North Somerset Light Railway Company

• In the 1950s there was an attempt to reopen part of the WC&PR as a narrow gauge railway for tourists. The prime movers were Mr S Jones-Frank and Major WDI Gunn, Bristol railway enthusiasts.

• In March 1955, the British Transport Commission approved the foundation of the North Somerset Light Railway Company, the first private railway company to be floated since nationalisation.

• They planned to run 12 trains a day on a 6.5 mile stretch of 2’ 8” gauge track between Clevedon and the outskirts of Weston at Worle. The original trackbed was to be followed to a point a little short of the Clevedon station, departing from the route and curving towards Salthouse Fields where it would terminate.

• In 1956 they purchased a loco, Septimus: a Peckett 0-4-2ST No 1808 built in 1930, from the Furzebrook Railway. Since the railway was never built, they never used it. According to the Purbeck Mineral & Mining Museum web site, it went to Peckett's works at Bristol in 1956 and was scrapped in 1962.

• Eventually the plans foundered.

 This subject is still being researched. More details to follow - watch this space.