page_title: Weston-super-Mare railway station
section_title: 1884 station
hierarchical_section_title: Weston-super-Mare railway station / History / 1884 station
caption_attribution_description: English: A map of Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, England showing the location of the various town centre railway stations. The deep red line represents the current branch line which was opened in 1884, the pink lines represent the earlier Great Western Railway branch line which was closed after the new line opened. The station of the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Light Railway is also shown. The sea front, principal buildings and a selection of roads show the relationship of the railways to the town centre.
context_page_description: Weston-super-Mare railway station serves the seaside town of Weston-super-Mare in North Somerset, England. It is situated on a loop off the main Bristol to Taunton Line, 137 miles 33 chains from London Paddington via Bristol Temple Meads.
  The station is operated by Great Western Railway. It consists of two platforms linked by a covered footbridge which is also used as a public footpath between roads on either side of the station. Trains may use either platform in either direction, and many services are booked to pass each other at the station.
context_section_description: The Bristol and Exeter Railway had obtained an Act of Parliament in 1875 to construct a new loop line through the town, which would allow trains to serve the town and then continue along the main line.  No action was taken on this for many years which led to a planning blight along the proposed route.  An 1880 court case forced the Great Western Railway to pay 5% interest to the affected property owners, which prompted the railway company into action.
  The new line and station were opened on 1 March 1884. This was not the end of the old branch line as for several years a trolley was taken along the old tracks to collect mail from a postal train at the old Junction station each night. There was also a need to serve the town's gas works until 1972, and this was done along a short section of the old branch including the level crossing over Devonshire Road which had a roundabout built on it after the remainder of the branch became Winterstoke Road.
  The new station consisted of three platforms – two through platforms and an east-facing terminal bay – and was given hipped glass and iron canopies to keep the weather off passengers. A carriage siding was provided between the two main platforms and some more were built on land to the south of the station. Yet more sidings and an engine shed were on the north side of the line near the 1866 station which quickly found itself being reopened for goods traffic until final closure on 30 June 1966.
  A new terminal station was opened in 1914 to deal with excursion traffic, being known as Locking Road station, while the main station was known as Weston-super-Mare General. Locking Road closed on 6 September 1964.  The area once used by the 1866 and Locking Road stations, along with the sidings, has now been replaced by a Tesco store and a large car and coach park.  The only surviving railway building is the old signal box; originally controlling the 1866 station, it shows signs of a later extension to allow extra signal levers for the larger station.
  The loop line was singled on 31 January 1972. Most of the sidings were removed at this time and the bay platform (Platform 3) was reduced to the status of a siding.  Two signal boxes – one at each end of the station – were closed and new colour light signals provided.  These are controlled from a Panel Signal Box at Bristol Temple Meads, but an emergency panel is situated in the Station Supervisors office that can be used to control the line from Puxton Signal Box to Uphill Junction along both the loop line and avoiding line when there are problems with the normal signalling system.
  The station itself was refurbished in 1986 with a new booking office. A few years later the canopy was renewed. This saw the removal of a few bays of the canopy at the east end of the station, and the replacement of the hipped canopy by a simpler modern design, although the original cast iron columns support this. Some hipped bays remain on the road side of the station entrance as a reminder of how it all once looked.
  The station was listed at Grade II by Historic England on 20 November 2017.
caption: Map of the various stations in Weston
exif: {}