Steam Returns to Midsomer Norton - Saturday 27th February 2016

2016 sees the 50th Anniversary of the closure of the Somerset & Dorset Railway. To commemorate the occasion, the Somerset & Dorset Railway Heritage Trust based at Midsomer Norton brought in a guest steam loco to haul public trains over two weekends on the short line for the first time since 1966. The guest loco was in the form of LMS 3F 'Jinty' No. 47406 from the Great Central Railway. While this was not the first Jinty to visit the line in the preservation era (No 47493 visited back in 2005), it was the first to carry passengers along the line. Also in action was resident Sentinel No 7109, returning to steam for the first time in preservation, with it only making its first movements the previous week! While it was not in service on the passenger train, it was to be seen running up and down the former up line, racing alongside the passenger trains. The resident 08 also saw action on the passenger train in the morning, after the Jinty suffered a brake issue which prevented it from operating the first trains of the day. The 08 is not seen in action in this video.