Planning and Construction

The Southampton

Southampton

Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...

 and Dorchester Railway, operating in the counties of Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

 and Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

, received Parliamentary Assent in 1845 and opened in 1847. The railway was promoted by a Wimborne solicitor, Charles Castleman. It was known as Castleman's Corkscrew because of the circuitous route it followed to cover the population in the area it served, and only served the port of Poole

Poole

Poole is a large coastal town and seaport in the county of Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester, and Bournemouth adjoins Poole to the east. The Borough of Poole was made a unitary authority in 1997, gaining administrative independence from Dorset County Council...

 via a branch to Lower Hamworthy, a ferry crossing from the centre of the town. Poole was then served by a branch from Broadstone

Broadstone (Dorset) railway station

This article refers to the former station in Dorset, England. For the similarly named station in Ireland see Broadstone railway station....

 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...

. However, the rapid growth of Bournemouth

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...

 as a town made the Ringwood line vulnerable to replacement by a newer service. The construction of a branch from Ringwood

Ringwood

Ringwood is a historic market town and civil parish in Hampshire, England, located on the River Avon, close to the New Forest and north of Bournemouth. It has a history dating back to Anglo-Saxon times, and has held a weekly market since the Middle Ages....

 to Christchurch

Christchurch

Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

, later extended to Bournemouth East, only stimulated demand. In the late nineteenth century cutoff lines across Holes Bay, another connecting the two Bournemouth lines and from Brockenhurst

Brockenhurst

Brockenhurst is a village situated in the New Forest, Hampshire, England. The New Forest is a national park and Brockenhurst is therefore surrounded by woodland that attracts thousands of visitors all year round. The nearby towns surrounding Brockenhurst are Lymington and Lyndhurst. Brockenhurst...

 to Christchurch

Christchurch

Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

 shortened the journey time to the new resort and all points west and left the line through Ringwood as a backwater.
Subsequently passenger numbers fell and the services were withdrawn in the Beeching Axe

Beeching Axe

The Beeching Axe or the Beeching Cuts are informal names for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard...

 purges.

Dorchester South

During the 1840s when the line was being planned Dorchester was intended as a station on a line from Southampton to Exeter rather than Weymouth. This resulted in the station being built off the line of the Weymouth branch, the curve to which was opened in 1857. Trains in both directions would draw into the single platform of a one sided station. Trains from Weymouth passed the station, then reversed in. Trains from Bournemouth would go in past the up platform to reach their own, then leave the station heading back toward Bournemouth and reverse to reach Weymouth. An 1877 accident brought criticism of this practice from the Board of Trade. As a result, in 1879 a separate down platform was built on the inside of the curve. The platform to allow up trains to call without reversing was not built until 1970. The original platform, still with the station booking office and buffet but devoid of track and aloof from the line it served, was demolished after a new building had been provided on the curve in 1986. By this time any prospect of westward expansion had long been abandoned.

The Line Today

The line is still open from Southampton to the site of Lymington Junction, a mile west of Brockenhurst. The line is closed from there to Hamworthy Junction and Holes Bay Junction north of Poole.

The route from Lymington Junction to Hamworthy Junction was closed to passenger traffic on the 4th of May 1964, however much of this part of the route was kept open for freight services. Initially, track lifting begun on the section that crosses the New Forest between Lymington Junction and Ringwood, this being completed in 1965.

The line from Broadstone to Hamworthy Junction was closed to freight in 1966 and thus was lifted. Freight continued to Ringwood until August 1967 before being truncated yet again, this time back to a military fuel dump at West Moors. Trains continued to serve the fuel dump at West Moors up until 1974, before being cut back further still to Wimborne. A light freight service and the use of the sidings at Wimborne for stabling of an exhibition train kept the Line open for a further 3 years. Finally the remaining stub from Holes Bay Junction to Wimborne was closed in 1977.

Having used the new lines from Brockenhurst, trains on the South Western Main Line

South Western Main Line

The South Western Main Line is a railway line between London Waterloo and Weymouth on the Dorset coast, in the south of England. It is a major railway which serves many important commuter areas, as well as the major settlements of Southampton and Bournemouth...

 continue to Weymouth. Oddly, all mileposts west of Hamworthy still give the distances from London Waterloo via the no longer extant Ringwood route.
The disused portion between Ringwood and Hamworthy Junction forms the Castleman Trailway

Castleman Trailway

The Castleman Trailway is a footpath in Southern England. Portions of the trailway are also a cyclepath but the middle section from West Moors to Wimborne is not cyclable....

.

The line past the old Southampton terminus into the eastern docks is still used for occasional specials,http://www.petermilford.co.uk/Steam/2007/34067/ and boat trains like that which connected with the maiden voyage of the Queen Mary 2 http://www.thecunarders.co.uk/The%20Cunarder%20Boat%20Train.html. These are sometimes operated using the stock of the Venice-Simplon Orient Express

Venice-Simplon Orient Express

The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express is a private luxury train service that travels from London to Venice that is popularly referred to as the Orient Express....

.

A report from the Association of Train Operating Companies

Association of Train Operating Companies

The Association of Train Operating Companies is a body which represents 24 train operating companies that provide passenger railway services on the privatised British railway system. It owns the National Rail brand. The Association is an unincorporated association owned by its members...

 (ATOC) published in June 2009 recommended the rebuilding of part of the line from Brockenhurst to Ringwood

Ringwood railway station

Ringwood is a closed railway station in the county of Hampshire which served the town of Ringwood. It lay on the former Southampton and Dorchester Railway, the original main line from Brockenhurst to Dorchester...

. The report looked into the feasibility of reopening disused lines and stations, it concluded that there was a business case for investing £70m in the new link with an hourly service.