Take a Trip to Weymouth from Trowbridge in Style

From Sunday 17th July, until the 11th September 2011, you could be travelling to Weymouth in style from Trowbridge station. Well if you have the money to spare that is. The Railway Touring Company are offering a trip down memory lane on trains that will take you back to seaside trips in the 1950s.

The trains, hauled by a steam locomotive will leave Bristol Temple Meads at 09.15, stopping at Keynsham and Bath, before heading on to Trowbridge, followed by Westbury and finally Frome.

The train will continue to Bruton and Castle Cary, where it leave the main line and head south on the Weymouth Branch. It will pass through Yeovil Pen Mill and then there follows a long steep climb through the Dorset Hills up to the summit at Evershot Tunnel. It is mainly downhill from Evershot Summit through Maiden Newton, and Dorchester, to Weymouth. Once in Weymouth, you will be able to spend about four hours by the sea before the train departs at 17.00.

The steam locomotives being used for these trips come from the following pool:

- No. 4936 Kinlet Hall, Hall class 4-6-0, built at Swindon in 1929 by the Great Western Railway (GWR), a 'mixed traffic' locomotive for use on passenger and freight trains.

- No. 5029 Nunney Castle, Castle class 4-6-0, built at Swindon in 1934 by the GWR, for use on express passenger trains.

- No. 70000 Britannia, Britannia class Pacific 4-6-2, built at Crewe in 1951 to British Railways 'standard' design, the first 'standard' to be built, and used on express passenger trains in East Anglia.

The price for this trip doesn't come cheap though. A standard class adult comes in at £55, while a family is £140. While if you're feeling flush, a trip in the first class carriage will set you back £85, or £215 for a family. First class includes morning coffee and Danish pastries and then tea and biscuits in the afternoon.

Would a trip like this take your fancy from Trowbridge to Weymouth?