It opened the first part of the network but found it impossible to raise further money and sold its line to the Great Western Railway (GWR) in 1850.

In the early years of the 20th century the GWR wanted to shorten its route from London to the West of England and built "cut-off" lines in succession to link part of the WS&WR network, so that by 1906 the express trains ran over the Westbury to Castle Cary section.

[1] The cities of Bath and Bristol felt left out of these connections to the South Coast, and the Taunton Courier recorded that a deputation of merchants and traders of Bristol had gone to the Great Western Board; they were not warmly received, and They did obtain that Board's direct admission ... that it was neither expected nor intended that the line to Thingley was to be used as a Communication between Bath and Bradford, but that the intercourse between those two places would be continued as heretofore by coaches and canal.

[2]Hadfield adds in a footnote on the same page that "In fact the [west] curve at Thingley [near Chippenham] was specifically authorised (but not built) to give connection between Bath and Trowbridge.

"[3] At this period the Board of Trade determined the relative merits of competing proposals, and the huge stakes meant that it was crucial to secure their approval; it was reported in the London Gazette on 31 Dec 1844 that the Board of Trade were supportive of the WS&WR scheme, provided the GWR sought to construct a connecting line from Bath to join the WS&WR.

However the Kennet and Avon company was evidently bought off by the GWR, for they dropped their scheme; their minutes of 9 September 1846 record the first instalment of £5,000 having been received in payment.

[4][5] Having deliberated, the Board of Trade announced their decision: they found in favour of the WS&WR scheme, rejecting the LSWR's Swindon line.

In the same session, authorising acts were passed for the Berks and Hants Railway (Reading to Hungerford and Basingstoke, sponsored by the GWR) and the Taunton to Yeovil branch of the B&ER.

Next, insurmountable difficulties were discovered over the hilly route between Dorchester and Weymouth, and a major deviation was needed there; this had to be authorised in the 1847 parliamentary session (on 25 June 1847) so that much time had been lost before construction could start there.

This latter line was not built by the GWR,[note 2] but its development as a scheme provoked renewed hostility from the LSWR camp, and also opposition from the otherwise friendly B&ER.

[1][note 3] In this period, actually obtaining money that had been subscribed was proving exceptionally difficult, and the company was unable to fund continuing construction work.

Only the large, established railway companies with an actual income could raise money, and as the pressure increased, the directors realised that the only way forward was to sell their line to the GWR.

[9] Money was difficult to find even for the GWR, and attention was given to reaching places that might bring in extra traffic without great expenditure in getting there.

To generate much-needed capital to complete the line, the GWR created a Frome, Yeovil and Weymouth Railway company which was authorised by an act of Parliament[which?]

The authorised spur to Bradford-on-Avon had been built in 1848, before the sale to the GWR, but for reasons that are not clear, this section was not opened; Devizes was to have a branch from the time of the original WS&WR act of 1846.

The citizens of Bradford and Devizes now observed the rival towns of Trowbridge and Frome benefiting from their new rail connection, while they languished without an active railway.

)[1] Momentum had been lost—but a lot of money spent—since the original passage of the WS&WR Act of 1846, but there was no alternative to pressing on: the LSWR now had Weymouth in its sights via the Southampton and Dorchester Railway, and it was important to the GWR to secure primacy there.

The GWR had been forced to agree to lay rails for narrow gauge trains, and the LSWR could be charged 60% of gross receipts over that section.

To ensure a strange sort of equity, the Board of Trade required that the LSWR should lay mixed gauge on its line for the same distance, about 8 miles (13 km), eastward from Dorchester, ending "abruptly in mid-country"[10] near Wool.

The GWR pressed ahead with the Bradford to Bathampton section; forming the line under Dundas Aqueduct for the Kennet and Avon Canal proved particularly difficult.

Exceptionally severe frost had caused damage to the lining of Box Tunnel and the extensive repair work necessitated the night-time and Sunday diversion of London–Bristol trains, involving reversal at Westbury or Trowbridge.

The next phase of work was to construct the Langport cut-off, which ran west from Castle Cary to join the Bristol and Exeter line northeast of Taunton.

[14] In the same year a similar railmotor service was started between Chippenham and Trowbridge, with new halts at Lacock, Beanacre, Broughton Gifford and Staverton.

In 1910 the siding accommodation at Limpley Stoke was much enlarged to handle mineral traffic coming from the Camerton line; it was remarshalled there for onward transit.

The railmotors were successful, but they had the limitation that they were unable to cope with peaks of traffic, or to run longer distances, and by 1922 the fleet was substantially reduced, and many were withdrawn in 1935.

The formation had been made as part of the construction of the original main line of the WS&WR, and if it had been opened it would have allowed through running from Bath to Trowbridge.

These enabled agreement between two stations to vary the timetabled crossing of opposing trains on the single line, in the event of late running.

The telegraph was not ready in time for the opening from Yeovil to Dorchester Junction, and working by pilotman was used for the first few weeks, with a crossing place at Evershot.

[note 7] Absolute block working started to be implemented from the end of 1874,[21] and in the following few years recognisable signal boxes were constructed across the system, with interlocking.

At Yarnbrook it crossed the Trowbridge to Westbury road on a viaduct with a central skewed timber truss flanked by two masonry arches.