The Bridport Railway

August 22, 2008 at 4:00 am (History, Location)
Tags: Bridport, Great Western Railway, Maiden Newton, Powerstock, Toller Porcorum, West Bay

The Bridport Railway was a standard gauge branch line that operated in the county of Dorset in England. Starting at its junction with the Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth Railway line at Maiden Newton, the line ran to the town of Bridport and for a period on to West Bay, also known as Bridport Harbour.

After the idea of a Bridport line was raised in the early nineteenth century the reluctance of the main line companies to build the line resulted in a syndicate of Bridport people deciding in 1854 to build it themselves. At first it was built to the broad gauge and operated by the Great Western Railway, opening on 12th November 1857. The line was subsequently taken fully into that company and operated as a branch from the junction to West Bay, a name given to Bridport Harbour to promote it as a resort due to the harbour trade having fallen while the railway was planned and built. Initially the line had an intermediate station at Powerstock, variously called Poorstock. Later a station was added at Toller.

The line, the last in Dorset constructed to the broad gauge, was converted to standard gauge in June 1874.

During the First World War the West Bay extension was closed as an austerity measure. It re-opened at the end of the war but lost its passenger service in 1930 when the GWR decided that the hoped for resort would never arrive. The goods service continued until 1962 when it was withdrawn and the tracks lifted south of Bridport station. Then in 1965 the goods service was withdrawn from the entire branch and at about the same time steam traction was withdrawn. This left the line as a siding from Maiden Newton operated in the main by a single car Diesel Multiple Unit, usually a Class 122 or similar. The line was marked for closure in the Beeching Report but the narrow roads of the area and a subsidy from Dorset County Council kept it running. Having survived attempts at closure the line finally succumbed in May 1975, perhaps the last closure directly linked to the Beeching report.

The track was lifted during the autumn of 1975 and little trace of it remains in some places.