page_title: Southampton and Dorchester Railway
section_title: After opening day
hierarchical_section_title: Southampton and Dorchester Railway / After opening day
caption_attribution_description: English: Dorchester - Waterloo express at Parkstone. View SW, towards Poole, Dorchester and Weymouth: ex-LSW Waterloo - Bournemouth - Weymouth main line, also towards Broadstone, the S&amp;D and Wimborne etc. The 13.50 Summer Saturday Dorchester South to Waterloo has Bulleid Light Pacific No. 34041 'Wilton' (built 10/46 as No. 21C141, renumbered 1/49, withdrawn (unrebuilt 1/66).
context_page_description: The Southampton and Dorchester Railway was an English railway company formed to join the named towns, with hopes of forming part of a route from London to Exeter. It received Parliamentary authority in 1845 and opened in 1847. It was promoted by Charles Castleman of Wimborne and became known as Castleman's Corkscrew because of the meandering route it followed.
  Its route in the New Forest was determined by the requirements of the Commissioners of the Forest, and west of Brockenhurst it ran via Ringwood; at that time Bournemouth was not considered an important settlement; Poole was served by a branch to Lower Hamworthy, across a toll bridge from the town.
  In the late nineteenth century, a shorter route via Christchurch and Bournemouth was built, and the line between Lymington Junction and Hamworthy Junction was reduced to the status of a local branch line, finally closing in the 1960s. However the end sections, from Southampton to Lymington Junction and from Hamworthy Junction to Dorchester, remain operational and form part of the important Weymouth to London main line.
context_section_description: The Blechynden station was a temporary one because of a legal dispute; a permanent structure a little to the west came into use in 1850, later being renamed Southampton West. The section of line from Blechynden to the LSWR terminus only opened for traffic from the night of 5 and 6 August 1847, although there were passengers on a test train which ran on 29 July 1847.
  There was a serious collision on 20 September 1847, near Wool; the mail train from Dorchester was very late in reaching Wareham, and the station master there sent a pilot engine out on the single line to find out what was wrong. At a point on the line where forward visibility was limited on a curve, and there was a collision "of a fearful character". There were apparently only two passengers in the train, and they escaped without injury, but "considerable damage is done to both engines, and several carriages are said to be shattered".
  The LSWR was embarrassed by the public criticism of the lack of the electric telegraph, and installed it "by the end of the year".
  The stations at opening were:
  Blechynden, sometimes referred to as the Blechynden Terrace station in contrast to the LSWR terminus;
  Redbridge
  Lyndhurst, sometimes known as Ashurst at first;
  Beaulieu; or Beaulieu Road;
  Brockenhurst;
  Christchurch Road, sometimes known as Ossemley Ford or Osmondly Ford;
  Ringwood;
  Leonards Bridge; a rudimentary stopping place at a passing loop; probably discontinued during 1847 or 1848;
  Wimborne
  Poole Junction;
  Poole; the terminal on the branch, on the south side of the inlet; there was a toll bridge to the town; Poole Bridge had been opened in 1834;
  Wareham;
  Wool;
  Moreton;
  Dorchester.
  The Dorchester station was aligned for extension towards Bridport and Exeter, but its location was probably chosen to enable a joint station with the Wilts Somerset and Weymouth line, with which the Southampton and Dorchester was friendly at the time of planning the route.
  In the short independent life of the Southampton and Dorchester Railway there was no change to the number of stations or their location, although Leonards Bridge may not have survived long.
  In November 1846 the Company applied for Parliamentary powers for an ambitious group of extensions: a short branch to Eling, an industrial centre on an inlet from Southampton Water, and branches to Lymington, Blandford, and a line to Weymouth independent of the Wilts Somerset and Weymouth Railway. The Act obtained the Royal Assent in July 1847, but the financial collapse following the Railway Mania resulted in money becoming impossible to obtain. Only the short Eling line (usually referred to as the Eling Tramway) was built, opening probably in April 1851.
caption: Dorchester - Waterloo express at Parkstone (1958)
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