A Dorset historical conundrum

[Calthrop]

A fairly small and nitpicky historical query, to do with “joint” and other, ownership minutiae. Would be grateful for clarification from anyone au fait with this matter: as to what exactly was the deal with the one-time branch southward from Weymouth on to the Isle of Portland.

It is plain that operationally at any rate, up until nationalisation this branch was jointly worked throughout, by the Great Western and London & South Western (from 1923, Great Western and Southern) Railways. There are indications however, that as regards ownership, things may have at least notionally been more complicated. Such material as I can find, is derived from Wikipedia, and assorted atlases showing ownership of rail routes in times past.

One gathers that there were at least “de jure”, separate concerns, in the shape of the Weymouth & Portland Railway; and the Easton & Church Hope Railway, outer terminus Easton; whose tracks met each other at some point shortly beyond the isthmus, at the north end of the “Isle” of Portland. The Easton & Church Hope section was opened for public traffic, much later than the Weymouth & Portland.

The different atlases seem to give rather conflicting information. Jowett’s Railway Atlas shows – as separate concerns with different colours – the “Weymouth & Portland” and the “Easton & Church Hope”: but both inscribed “GW & LSW”. Jowett shows dividing point between the two undertakings, as Portland station, basically first point reached on the “Isle”.

The “British Railways Atlas 1947”, reprinted by Ian Allan, shows as GWR / SR joint trackage, Weymouth to Castleton Loading Place, a little way further east than Portland station; and beyond there to Easton, in a different colour, as though indicating a private railway outside the Big Four. No amplification in text on the map; however, the list of “Notes and Abbreviations” includes “Easton & Church Hope Railway (Portland)”, but makes no mention of the Weymouth & Portland.

The Ian Allan Pre-Grouping Atlas and Gazetteer simply shows the whole route from Weymouth to Easton in one distinctive colour, marking it on the map as “W & P Joint – LSW / GW joint”. However, the book’s “List of Abbreviations” features both the Easton & Church Hope, and Weymouth & Portland Joint, Railways – both noted “GW and LSW”.

Essentially, what bothers me is the question of -- at least in principle – whether, and when, there were private rail undertakings which owned the rail route between Weymouth and Easton; albeit train working actually carried out by the GW and the LSW [Southern] in co-operation with each other. Was there ever a time when GW and LSW [Southern] actually had a route south of Weymouth, straightforwardly jointly owned and operated by the two concerns; or was all of this stuff on Portland always, until 1948, about big companies working nominally-independent small private railways?

 

[Bevan Price]

The David & Charles Regional History of railways (Vol.1, West Country) contains some information.

Weymouth & Portland Railway, leased jointly to GWR & LSWR.

Easton & Church Hope Railway , operated jointly by GWR & LSWR. Initially separate from the above, but connected by The Breakwater Railway, owned by The Admiralty, but jointly worked by GWR & LSWR (later GWR & SR)

The Breakwater Railway was originally built to carry stone for the harbour breakwater.

Initially, trains to/from Weymouth used the main station and reversed at Portland Jn. From 1909, reversal was avoided by building Melcombe Regis station, located on the branch line, close to Weymouth station.

 

[30907]

According to J H Lucking, Railways of Dorset, 1968, both local companies remained nominally independent until 1948. The Admiralty seem to have given up responsibility for their section of the line before the ECH was built, which perhaps accounts for the different dividing points shown.
There's also the distinction between the WP being leased to and the ECH worked by the GW/LSW/SR...

 

[Calthrop]

Thanks for responses. To be honest, my interest in this scene was piqued by hopes of setting a question in the board's "Quizzes" section, about joint lines in the Grouping era. Seemingly, Great Western / Southern wasn't as clear-cut as a "straight" joint line between them -- what with nominal independence, and different arrangements with different outfits, until 1948.

Wiki tells of Melcombe Regis station being retained -- after withdrawal of passenger services to Portland in 1952 -- as a peak-times overflow terminus for trains to / from Weymouth, until 1959. You've got to love it !

