The opening of the branch hit the Somerset Coal Canal hard, and by 1898 it was derelict. In 1903 the GWR purchased the canal for £2,000, and extended the Camerton branch along the canal alignment to Limpley Stoke, there forming a junction with the GWR line from Bath to Trowbridge. The first section, about a mile in length from Camerton, reached Dunkerton Pit, and was opened on 26 August 1908, and the remainder on 9 May 1910. From that time most of the coal was routed via Freshford sidings.