Witham to Yatton Branch

As the author observes in his introduction ‘The branch line situated in North Somerset running from Witham on the Wilts, Somerset & Weymouth Railway, south of Bath, to Yatton, on the Bristol & Exeter Railway, was a curious line.’ Curious because from Yatton to Wells it was the Cheddar Valley Railway and was built as broad gauge as was the East Somerset Railway from Witham to Wells, but linking the two railways was the standard gauge Wells Branch of the Somerset & Dorset Railway. The first two were taken over by the GWR, but the Somerset & Dorset eventually became part of the LMS meaning the GWR had to use the other company’s metals to travel from one of its stations in Wells to the other. Also curious is the name the Cheddar Valley Railway as it doesn’t run in a valley. In the usual Oakwood format Colin Maggs explains all this over ten chapters. There are ten appendices also as well as maps and track diagrams, photographs, timetables and all the usual paraphernalia of the in-depth Oakwood Press treatment.