Final journey on railway remembered 60 years on

It has been 60 years since the final locomotive steamed along the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway.

The line ran between Bath in Somerset and Bournemouth in Dorset, serving towns and villages such as Highbridge, Glastonbury, Wells, and Wincanton along the way.

The final service ran on the 5 March 1966, after it fell victim to the Beeching cuts, which saw thousands of miles of track across the UK fall out of use.

Tom Carswell, who was on that final service journey, said: "It was a very sad day."

Carswell, now 70 and living in Sherborne in Dorset, was 10 years old when he took the seven-minute final service between Wincanton and Templecombe at 19:43 GMT that day, and the return an hour later.

"I remember it being a very crowded train," he said. "It was only three coaches, and we had to stand in the corridor, because there were so many people on there."

The landlord of a nearby hotel played the Last Post before the train made its final journey back to Wincanton, while some locals placed a wreath on the front of the locomotive.

"We were absolutely gutted because we had to rely on people with cars then, or buses - and the replacement bus service wasn't up to much.

"It was nothing like as convenient as using the train."

Carswell still visits the line and documents it in videos and photographs.

"I've recorded the walks that I've been doing," he said. "I've walked most of the line that's been, that's available to walk on.

"I've traced the line, photographing where the line used to be, and anything that's left.

"My aim really is to keep it alive so that people remember it... and now I'm retired, of course, I've got the time to do that.

"I just want to keep the memory alive."

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