Yeovil Junction railway station serves the town of Yeovil, Somerset, England. The station is on the West of England Main Line south west of London Waterloo towards Exeter. The station, which straddles the border between Somerset and Dorset, is one of two stations serving Yeovil (the other being Yeovil Pen Mill), neither of which is near the centre of the town (unlike Yeovil Town station, which closed in 1967).

History

Yeovil Junction station was opened by the Salisbury and Yeovil Railway on 19 July 1860.

As its name suggests, it was formerly a junction, with the line that served the now defunct station of Yeovil Town. There is still a junction of tracks at this point, enabling trains to be switched onto the Heart of Wessex Line from Castle Cary to Weymouth (which also has a station at Yeovil Pen Mill). However, this routing is now only used as an emergency diversion, typically when the direct route from Exeter to Castle Cary is obstructed by engineering works or flooding in the Exe valley.

Description

It is located in the village of Stoford just outside the town. There are bus routes (South West Coaches Route 68/74 Mon-Sat or First 980 Sunday) that connect the station to Yeovil Town Centre and the nearby village of Barwick.

In 2009 the station buffet "Peppers" appeared in a list of "highly commended" station cafes published in The Guardian.

Gallery

File:Yeovil Junction railway station in 2006.jpg

Services

There is generally an hourly service eastwards to Salisbury and London Waterloo, and hourly or two-hourly service westwards to Exeter depending upon the time of day. Network Rail propose to reinstate a section of double track in the Axminster-Chard area which will improve reliability and provide enough capacity for an hourly service to Exeter.

Some of the services through Yeovil continue beyond Exeter St Davids, after reversing, to Paignton, whilst others go through to Plymouth.

It is usually served by Class 159 DMU units in either single three-car formations or twinned as six-car sets. Occasionally SWT's Class 158 DMU also venture down this far.

The Class 170s that SWT had until recently also used to run down to Yeovil Junction occasionally, but they have all now moved up to First Trans Pennine Express, except 170392 which has gone to Southern. These 170s have been replaced with eight refurbished 159/1xx three-car units, and eventually there will eleven refurbished 158 two-car units.

Due to the influx of additional units at Salisbury depot, sometimes, especially over weekends, SWT stable as many as three 159 units in the sidings at Yeovil next to the unused platforms 3 and 4, .

Most evenings around 20:00 a 159 unit that has terminated at Yeovil returns to Salisbury depot via the junction as an ECS move, heading down to Yeovil Pen Mill, running through Castle Cary up to Westbury, where it reverses down the Warminster line to Salisbury.

 

Routeing

According to section E of the National Routeing Guide, passengers travelling to Yeovil Junction may not travel through Yeovil Pen Mill and vice-versa.

Yeovil Railway Centre

Yeovil Junction is also the base of the Yeovil Railway Centre. The station used to have four active platforms, but as only two are now used (island platform) the other island is used by Yeovil Railway Centre to run their steam engine (Pectin) down a short stretch of track, along with a selection of small Diesel shunters (Ruston - named Yeo) and also diesel loco 50050 (Fearless) which is currently under restoration at the site. The station also has the only mainline accessible turntable in the South West Region so is used as a turning, watering and coaling point for many main line steam services running to Weymouth and Exeter etc.

References