Southampton and Dorchester Railway

The Southampton and Dorchester Railway was an English railway company formed to join Southampton in Hampshire with Dorchester in Dorset, with hopes of forming part of a route from London to Exeter. It received Parliamentary authority in 1845 and opened in 1847.[1]

v t e Southampton and Dorchester Railway
Legend
to Eastern Docks South West Main Line Southampton Terminus Southampton Tunnel Southampton West End (1847–95) Southampton Central (1895–) to Western Docks Millbrook Redbridge Wessex Main Line River Test Totton Fawley branch railway Lyndhurst Road Beaulieu Road Brockenhurst Lymington Branch Line Lymington Junction Holmsley South West Main Line to Bournemouth Ringwood Ringwood, Christchurch & Bournemouth Railway to South West Main Line and Bournemouth Ashley Heath Salisbury & Dorset Junction Railway West Moors Wimborne Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway South West Main Line to Bournemouth Broadstone Poole Creekmoor Halt Poole Quay Line Holes Bay Junction Former Poole to Hamworthy ferry Holes Bay Lower Hamworthy Goods (Original Poole station) Hamworthy Junction Lake Halt Holton Heath Wareham Worgret Junction Swanage Railway Wool Moreton Wilts, Somerset & Weymouth Rly to Yeovil Dorchester South Dorchester West Wilts, Somerset & Weymouth Rly to Weymouth Unbuilt extension to Exeter

It was promoted by Charles Castleman of Wimborne Minster, and became known as Castleman's Corkscrew because of the meandering route it followed.[2][3]

Its route across 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 19th century, a shorter route via Christchurch and Bournemouth was built, and the former main 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 South West Main Line.