Disused railway stations on the Bristol to Exeter Line

Apart from the temporary station at Beam Bridge which was only used for a year, the earliest closures were in the Weston-super-Mare area in order to provide new facilities for the traffic to that town, which was much greater than predicted when the line was planned.

The majority of the remaining closures followed Dr Beeching's Reshaping of British Railways report of 1963.

It was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1926[2][3] Originally named Long Ashton Platform, the suffix was dropped on 23 September 1929, and the station was closed on 6 October 1941.

A house was provided for the station master on the road side above the cutting in which it was situated, a signal box and a couple of small buildings were on the platform.

Puxton was a railhead for the milk trains of the London Co-operative Society, who built a creamery next to the station, which was served by its own private siding.

The platforms and station master's house can still be seen immediately east of Puxton level crossing, which is still controlled by a Great Western Railway-built signal box.

On the opposite side of the line is an old milk depot that was rail-connected from 1925 to 1966 but is now used by a business that repairs road goods vehicles.

It closed on 2 January 1922 although the substantial stone building was not demolished until the 1960s and the platforms are still visible beneath the trees that have grown on the site.

The staff cottages, which were built in 1870 alongside the approach road, can still be seen on the south side of the line.

The museum has since closed and the exhibits moved to other sites, but the platforms are still there as is the station master's house, albeit with a more modern extension.

Despite the Langport and Castle Cary Railway opening in 1906, which effectively left Durston and Lyng Halt on a loop line from Cogload Junction, the station continued to serve the branch.

The locomotive turntable was taken out of use on 21 September 1952 and the branch closed on 6 July 1964, with Durston station remaining open only until 5 October 1964.

The only remains today are the Station Hotel and the trackbed of the old branch running off across the moors towards Athelney.

A halt (51°01′25″N 3°02′22″W / 51.0237°N 3.0395°W / 51.0237; -3.0395 (Creech St Michael Halt)) was eventually opened to serve Creech St Michael by the Great Western Railway on 13 August 1928, but this was north of the junction so was unable to serve as a junction station.

A second branch was added on 8 June 1871 when the first section of the Devon and Somerset Railway was opened to Wiveliscombe.

A new station was opened a little nearer Taunton on 2 December 1931, now with two double-sided platforms to cater for the additional two tracks that ran from Cogload Junction to Norton Fitzwarren.

On 11 November 1890 there was a fatal collision due to a signalman's error; the driver misreading signals caused a fatal derailment on 4 November 1940; and a train on fire was brought to a stand after passing the site on 6 July 1978, but several passengers were killed.

The only remains visible is the Station Hotel, standing empty on the west side of the line.

Banking locomotives were kept here, ready to assist heavy westbound trains up to Whiteball Tunnel.

[14] In the October 2021 budget, development funding of £5m was allocated for the reopening of Wellington and Cullompton stations.

Loop lines were installed in 1932 to allow slow trains to be moved aside to let fast ones overtake, and new concrete platforms were provided to serve them.

The Junction station continued to be served by a couple of trains each day for about twenty years but was then closed on 11 May 1986[16] to be replaced by the better sited Tiverton Parkway.

In 1931 the platforms were moved back, the lines were widened to provide two passing loops and a new goods shed and waiting room were constructed.

There is land allocated for re-opening a station at Cullompton but forecast demand is relatively low and so the proposal is for the longer term.

[18] In July 2016 Mid Devon District Council announced that it would spend £40k on engineering design work to test the viability of their concept for a new station.

[18] A grant from the government's Restoring Your Railway Fund was awarded in May 2020 to finance a feasibility study, one of ten projects which were approved in the first round of applications.

[14] In the October 2021 budget, development funding of £5m was allocated for the reopening of Wellington and Cullompton stations.

Freight traffic continued until 3 May 1965 but a private siding serving a paper mill, which had been opened on 26 July 1894, was closed on 31 August 1967.