Lymington Town
The ''London &
Southampton Railway'' commenced through running between Nine Elms and
Southampton on 11th May 1840, a distance of 77-miles. Construction of a
60½-mile-long single-track extension to Dorchester started on 21st July 1845,
having originally been promoted under the guise of the ‘’Southampton &
Dorchester Railway’’. The extension, known as ‘’Castleman’s Corkscrew’’, pursued
a circuitous course between Brockenhurst and Hamworthy, via Ringwood, and came
into use on 1st June 1847. The line had been promoted by a wealthy solicitor of Wimborne, Charles Castleman, who was well aware of the LSWR’s and GWR’s desire
to conquer Dorset. He took the opportunity to play one company off against the
other on the subject of which of the pair would support and operate the line,
trying to make as much profit as possible in the process. The LSWR was first in
line, but dropped out as a result of Castleman’s demanding terms and conditions,
but a keen GWR stepped into the breach. The latter eventually pulled out, too,
for the same reasons, and Castleman returned to the LSWR, the latter now in a
much stronger bargaining position. Both sides eventually agreed terms, and the
solicitor was later given a position on the LSWR Board.
Now onto the branch line. On 7th July 1856, the ‘’Lymington Railway Company’’
was incorporated by an Act of Parliament to construct a four-mile-long
single-track branch between the town quay at Lymington and the LSWR’s
Brockenhurst station. John Cass Birkinshaw was appointed as engineer of the
line, and 1856 was indeed turning out to be a good year for this man. At the
same time, he was selected as engineer for the ‘'Sittingbourne & Sheerness
Railway'', which had been incorporated to construct a seven-mile branch between
Sittingbourne, in Kent, and Sheerness, on the Isle of Sheppey. Little time was
wasted in starting the Lymington scheme, and the first trains started to run
along the Hampshire branch on 1st July 1858. On opening, the line terminated at
a temporary wooden affair in Lymington, since building works at the main station
were far from complete. Unfortunately, all was not rosy for our engineer,
Birkinshaw, and trouble was brewing on Sheppey. Directors of the Sittingbourne &
Sheerness Railway started to become disillusioned with what they considered a
slow rate of construction. Knuckles were wrapped, and the engineer was sacked
from the Kent project, being replaced by T.E. Marsh. Over in Hampshire,
Lymington Town station finally opened on 19th September 1860.
Birkinshaw standardised his architecture across both branches, for very similar
designs emerged at Lymington Town and Queenborough – indeed, even the Sheerness
terminus was a scaled-down version of these buildings. The theme was Gothic, and
a substantial main building, two-storeys-high, emerged on the western side of
the line. The forecourt façade featured twin pitched-roof sections sporting
sash-style windows, and the slated roof sprouted no less than six chimneystacks.
At Queenborough, the main building was painted all over in a whitewash finish,
but peculiarly, that at Lymington only received such treatment to the upper
floor of its eastern elevation. On the eastern side also emerged a single
platform face, serving a basic run-a-round loop formation. Both platform and the
immediately adjacent track were protected by a pitched-roof trainshed, about
80-feet-long by 25-feet-wide, supported upon five struts to its east and the
station building to its west.
Goods facilities were concentrated at the northern end of the site, for
immediately to the south was the estuary of Lymington River. A trio of
northward-facing sidings could once be found on the ‘’up’’ side of the line,
terminating halfway behind the platform. A pair of these, about 80-yards in
length, encroached onto the station forecourt, being laid at an angle to the
branch line. The third ran parallel with the branch, immediately behind the
platform, and terminated within a goods shed. The latter was a substantial
red-brick affair, about 50-feet in length by 25-feet in width, and attached to
its rear could be found a two-storey high goods office. On the opposite side of
the single-track to the goods facilities could be found a red-brick pitched-roof
engine shed. This was about 20-feet in width by 60-feet in length, and was a
through affair situated upon a single-track spur accessed by a set of
southward-facing points, located at the northern extremity of the site. The shed
was accompanied by a water tower attached to its eastern elevation, this
measuring about 12-feet in width by 25-feet in length, and a coal stage was
provided alongside for terminating engines.
From the outset, a landing stage had been provided immediately south of the
station, on the northern embankment of Lymington River, served by a single-track
spur from the platform line. Initially, this is where Isle of Wight ferries
docked, after carefully negotiating the mud banks and shallow waters of the
estuary. In early years, the LSWR had no incentive to improve this situation,
for the company concentrated its resources on serving the island’s ferry traffic
at Portsmouth. Things, however, began to improve after the LSWR formally took
over the independent Lymington Railway Company in 1878; by the end of this year,
552-route-miles of line were owned by the LSWR. A 690-yard-long southward
extension was opened from Lymington Town to a new pier station on 1st May 1884,
where ferries could dock more easily than at the landing stage within the town
quay. The ferry operation lacked a railway link on the Isle of Wight, but this
was forthcoming under the ‘’Freshwater, Yarmouth & Newport Railway’’, which
opened a passenger station at Yarmouth on 20th July 1889 (the railway had opened
to goods on 10th September of the previous year). The track layout at Lymington
Town station was slightly revised by installing a set of points at the southern
end of the engine shed road, so engines running off the pier could access the
building directly without the need for a headshunt manoeuvre. As a result, the
set of points allowing direct access to the shed from the Brockenhurst direction
were eliminated.
The Southern Railway opened a new signal box at the northern end of the layout,
beside Bridge Road level crossing, in 1928. This was a brick-built affair, built
to virtually the same design as that which is still in existence today at
Okehampton, Devon, and replaced an earlier LSWR cabin situated on the opposite
side of the run-a-round loop to the platform. Post-mounted gas lamps on the
platforms were also replaced by lamps attached to the walls of the goods shed
and main building, but little else changed at the site until major modernisation
under British Railways. The Bournemouth electrification was authorised in
September 1964, which included the extension of third rail from Brookwood,
Surrey, to Branksome, Dorset (just west of Bournemouth) and conversion of the
Lymington branch to electric operation. This became the last branch line in
Southern England to be worked by steam traction, the last day being 30th March
1967. Goods facilities and all sidings at Lymington Town – including the engine
shed road – were officially taken out of use on the 3rd of the following month, and the
layout simplified to the extent of leaving just the single running line. The
engine shed, goods shed, and overall roof were demolished, and the latter
replaced by a CLASP canopy. The station became an unstaffed halt
thereafter, and the line was worked on the ‘’one engine in steam’’ system, the
1928 signal box being retained to control the level crossing. The signal box was
eventually abolished in 1979, when automatic lifting barriers, controlled from
the 1964-opened cabin at Brockenhurst, were installed. The 1967 electrification
left the branch with an hourly service from Brockenhurst.
1st March 2010
The splendid eastern façade of the station building was restored by British Rail. Lymington Town once again
has an operating ticket office, open every morning and early afternoon, seven days a week. The green paint is
indicative that the branch line has been formally designated a ''heritage line''. David Glasspool
1st March 2010
A southward view from the platform, looking towards the harbour, shows that this side of the station building
has a white-wash finish, a feature dating from its earliest years. On the left, beyond the fence, is vacant land
once occupied by the station run-a-round loop. The goods shed was once positioned on the right-hand-side,
beyond the wooden fence. David Glasspool
1st March 2010
A northward view includes the CLASP canopy which replaced the train shed roof after electrification. The
traditional diamond-shape lamps date from 2005. The clapboard booking office of the temporary station of
1858 survived until 1953. David Glasspool
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