Great Western Coffee Shop

Somerton to Curry Rivel Junction opened 12 February 1906 to goods trains, 2 July 1906 to passenger train - the final step in changing the "Great Way Round" to that it wasn't quite such a Great Way Round any longer - further cutoffs came to make it even shorter.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading–Taunton_line

Whole book on Western Pathfinder (https://www.westernlocomotiveresearchsociety.com/book-vault-our-titles/d1001-western-pathfinder) available, build date 12th February 1962. History of the class on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_52). Withdrawn in October 1976, she was scrapped in August 1977.

This increased the competition with the LSWR to Plymouth and on the 1st July that year the Salisbury train crash occurred. Cause was excessive speed but underlying this the reason for this excessive speed is still uncertain.
https://www.experiencesalisbury.co.uk/salisbury-blog/2021/june/the-rail-crash-in-salisbury-in-1906/

It's very interesting drawing up time lines and seeing how events are linked - thanks for that connection.

OT but Curry Rivel as a place name is surpassed only by Curry Mallet. It's not an area renowned for good cooks.

Isn't just?  I knew both happened in 1906 but hadn't realised the Salisbury crash was the day before the Somerton - Curry Rivel Jn cut off opened to passenger trains.  Only four years later, the GWR & LSWR came to a pooling agreement that ended the competition for Ocean Liner traffic to/from Plymouth (and incidently, among other things, saw both companies agree not to improve their lines to Barnstaple.  This led to the LSWR immediately cancelling their planned doubling of the Exeter - Barnstaple line north of Copplestone)