Some tourists

10:40 am and passengers are awaiting the first departure of the year from Williton Station, just a couple of hundred yards/metres from home. The station canopy has been completed and painted, but only just in time. The bases for the overbridge are also finished and the (new) fencing reinstated; it will be November now before the refurbished bridge is lifted into place. This week, the council also took out the unsafe footbridge at Watchet, which will also be replaced during the November closure.

The West Somerset Railway 2011 season got underway on Saturday 19 February. One surprise is the rostering of a visiting locomotive - GWR 4-6-0 no 7812 "Erlestoke Manor" - which will work one of the two steam trains. No 7812 started work by hauling the 10.25am from Bishops Lydeard facing Taunton. Here she is, tender first, entering the station.


"Erlestoke Manor" will continue starting each morning with the first train from Bishops Lydeard, until the Spring Steam Gala. This morning, pulling a full compliment of carriages (inc buffet), it was packed with folk off to Minehead, possibly Butlins, as next week is half term. We did the obligatory waving.

GWR 2-6-2T no 5553 works the Minehead diagram and was the first to arrive at Williton and exchange tokens, seen above before the Manor class loco arrived. There will be four trains a day in each direction 'all this week' (except Monday & Friday) and I look forward to hearing them even as far away as Washford and Sampford Brett.

On the birdy front, I had a flock of 150-200 Siskins together with 20-30 Goldfinch in the Alders along the Doniford Stream between High Bridge and Egrove; they were disturbed by a car coming up the track. I did manage to catch and ring a pair of these diminuitive finches this morning, too. Should be able to catch more of these when the Alder seed runs out sometime next month.

Other news - we have frog spawn in our tiny pond, spotted when fishing out a dead, bloated frog that had four males hanging on to it.