Chard and Taunton Railway
The Chard and Taunton Railway was a British railway company based in Somerset in south-west England.
The company was founded on August 6, 1861 to build a line from Taunton to Chard . The Bristol and Exeter Railway took over the construction of the line . B&ER took over the company on June 8, 1863.
The line, opened on September 11, 1866, partly ran along the Chard Canal from 1842 and was designed in the broad gauge of 2140 mm. It branched off at Creech Junction (east of Taunton) from the main Bristol-Exeter route and led via Ilminster to Chard. There was a connection with London and South Western Railway . The Great Western Railway switched the route to standard gauge on July 19, 1891. After a temporary shutdown in 1951 due to the energy crisis, the Beeching ax finally left the line in 1964 .
literature
- Christopher Awdry: Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies . Stephens, Wellingborough 1990, ISBN 1-85260-049-7 .