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''This article describes the Bristol and North Somerset Railway, between Bristol and Radstock, and the associated Camerton line from Hallatrow to Limpley Stoke.'' The Bristol and North Somerset Railway was a railway line in the West of England that connected Bristol with Radstock, through Pensford and further into northern Somerset, to allow access to the Somerset Coalfield. The line ran almost due south from Bristol and was long. Opened in 1873, it joined with an existing branch from Frome to Radstock, and was later worked with it as a single entity. In 1882 the Camerton Branch was opened by the Great Western Railway to serve collieries at Camerton; it was later extended to Limpley Stoke, on the Bath to Trowbridge line. It closed to passenger traffic in 1925. The lines primary traffic was coal, and travel to work commuting into Bristol. Both of these traffic sources substantially declined in the 1950s, with the Camerton Branch fully closed in 1951. Passenger traffic ceased on the rest of the entire line complex before the Beeching Axe in 1959, with complete closure of the line in 1973 following the closure of the last colliery in the Somerset Coalfield at Kilmersdon. ==Getting an Act for the line== The Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway (WS&WR) was established in 1845 to build a network of lines, running from near Chippenham on the Great Western Railway (GWR) to Salisbury and Weymouth.〔Derek Phillips, ''The Story of the Westbury to Weymouth Line'', Oxford Publishing Co., Sparkford, 1994, ISBN 0 86093 514 0〕 At that time Radstock was the most important mining centre of the Somerset Coalfield, and the WS&WR included in its plans a branch from near Frome to Radstock. The WS&WR found raising money for its ambitious network difficult, and the Company sold its lines, not all of which were complete, to the GWR on 14 March 1850, confirmed by an Act of Parliament on 3 July 1851. The GWR opened the Radstock branch to mineral traffic only on 14 November 1854, built to broad gauge.〔〔E T MacDermot, ''History of the Great Western Railway'', volume I 1833-1863, published by the Great Western Railway., London, 1927〕 As early as 1863 the Board of the GWR had resolved to create a standard gauge line from Bristol to Salisbury through the district,〔I.e. standard gauge; in the conflict between the GWR's traditional track gauge known as the broad gauge and standard gauge, the latter was often referred to as ''narrow gauge'' for contrast.〕〔E T MacDermot, ''History of the Great Western Railway'', volume II, published by the Great Western Railway, London, 1932, page 66〕 and there were numerous independent schemes to serve the important colliery sites north of Radstock, and link them to the city of Bristol. These schemes came to nothing until in September 1862 when promoters formed an agreement to make a line from Bristol, with connections to other lines there, to a junction with the newly formed Somerset and Dorset Railway near Bruton,〔The Somerset and Dorset Railway was formed on 1 September 1862 by the amalgamation of the ''Somerset Central Railway'' and the ''Dorset Central Railway''; it ran from Highbridge to Templecombe and Blandford to Wimborne, with plans to connect the two portions of line; the Bath extension was opened on 20 July 1874 and became the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway on 13 July 1876. See Atthill and Nock.〕 running through the colliery areas of Pensford and Clutton, and with a branch to Camerton, where there were further collieries. It was to connect at Bristol with both broad gauge and narrow gauge lines, as well as having a tramway to the City Docks at the Floating Harbour. The proposal became a Parliamentary bill, and received the Royal Assent on 21 July 1863: it was to be called the ''Bristol and North Somerset Railway'', with capital of £275,000 and borrowing powers of £91,000.〔Mike Vincent, ''Through Countryside & Coalfield'', Oxford Publishing Co, Sparkford, ISBN 0860934284〕〔Ernest F Carter, ''An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles'', Cassell, London, 1959〕 This appeared to serve the GWR objective admirably; the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth had a branch to Radstock, and the network also served Salisbury; if the gauge of their Radstock branch were mixed, the desired through route to Salisbury would be created via Radstock at minimum cost.〔 However, when the Bristol and North Somerset Railway (B&NSR) approached the GWR to explore the GWR's willingness to work the line, and to run passenger trains on their Frome - Radstock line, the GWR's reaction was cool.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bristol and North Somerset Railway」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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