DUE to be evicted from its Washford Station headquarters on February 10, Somerset and Dorset Railway Trust has been given a last-minute reprieve and will be allowed to stay for another six months while further negotiations continue, the S&DRT and its landlords – the West Somerset Railway – announced this week.

Last February, the trust was given a year’s notice to quit by the WSR which wanted to take over the station, which now houses the trust’s museum, and which had become an award-winning tourist attraction.

Last November it was announced that the two sides had started discussions concerning a ten-year lease which would allow the trust to restore and maintain its rolling-stock at Washford, although the station would revert to WSR management.

A joint statement said: “This follows from the Washford Yard not now being required by the WSR in its entirety in the foreseeable future although the plc will, by agreement with the trust, wish to use the yard from time to time during the period of the new lease.”

In the meantime, negotiations began with the Watercress Line heritage railway for the trust’s museum and rolling-stock to be moved to Hampshire. Its locomotive 53808 is already operating on the Watercress Line.

Trust chairman Ian Young said this week: “Despite intense negotiations, agreement on a new lease has not yet been achieved. However, we are pleased to announce that an agreement has now been signed by the WSR and the S&DRT to extend the notice period to August 10, 2021.

“Discussions on a new ten-year lease will now continue in earnest. There is much left to do as we move much of the museum collection.”

The trust took over the then-derelict Washford station from the WSR in 1970 and created a museum and displays of restored historic rolling-stock.

The trust claimed that a new 50-year extension of the tenancy had been agreed in 2018 and declared the notice to quit was ‘a complete bolt from the blue’.