The year 1963 will always be remembered as the one when the Sixties really started to swing. The Beatles & Rolling Stones were topping the charts while the mini-skirt & the Mini car had become the latest fashion accessories. For those with an interest in railways however 1963 was memorable for the publication by Her Majestys Stationery Office of Part 1 of the report The Reshaping of British Railways by Dr Richard Beeching then chairman of the British Railways Board. The term reshaping was somewhat of a euphemism as the Report envisaged a radical reduction in the national rail network. Hundreds of stations were to be closed to both freight & passenger traffic along with thousands of miles of track while several thousand staff would be made redundant. This book is intended as a record of how the proposals affecting passenger services in the Wessex Area were ruthlessly implemented over a ten year period. Since then despite the introduction of modern high-speed rolling stock & much track rationalisation the extent of our rail network has remained basically the same. Train services in Wessex today are therefore still very much Dr Beechings Legacy. In addition he bequeathed to the nation a linear network of derelict land which could be put to other purposes including that of heritage railway. The area covered by this book include sections of the counties of Avon Somerset Wiltshire Hampshire Dorset & Gloucestershire.