mainline double track railway coming to the rescue of another such line. If the Company believes there is potential demand to cover the steaming fees, we may consider a final steaming day on Monday, 7th March before she returns to the GCR on March 8th.

We may also have our Sentinel in light steam for the event and that will be entirely appropriate as she was the prototype for Sentinels 47190 and 47191, which were allocated to Radstock shed, working the nearby collieries. Owners, Andy Chapman and Nigel Dickinson, have spent many years in all weathers on her restoration and the culmination of thousands of hours of work is almost ready.

Because we were unable to hire in one of the available Standard Class 4 locomotives the proposed 5th/6th March event commemorating the last train will now take place over the weekend of September 10th/11th, subject to engine availability, whilst our Midsummer at Midsomer event over the weekend of June 18/19th will commemorate the Home Guard unit in Midsomer Norton.

Gail Coleshill