The East Somerset Railway (ESR) is an ex-Great Western Railway branchline running through the Mendip hills near Shepton Mallet, Somerset. Steam trains run all year, with a 5-mile round trip through the rolling countryside. It was inaugurated in 1855 and opened as a broad-gauge line from Witham on the Westbury to Weymouth line to Shepton Malletin 1858, extending to Wells in 1862. Unfortunately, the line was not commercially successful and it was sold to the Great Western Railway in 1874. The railway continued on GWR and then BR hands, essentially unchanged, until 1963 when passenger services were withdrawn.In 1967, the artist David Shepherd bought two steam engines and was looking for somewhere to base them. Whilst a site of dereliction, he could see the potential and so he and some friends purchased the site, and the Cranmore Railway Company was born.