The Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway (WS&WR) was established in 1845 to build a network of lines, running from near Chippenham on the Great Western Railway (GWR) to Salisbury and Weymouth. At that time Radstock was the most important mining centre of the Somerset Coalfield, and the WS&WR included in its plans a branch from near Frome to Radstock. The WS&WR found raising money for its ambitious network difficult, and the Company sold its lines, not all of which were complete, to the GWR on 14 March 1850, confirmed by an Act of Parliament on 3 July 1851. The GWR opened the Radstock branch to mineral traffic only on 14 November 1854, built to broad gauge.