On 20 July 1874 the Somerset and Dorset Railway opened its Bath extension, passing through Radstock. Running through Midsomer Norton and Radstock from the south-west it crossed over the B&NSR between the two places, paralleling the B&NSR through Radstock itself. There were thus two adjacent level crossings in the centre of the town. The Bath extension exhausted the S&DR Company financially, and it leased its line to the Midland Railway and the London and South Western Railway jointly on 13 July 1876, and became known as the "Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway".