Bournemouth Belle
Encyclopedia
Bournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
Belle was a named train run by the Southern Railway (Great Britain)
Southern Railway (Great Britain)
The Southern Railway was a British railway company established in the 1923 Grouping. It linked London with the Channel ports, South West England, South coast resorts and Kent...
from 1931 until nationalisation in 1948 (with a break for the war until 1947) and subsequently by British Railways until it was withdrawn on 9 July 1967.
The train, composed of Pullman
Pullman train (UK)
Pullman trains in Great Britain were mainline luxury railway services that operated with first-class coaches and a steward service, provided by the British Pullman Car Company.-Origins:...
stock, first ran on Sunday 5 July 1931. It initially ran direct from , leaving at 10:30, to Bournemouth Central, returning at 19:18. The service was later amended to call at Southampton
Southampton Central railway station
Southampton Central railway station is a main line railway station serving the city of Southampton in Hampshire, southern England. It is on the Wessex Main Line, the South Western Main Line and the West Coastway Line...
, and extended from Bournemouth Central to Bournemouth West
Bournemouth West railway station
Bournemouth West railway station was a railway station in Bournemouth, Dorset, England. It closed on 4 October 1965. The station was the southern terminus of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, as well as being the terminus for trains from London Waterloo and other local trains.-Closure:The...
. Journey time was between two hours one minute and two hours twenty minutes, depending on direction, configuration and motive power.
At first the train ran on summer Sundays. It was sufficiently successful to be run on all weekends and summer weekdays until in 1936 it was a daily working.
Before the war the train was usually hauled by SR Lord Nelson Class
SR Lord Nelson Class
The SR class LN or Lord Nelson class is a type of 4-cylinder 4-6-0 steam locomotive designed for the Southern Railway by Richard Maunsell in 1926. They were intended for Continental boat trains between London and Dover harbour, but were also later used for express passenger work to the South-West...
locomotives. On its reintroduction on 7 October 1947 the superior SR Merchant Navy class
SR Merchant Navy class
The SR Merchant Navy class , was a class of air-smoothed 4-6-2 Pacific steam locomotives designed for the Southern Railway of the United Kingdom by Oliver Bulleid...
provided motive power. The final trains in 1967 were hauled by British Rail Class 47
British Rail Class 47
The British Rail Class 47, is a class of British railway diesel-electric locomotive that was developed in the 1960s by Brush Traction. A total of 512 Class 47s were built at Crewe Works and Brush's Falcon Works, Loughborough between 1962 and 1968, which made them the most numerous class of British...
diesels.
Brighton Belle
The Brighton Belle was a named train which ran on the Southern Railway from Victoria Station in London to Brighton, on the Sussex coast. The first electric all-Pullman service in the world, it ran from 29 June 1934 till 30 April 1972.-History:...
and the Devon Belle
Devon Belle
The Devon Belle was a luxury express passenger train in England which ran between London Waterloo station and Ilfracombe and Plymouth in Devon in the years from 1947 to 1954.-The train:...
. British Railways introduced the Thanet Belle
Thanet Belle
The Thanet Belle was a named train run by the Southern Region of British Railways from 1948 until it was withdrawn in 1958 due to the electrification of the route...
in 1948.