VOLUNTEERS have reached a major milestone in their work to rebuild a section of railway in Dorset that was ripped up in the 1960s.

The final 400-metre-long rail extension has now been joined up to the existing track at Shillingstone Station, which means there is now 0.5 miles of track.

This will enable North Dorset Railway (NDR) to operate rides for visitors in the future – but volunteers said there is still “much work to be done” before its planned opening date of 2026.

The joining of the extension to the existing track was marked with the customary insertion of a ‘golden screw’ – a normal screw that was painted gold, unlike the original solid gold spike which joined the rails of America’s first transcontinental railroad which started the tradition.

An NDR spokesperson said: “Blessed with a dry spring, and now with the station in sight, there was no stopping the determined band of volunteers making up the ‘Permanent Way’ team, and the final sleepers were put in place, and rails cut to length, fitted and fixed last Saturday (June 28).

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The project to join the tracks started four years ago when NDR was granted planning consent.

The ‘golden screw’ being put in place Picture: NDR

Work began in September 2021, but the first job was to divert the trailway, the public path that runs along most of the length of the old railway between Sturminster Newton and Blandford Forum, to a safer route alongside.

That was completed in the summer of 2022, allowing work to start at last on preparing the track bed.

It involved major earthmoving to shift a spoil heap at one end and rebuild an embankment at the other and was described as a “mammoth task”, as the reinstatement of the embankment alone used 2000 tonnes of material – and took two years.

The rails being joined up Picture: NDR

Tracklaying started in November 2024 at the northern extension and worked back towards the station, with good progress made through the winter.

The linking bridge was stripped down to its original Victorian brickwork and checked, and by March 2025 the track crossed the bridge, about a third of the way.

The station closed in 1966 during the restructuring of the nationalised railways – but a group took on the lease in 2005 and began restoration works.

Work has seen platforms repaired, tracks re-laid and the station building restored.

Shillingstone Station has a railway museum and café and is open every Wednesday and weekend from 10am to 4pm, with free entry.

For more information about the project, visit www.northdorsetrailway.co.uk/