West Somerset Railway

Route Description
West Somerset is the 4th DLC route added to TSW.

Rolling hills, golden meadows and seaside views are yours to experience in Train Sim World: West Somerset Railway, bringing Britain’s longest standard gauge heritage railway to life. Operate your trains in a diesel gala environment and keep the tourists entertained with a diesel-bashing display of powerful locomotives thundering through Somerset’s beautiful countryside. Reproduced in exquisite detail, every station, signal and milepost feel so real you could almost reach out and touch them.

It’s your job to entertain the visitors in the ever-popular Diesel Gala that’s taking place on Britain’s longest heritage railway. Take them for a trip down memory lane as you show off the characterful Class 47 and keep the trains running on time with support from the unique Class 09. Whether you’re driving, riding along or watching the show, experience all the sights and sounds of heritage railways at their best.

Route History
Originally opened in 1862, the route ran from Taunton to the port of Watchet, before being extended in 1874 to the current terminus, Minehead. Originally built by the West Somerset Railway Company and the Minehead Railway, the route was absorbed into the Great Western Railway in 1876 and was eventually nationalised into British Railways in 1948.

As British Railways faced financial difficulties during the 1950s and 1960s, the Beeching Report was published in 1963 which advised the closure of 2,363 stations and and 6,000 miles of railway including the West Somerset Railway, which was closed by BR in 1973, one of the last of the Beeching cuts.

When the railway was closed in 1973, Somerset County Council purchased the route and lent it to the West Somerset Railway Company plc. which began re-opening the route as a heritage railway. The first section of the route to re-open was between Minehead and Blue Anchor in 1976, eventually reaching Bishops Lydeard in 1979. The most recent addition was the station at Norton Fitzwarren in 2009.