West Somerset Railway
Live Cam

This camera looks out over Blue Anchor station on the West Somerset Railway, a preserved line that runs along the edge of the Bristol Channel between Bishops Lydeard and Minehead. The scene is pure branch line England: cream and brown Great Western style buildings, a signal box beside the level crossing, and the sea only a field or two away.

Why Blue Anchor? Few stations put a heritage railway and a shoreline this close together. Blue Anchor sits on one of the longest preserved lines in England, and it keeps the small details that make such places worth watching: semaphore signals, manually worked crossing gates, staff walking the platform, and locomotives that were built to be looked at rather than hurried past.

Blue Anchor Station highlights: As you enjoy the live view, be sure to look out for:

• Steam Arrivals: On operating days you can catch a steam locomotive drawing in, with the crew leaning from the cab and passengers stepping down onto the platform.
• Signal Box And Gates: Watch the signalman work the crossing gates and semaphore arms, a piece of railway practice that has largely vanished from the main line network.
• Coastal Weather: Blue Anchor Bay sits just beyond the station, so the light and cloud rolling in off the Bristol Channel change the mood hour by hour.

Beyond the Platform: Blue Anchor lies between Watchet and Dunster on the Somerset coast, with Minehead at the far end of the line and the hills of Exmoor rising inland. The bay itself is a broad stretch of sand and shingle, and the surrounding villages are the sort of quiet, stone built places that reward an unhurried afternoon.

Thanks to Railcam and the West Somerset Railway for keeping this view online. Volunteer run railways survive on enthusiasm and hard work, and sharing a live window onto the platform lets people far from Somerset follow the line's daily rhythm for free.

Tune in for a quiet stretch of Somerset coast where the gates still swing by hand and, on the right day, a steam engine comes drifting into the platform.