Join us for our annual celebration of all things diesels between Thursday 6th to Saturday 8th June! Featuring a wide selection of locomotives including visiting locomotives and our home fleet locomotives, which are looked after by the Diesel and Electric Preservation Group at Williton.
An intensive timetable will be operating on all three days, allowing you to hop from train to train to have a truly thrashtastic day behind some of the best heritage Diesel traction available.
Some trains will continue past Bishops Lydeard and run to the very southern end of our line at Norton Fitzwarren, utilising a stretch of line that is very rarely used for passenger trains!
The Williton depot centre of the DEPG will be open on all three days. Admission is by donation, which helps the group to maintain and restore the fleet of vintage locomotives.
Our first confirmed visiting locomotive for the Summer Diesel festival is Class 50 No. 50033 ‘Glorious’, courtesy of the Class 50 Alliance. Nowadays, ‘Glorious’ can normally be found at the Severn Valley Railway, wearing the renowned BR large logo livery, looking as glorious as her name suggests. This is a big comeback year for 50033 as she is fully back in traffic after further restoration work. ‘Glorious’ has visited the West Somerset Railway before; on the 5th June 1993, the locomotive joined two other Class 50s to haul the Pathfinder ‘Bishops Triple’ rail tour from WSR to York. ‘Glorious’, however, only worked this tour to and from Bishops Lydeard and thus our Summer Diesel Festival will be the first opportunity to travel behind this iconic locomotive, all the way to Minehead. This will be the first time Glorious will have visited another railway since her extensive refurbishment and return back to traffic throughout 2018/2019.
Further announcements on visiting locomotives will be made when available - our website and social media platforms will be the most up to date place to receive this information.
Tickets are available to pre-book now at a discounted advance rate.
Locomotive line up:
West Somerset Railway
West Somerset Railway,
The Railway Station,
Minehead Somerset,
TA24 5BG