Wool railway station serves the town of Wool

Wool, Dorset

Wool is a village in the Purbeck district of Dorset, England. The village has a population of 4,118 , though the population has fluctuated over the past 15 years, due to the proximity of military institutions, reaching a high of 4,300 in 1992. The village lies at a historic bridging point on the...

 in 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...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is 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...

 between London Waterloo and .

History

When the Southampton and Dorchester Railway

Southampton and Dorchester Railway

-Planning and Construction:The Southampton and Dorchester Railway, operating in the counties of Hampshire and Dorset, received Parliamentary Assent in 1845 and opened in 1847. The railway was promoted by a Wimborne solicitor, Charles Castleman...

 (S&DR) was opened on 1 June 1847 Wool was one of the original stations on the line. The line was originally built with a single track but no telegraph, with the result that there was a head-on collision between Wool and on 27 September 1847; casualties were light. The S&DR was amalgamated into the London and South Western Railway

London and South Western Railway

The London and South Western Railway was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Its network extended from London to Plymouth via Salisbury and Exeter, with branches to Ilfracombe and Padstow and via Southampton to Bournemouth and Weymouth. It also had many routes connecting towns in...

 (LSWR) on 11 October 1848, and that company doubled the line in stages: the section from to Wool was doubled on 1 June 1863, and the double track was extended from Wool to Dorchester

Dorchester South railway station

Dorchester South railway station is one of two railway stations serving the town of Dorchester in Dorset. The station is located on the London Waterloo–Weymouth main line.- History :...

 on 1 August 1863. In 1960, the station was allocated a camping coach

Camping coach

Camping coaches were offered by many railway companies in the United Kingdom as accommodation for holiday makers in rural or coastal areas.The coaches were old passenger vehicles no longer suitable for use in trains, which were converted to provide basic sleeping and living space at static locations...

 converted from a Pullman car

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:...

, which was fitted with a full kitchen, two sleeping compartments and a room with two single beds.

Services

There is one train per hour in each direction, operated by South West Trains

South West Trains

South West Trains is a British train operating company providing, under franchise, passenger rail services, mostly out of Waterloo station, to the southwest of London in the suburbs and in the counties of Surrey, Hampshire, Dorset, Devon, Somerset, Berkshire, and Wiltshire and on the Isle of Wight...

.