The Salisbury and Yeovil Railway (S&YR) opened the final part of its line from Sherborne on 1 June 1860.

Near Bradford Abbas it crossed over the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth line of the Great Western Railway (GWR) on a bridge, then ran alongside it and the Yeovil Branch Line of the Bristol and Exeter Railway (B&ER) to reach that company’s terminus at Hendford, on the west side of Yeovil.

Just a few weeks later, on 19 July, the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) opened its Yeovil and Exeter line.

A footbridge at the west end connected the two platforms and extended over the branch track to the station forecourt.

January 1963 saw all the lines in the area transferred to the Western Region and this was soon followed by the Reshaping of British Railways report.

Yeovil Town closed to passengers on 2 October 1966, the branch service then operated to Pen Mill until it was withdrawn entirely on 4 May 1968.

The main line had been rationalised on 11 June 1967[3] – Yeovil was now in the middle of a 15.26 miles (24.56 km) single track section between Sherborne and Chard Junction.

[4] This soon proved a rationalisation too far and the double track was restored between Sherborne and Yeovil Junction on 1 October 1967 but all trains had to use the eastbound main line platform.

[5] A limited passenger service to Yeovil Pen Mill was reinstated in 2015 since when this has gradually increased in frequency.

When the double track was reinstated to Sherborne the signal box frame was replaced with a Western Region one of 44 levers.

[5] Now known as "Peppers", in 2009 it appeared in a list of "highly commended" station cafes published in The Guardian[7] but came under new management in 2011.

Beyond is the old westbound platform which is no longer connected to the main station but is used by occasional visiting steam trains and by the Yeovil Railway Centre which lies to the south.

At the far end is a raised earthwork that looks like it once carried another siding, but it is in fact part of the original scheme of 1864 which envisaged another link from Clifton Maybank southwards towards Weymouth which was never completed.

[2] South Western Railway operate services at least once per hour during the daytime to London Waterloo and Exeter St Davids.

A limited service operates to Yeovil Pen Mill, some of which then continue to London Waterloo via Westbury.