“Taunton is a part of Minehead already”

We’ve nipped in to the West Somerset Railway a number of times. It is a [fairly] convenient stopping-off point on the long journey back home from the south west of England, though we have also travelled the full line once or twice, when staying nearby.

Every time I go anywhere near it, I am reminded of Monty Python’s North Minehead bye-election sketch, in which Mr Hilter and Mr Bimmler plan world domination from a guest house in the resort, hold meetings at the Axis café and a mass rally from a balcony attended by a local yokel and three children.

The WSR is an excellent set-up, of course. Lengthy by heritage railway standards, it crosses attractive countryside before hitting the seaside at Watchet and then again, after a brief landward dog-leg, at the delightfully named Blue Anchor.

Thanks to the West Somerset, Taunton was joined to, if not a part of, Minehead already, when I took these pictures at the end of the summer in 2000. However, mein Dickie old chum, wouldn’t it be great if their normal services were able to make the whole journey again, instead of having to start from Bishop’s Lydeard?