Although just a single line, improvements were needed in the first half of the twentieth century to accommodate the significant number of tourists that wished to travel to the Somerset coast.

A Bristol and English Channels Direct Junction Railway was proposed as a link from Watchet through Stogumber and Bishops Lydeard to Bridport on the south coast, which would be an alternative to ships taking a long and dangerous passage around Land's End.

An alternative link to South Devon was proposed by the Exeter, Tiverton and Minehead Direct Railway through Dunster and offered an extension to Ilfracombe.

On 9 July 1856, local land owner Sir Peregrine Fuller Palmer Acland of Fairfield House, Stogursey arranged a meeting at the Egremont Hotel in Williton.

The promoters had already approached Isambard Kingdom Brunel for his views as the former engineer of the B&ER, and by the time of the meeting he had already undertaken a preliminary survey of the alternative routes.

[2] Brunel was engaged to undertake a more detailed survey and the B&ER agreed to operate the line for ten years in return for 45% of the receipts.

[3] The West Somerset Mineral Railway (WSMR) was intended to link the iron-ore mines of the Brendon Hills with the harbour at Watchet.

Trains ran as usual on Saturday 28 October but the track was lifted the following day and reopened for traffic on Monday afternoon.

[3] Under Great Western influence, there were steady improvements in the line as it carried an increasing level of holiday traffic to the Somerset coast and Exmoor.

[5] Despite the opening of a Butlins holiday camp at Minehead in 1962 which brought some 30,000 people to the town that year, the line was recommended for closure in the 1963 Reshaping of British Railways report.

[2] With the line still proposed for closure, the Transport Users Consultative Committee heard from the Western National bus company that it would require twenty buses in the summer to cope with the influx of holidaymakers, but that most would be idle for much of the year when far fewer people travelled to Minehead and the surrounding district.

[11] The trackwork of the run round loop of No.1 platform was removed from the upline at Minehead, to allow transporter Pickfords to make a suitable railhead connection to enable release of No.6229 Duchess of Hamilton.

Minehead to Blue Anchor was the first section to see trains restored, opening on 28 March 1976 and services were extended to Williton on 28 August the same year.

A new station at Doniford Halt was opened on the coast east of Watchet on 27 June 1987 to serve a holiday camp at Helwell Bay.

[5] In 2004, work started on constructing a new triangle at Norton Fitzwarren which included a part of the old Devon and Somerset line,[13] and a ballast reclamation depot opened there in 2006.

[5] Trains leave Minehead heading south-eastwards on the longest straight and level section of track along the whole line, passing behind Butlin's holiday camp which is on the left between the railway and the sea and then across flat fields.

The line then continues across the concrete channel of the River Avill onto Ker Moor and along the edge of the beach[25] to reach Blue Anchor, 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from Minehead and the first passing loop.

[4] On the opposite side of the line, the goods yard and shed is now used by the West Somerset Railway Heritage Trust for restoration of their heritage carriages,[26] following the vacating of the site by the Somerset and Dorset Railway Trust, who had occupied the site 1976–2023 and ran a museum there with a collection of rolling stock and a display of signalling equipment.

[4] The agricultural landscape is then soon supplanted on the right by the sidings around the West Somerset Railway Association's (WSRA) workshops, which are housed in a corrugated iron building known as the Swindon Shed as it was originally built there more than 100 years ago.

[29] Following the eastern side of a steep valley, it continues to rise with sections at 1 in 100 and 1 in 92 (1.1%)[2] as it approaches the small station at Stogumber, 13 miles (21 km) from Minehead.

Passing the engineers' depot at Fairwater Yard on the right, one soon arrives at Taunton, the traditional junction station for trains running the 24.75 miles (39.83 km) to Minehead.

After gaining planning permission from Somerset County Council, and approval of a drainage plan from the Environment Agency (conditions of which stipulate that the site must be fully reverted to meadow pasture at the termination of ballast recycling operations) the WSRA came to an agreement with NR to utilise spent ballast and rail from their track renewals programme.

[14][34] The funds generated from ballast recycling allowed the WSRA to develop the triangle as originally proposed and an inner chord to create sufficient space in which to safely turn trains before the junction with the main line.

[33] Visiting BR Standard Class 7 70000 Britannia was the first locomotive to officially be turned on the Norton Fitzwarren triangle during the Spring Steam Gala in March 2012.

The engine shed was closed in 1956 after which time all trains were provided from the Taunton end and the timetable was cut back to ten round trips.

Four regular timetables are run on different days depending on expected demand, varying from two to four trains in operation, each of which makes two round trips which gives between four and eight services each way.

[36] Most trains are formed from British Rail Mark 1 coaches painted in a chocolate and cream livery, based on the most familiar one used by the GWR but with WSR crests.

The WSRA owned and operated Quantock Belle fine dining train is also formed from BR Mark 1 coaches, but each is painted in a livery reminiscent of Pullman cars and also named.

It had little to do once the railway became a purely seasonal heritage line but, in 1984 to coincide with the GW150 celebrations, was revived for education and historical research into the Minehead branch, and now has a small museum at Blue Anchor.

[47] While Washford was under their custodianship, the Trust developed a workshop and yard, where they restored a number of former S&DJR goods wagons and coaches, as well as "Kilmersdon", a Peckett 0-4-0ST locomotive.