The Record Shot

LITTLEHAMPTON

(All 21.6.1986 copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

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A succession of pictures taken on 21 June 1986 from the former footbridge at Littlehampton station. This was just before the NSE colours started appearing on trains, and this was just an everyday scene (repeated six times!) Much has now changed, 30 years on. The slam door trains of course have gone, the track layout has been changed and the footbridge has been removed, replaced by a far less photographer friendly one closer to the station.

These days I try to get a lot of atmosphere shots, in an attempt to set the trains within the context of the wider social scene. But I still take plenty of record shots as well. I find the more everyday and mundane the scene the more interesting they become as years pass. Far too many railway photographers take the same shots of steam specials, of the glamorous but slightly fake stuff. Or they pop along to a heritage line and take lots of 3/4 front view shots concentrating on the engine. All the time there are fantastic shots that never get taken!

I also hear a lot of complaints about 'railways not being as interesting as they used to be'. This has always been said, and probably always will be. It's true to an extent of course, but we are all affected by this feeling that we've just missed out. I did just miss out on everyday steam, at least for photos, but I did at least see real steam on action on the network - at Ryde, at Lyminster, at Waterloo. But I got to photograph the class 33s and 50s on passenger duties, the WR diesel-hydraulics on the sea wall at Dawlish, the Bridport branch, Swanage, Okehampton, Kemp Town and a good few other lines that have closed or become heritage lines.

Just get out there and snap and don't complain! Future generations will be grateful that you did, and envy what YOU saw ...

Dorchester West 1973

DORCHESTER WEST

(All pics 7.8.1973 copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

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I'd caught tantalising glimpses of Dorchester West on car trips to the west country in the 60s and had always assumed it to be closed! It was boarded up and run down and I never saw a train there.

Years later I got to visit the station, walking from Dorchester South to catch a train to Maiden Newton and changing for Bridport. It was still boarded up but definitely open!

This has always been a delightful route, similar to the S&D in many ways. Whilst the Bridport branch is no longer (currently!) open the main line onwards to Yeovil and Castle Cary is, and busier than it's been for many years. Back in 1973 there were first generation DMUs and (as the pictures show) some class 47 hauled trains as well. I've never seen freight on this line.

All in all a recommended route, though more for scenery than trains!

Bridport stirs!

BRIDPORT

3 above 7.8.1973 copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing

Bridport 25.2.1975 copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing

POWERSTOCK

Powerstock 25.2.1975 copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing

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This was a lovely line that I was lucky enough to visit twice before closure (and once after). From the classic GWR junction station on the wonderful (and busier than ever) Weymouth to Castle Cary line at Maiden Newton it followed a very rural route through hills and valleys and via the classic village stations at Toller and Powerstock to a crumbling and overgrown station in Bridport.

It struggled on as late as 1975, but was closed completely in that year, one of the last major rail closures in the UK. A few more years and this would never have happened. There were a couple of half hearted attempts to get trains back to Bridport, both narrow gauge and only one looking at reopening the original route. Both schemes were well ahead of their time, espcially the Brit Valley Railway scheme which probably is STILL a few years ahead of its time, proposing a modern narrow gauge network including routes to Weymouth and Crewkerne. After the Oil Age has gone I'm sure that scheme will go ahead.

There are some (currently very tentative) aims to rebuild the line as a standard gauge heritage and community railway. There is very little if any encroachment on the line except at the extreme Bridport end and no major engineering issues. The line is in a very busy tourist area, and the town of Bridport could easily support a railway in the 21st century. With the potential reopening of the Weymouth Tramway and the incredible success of the Swanage Railway there is plenty to attract railway enthusiasts to the area, to add another layer of potential traffic to this line.

LINKS -

DISUSED RAILWAYS

BRITISH BRANCH LINES

WESTERN REGION SCENE - 1970s

DORSET TRANSPORT HISTORY 

Bridport reawkening ...

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I do think it's time to start seriously looking at rebuilding this branch throughout from Maiden Newton to West Bay. Bridport is far too large not to be rail served, and the need will only increase in the future. This line always struck me as very rural (except in Bridport itself) which suggests there is little if any encroachment and the cost of purchasing the route would not be ridiculously high. As well as offering a full passenger and freight service it would surely make an excellent heritage style line as well. It is in a busy tourist area but the nearest steam line is a good hour away, so it's an open market. Bridport itself should provide plenty of volunteers. British seaside resorts are seeing a huge revival and West Bay would be an excellent terminus for this fantastic line. In 1975 even the Dorchester to Castle Cary route was a struggling single line, it now is much busier. It's this line's time!

 

toller interlude

(All copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing 25.2.1975)

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Toller was a charming intermediate station on the Bridport branch, and was to close just a few months after these pictures. The Bridport branch was very rural throughout, but did serve the largish town of Bridport. It was perhaps surprising that a rural village like Toller could maintain a station in 1975, I can imagine how the loss of the railway has damaged house prices and will cause real problems in the future if the line is not reopened. But I'm now sure this will happen as being so rural it will be easy to rebuild and demand even now would be much higher than in 1975 which was just about the nadir of the railway system in the UK. Lines like this will be rebuilt in their hundreds as the oil starts to run out, using either flywheel electric transmission or new build ultra-modern steam. The golden age of railway braach lines is ahead, not behind, us!

The station building is now at Totnes (Littlehempston) station on the South Devon Railway, so is still in use.

More info (via Wikipedia)

Toller was a railway station on the Bridport Railway in the west of the English county of Dorset. The station served the village ofToller Porcorum. Opened on 31 March 1862, five years after the branch, it consisted of a single platform and modest wooden building.

History

Opened by the Bridport Railway, but operated from the outset by the Great Western Railway, it was placed in the Western Region when the railways were nationalised in 1948.

The branch was threatened with closure in the Beeching report, but narrow roads in the area, unsuitable for buses, kept it open until 5 May 1975. In its final years, trains were normally formed of a single carriage Class 121 diesel railcar.

The site today

The platform can still be seen from the overbridge although the building was moved to Littlehempston on the South Devon Railway, a heritage line.