Yeovil Junction railway station

Yeovil Junction railway station serves the town of Yeovil, Somerset, England. The station is on the West of England Main Line 198 km (122¾ miles) south west of London Waterloo towards Exeter and Yeovil Junction is one of two stations serving Yeovil.

It is located in the village of Stoford just outside the town. There is a bus route that connects the station to Yeovil proper and the nearby village of Barwick. The station actually straddles the border between Somerset and Dorset.

As its name suggests, the station 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.

A view of Yeovil Junction in 1907.

The station has an excellent buffet "The Wagon Train" which is open seven days a week, and has won several awards over the years.

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 and also diesel loco 50050 which is currently under restoration at the site. The station also has the only mainline accessible turntable in the south west area so is used as a turning, watering and coaling point for many main line steam services running to Weymouth, Exeter etc.

[edit] Service

There is generally an hourly service to Salisbury and London Waterloo eastbound and Exeter westbound.

It is usually served by Class 159 DMU units in either single three car formation, or twinned as a six car set. Occasionally SWT's Class 158 DMU's and the Class 170 DMU also venture down this far.