1020 Autumn Road Run & Cream Tea at Shillingstone Station Sunday 17 October 2021
12noon – carvery lunch at Hamworthy Sports Club, this is optional and costs £11.50 per head, payable on the day – although we will need to tell the club how many want lunch so this should be indicated on your entry form.
Those who do not wish to have lunch can arrive at the club at 1pm to collect their instruction booklet for a 90minute cross-country road route to Shillingstone where acream tea will be available for those who have pre-booked.
Costing £7.50 per head (purchased in advance when entering the road run) the cream tea will consist of two scones, cream, jam, a slice of home-made Victoria sponge and a pot of tea. Places in the dining carriage are limited to 32 and will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.
For those who want something lighter the station café serves slices of cake and hot drinks which can be ordered on the day and consumed at picnic tables or benches on the platform.
Finishing point will be historic Shillingstone Station located between Blandford and Sturminster Newton, part of the North Dorset Railway and it is here that we will be having the cream tea from 2.30pm onwards and private tours of the signal box.
Shillingstone Station opened in 1863 after the amalgamation of the Somerset Central and Dorset Central Railways to form the Somerset & Dorset Railway which brought holidaymakers from the north to the south coast.
The most famous of these was the Pine Express which in the early 1960s saw a train pass through Shillingstone every 20 minutes.
Under the Beeching Act the station was closed in 1966 and the track taken up. In 2000 a small group of enthusiasts got together to restore the station taking five years of negotiations to obtain a 99 year lease from Dorset Council.
The once derelict station buildings have been restored and now include a small café, shop and museum, while the platforms have been renovated and a short section of track laid which now houses a steam engine and dining carriage – recently permission was granted to extend the track.
Entry form can be found here: 1020 – Autumn Road Run July 2021 entry form
or entry forms will be available at the September and October club nights or via email from Pip Bonner (pip@1020mg.org.uk)