Burnham-on-Sea railway station

The station, situated behind Abingdon Street, was a terminus although a through platform allowed services to travel on to a 900 ft SCR built stone pier on the River Severn/River Parrett estuary. For a few years the railway operated steamers across the Bristol Channel to Wales. Railway operations onto the pier ceased in 1888 although the pier continued in use for vessels until the 1950s. Perhaps the strangest use of the railway along the pier was by the local area lifeboat, which was pushed on rails from the old lifeboat station (located behind the former Morrisons supermarket) and onto the "main line", across the esplanade, and down the pier where the lifeboat could be launched if the tide…

After the station's closure, the station building, main platform and goods shed were demolished. The excursion platform remained on the derelict site for over a decade, until the former trackbed eastwards was developed into Marine Drive, a road which has helped ease traffic flow into the town. The location of the station itself is on the junction of Old Station Approach and Abingdon Street, and the former goods yard is now a small car park. An adjacent pub on the High Street was subsequently renamed the Somerset & Dorset. The new RNLI station and yard occupy land to the south and east of the former main station building, adjacent to the site of the former excursion platform. The first ever…