Memories of the Bridport Branch, Dorset

[30907]

Going by the lines that have survived, that ten of fifteen passengers would likely be substantially more nowadays.

Sadly the only significant housing development likely to produce schoolchildren and shoppers is at Loders which had no station (of course one could have been built, and the secondary school has relocated about a mile from Bridport station.
My one trip was on the 16xx from Bridport, having trekked from the town centre, and I don't recall significant numbers of passengers of any age.

 

[yorksrob]

Sadly the only significant housing development likely to produce schoolchildren and shoppers is at Loders which had no station (of course one could have been built, and the secondary school has relocated about a mile from Bridport station.
My one trip was on the 16xx from Bridport, having trekked from the town centre, and I don't recall significant numbers of passengers of any age.

I'd have loved to have done it. Shame it didn't get thumpers !

I'll post a link to the video when I'm home

 

[Friary Yard]

Toller Station building is now at Totnes on the South Devon Railway

 

[30907]

I'd have loved to have done it. Shame it didn't get thumpers !

It was back in the WR several years before Thumpers ran into Dorset

Even a 2-H would have been overkill, and you wouldn't have been able to watch the crew work the level crossings.

 

[yorksrob]

It was back in the WR several years before Thumpers ran into Dorset

Even a 2-H would have been overkill, and you wouldn't have been able to watch the crew work the level crossings.

Yes, the bubble cars (to 153's) in an ideal world were perfect for the job. That aside, a 2-carriage thumper was only a carriage and a half !

 

[DerekC]

It's a beautiful part of the world. I have walked the walkable bits and talked to the guy who bought Powerstock station at (or I think actually before) closure and still lives there! I hope Sustrans is successful in getting the cycleway complete, because it would make sure that the effort put into building it wasn't entirely wasted.

Extending the service to Dorchester would have made lots of sense, and the double track on the old Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth main line could have been retained as far as Maiden Newton to allow sufficient capacity. But the thinking was all about running down the railways and saving money in those days.

Bridport station was quite a way from the town centre and would have been on the edge of countryside when originally built. Ironically the modern town has now surrounded it. I read somewhere that the council in the 1970s wanted the station site for redevelopment (it's now home to Co-op, Lidl, Toolstation etc) - but with a little imagination a single platform terminus could have been integrated into the new development - maybe even moving it a bit nearer the town centre, sharing the alignment of the old West Bay branch with Sea Road North, built (I guess) in the late 70s.

Thanks to the OP for posting.

 

[randyrippley]

Bay itself is an absolute nightmare in the summer. Thanks to "Broadchurch" (and the earlier "Harbour Lights", which few people seems to remember) it is mobbed with sightseers and it has very limited space and facilities to cater for large numbers

You can still blame a lot of those sightseers on Reggie Perrin

 

[Enthusiast]

You can still blame a lot of those sightseers on Reggie Perrin

I didn't get where I am today trying to remember where Reginald Iolanthe Perrin ran into the sea!

 

[Undaunted]

It is still very picturesque. I have relatives living in West Bay and visit three or four times a year. It is a complete backwater as far as public transport goes. There is, of course, no railway presence along the coast between Weymouth and Exeter. Last time I looked National Express ran no coaches along that stretch either. There is the X53 bus which runs between the Weymouth and Axminster via West Bay and Bridport (taking about two hours) and that's it.

For anyone minded to take the bus, the X53 service which runs along the coast between Weymouth and West Bay is supplemented in the summer (May to September) by the X52 which is scheduled for open-top buses. The X52 terminates at Bridport and provides, in combination with the X53, an hourly service between Weymouth and Bridport. The section of route between Abbotsbury and Burton Bradstock is stunning, with sweeping views of Lyme Bay when heading west, and Chesil beach when heading east.

The bus goes through Portesham and Abbotsbury - not without railway interest as both were at one time served by a branch line from Upwey (near to Weymouth). Unfortunately, that line didn't survive long enough to be axed by Beeching, let alone making it into the 1970s - it was closed in 1952.

 

[30907]

For anyone minded to take the bus, the X53 service which runs along the coast between Weymouth and West Bay is supplemented in the summer (May to September) by the X52 which is scheduled for open-top buses. The X52 terminates at Bridport and provides, in combination with the X53, an hourly service between Weymouth and Bridport.

There is also the 2-hourly X51 via Dorchester, for comlleteness' sake.