Description

Known locally as the “Tiddly-Dyke” or the “Milky Way”, the latter sobriquet due to the volume of that dairy commodity carried by the line, this long cross country route linking the Midlands via Cheltenham with the South Coast at Southampton via Andover closed over 60 years ago and this volume attempts to capture some of the flavour of the old line. It was always a thorn in the side of the GWR through whose territory it ran audaciously daring to serve the heartland of the company at Swindon. Passing neither to the LMS nor the Southern at the Grouping, as one might have expected given the railway’s title, the line became part of the GWR empire and it was to be the Western Region of British Railways that oversaw the run down and eventual closure to passengers in September 1961. Perhaps not as well loved as similar north to south routes such as the Didcot, Newbury & Southampton or the Somerset & Dorset, the M&SWJR nevertheless has a considerable following which has been reflected in the number of books about the line published since its closure and in the preservation today of part of its course near Swindon.

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