 

[pdeaves]

R A Cooke's "Atlas of the GWR" (published by Wild Swan, I think) will without doubt make clear the ownership. You might find it hard to get a copy; a good library should be able to help.

 

[Bevan Price]

R A Cooke's "Atlas of the GWR" (published by Wild Swan, I think) will without doubt make clear the ownership. You might find it hard to get a copy; a good library should be able to help.

Doesn't help a lot. It just descibes the lines as 4 separate sections:-

Weymouth and Portland line.
Mileposts as far as Portland (Castleton Jn) were based on zero at London Paddington.

Castleton Tramway. (172m 35c to 172m 74c)

Admiralty Extension Line (0m 0c. to 0m 45c), and

Easton and Church Hope Railway. (0m. 45c to end of branch at 3m. 38c.)

The latter two sections had a mileage zero at Castleton Jn (172m 74c from Paddington)

Data from 1st edition of Cooke's Atlas showing GWR as in 1947 (but includes lines closed before 1947). Does not even mention SR operations on the line.

A 2nd edition was issued a few years ago, but now seems to be out of print. A Google search for "Cooke GWR Atlas" identifies several second hand copies available for purchase, at prices ranging from "good value" to "extortionate".

 

[Taunton]

My understanding, in part from still being a regular walker along the footpath that this line has been usefully converted into, is that quite a significant amount of what appeared to be the GWR pre-1923 was actually independently owned, but was leased to the GWR to be operated by them. This was sorted out in the 1923 grouping, but as the operating pattern on the face of it didn't change, nothing seemed different. The Didcot, Newbury & Southampton Railway, from Didcot to Winchester, is an example that was an independent company, although the line was leased to and fully worked by and maintained by the GWR, until 1923.

The Portland lines were different however, as pre-1923 they had been leased jointly to the GWR and LSWR, who ended up in separate grouped railways so the previous arrangement, like other joint lines in the same position, continued. As described above there were multiple different companies, although the owners behind the scenes seemed to be much the same (and who probably did very little other than to receive periodically a share of the railway companies' proceeds), the principal two being the Weymouth & Portland (route as title), and the Easton & Church Hope (extension curving across and up the Isle of Portland). The original W&P station in Portland became the goods station after the E&CH extension took off just before the old terminus. There were apparently distinct joint line staff uniforms.

The Southern was a bit of an interloper at Weymouth, reached only by running powers over the GWR from Dorchester, and they never came down the Tramway nor were allowed to operate Channel Islands ships from the harbour (the LSWR ships to Jersey ran from Southampton). However they did have this 50% lease of the Portland lines. Passenger trains were long run by GWR rail motors from Melcombe Regis platform (described above) plus some more mainstream SR trains, and always about 75% of the service terminated at Portland, which had quite a good service from Weymouth - in contrast the extension on to Easton only got a handful of trains a day. The major prize, however, was freight to the then very substantial navy dockyard at Portland, for long second only to Portsmouth. Large quantities of coal (and later fuel oil) inwards, as well as ships stores etc, and freight to and from the torpedo factory at Wyke. There were also large quantities of Portland stone to be shipped out from the island quarries to various major building projects (the main revenue for the E&CH). Because of the steep pull up from Weymouth to Rodwell, and the equal descent down to Wyke (quite noticeable today using the footpath, especially on a bicycle) the freights needed to be short, and thus plenty of them.

The shed at Weymouth was GWR only until nationalisation, the Southern O2 0-4-4Ts which seemed to do much of the Southern side of operation on the line until the 1950s operated out of the old LSWR shed at Dorchester, likewise their share of freight locos, so it was a bit of an "out on a limb" operation for the Southern. From the 1930s, when the "National" buses in the west were divided into Western National and Southern National, with corresponding 50% ownership by the relevant railway company, Weymouth fell into the Southern National area, whose buses every 10 minutes or better from Weymouth to Portland doubtless provided the Southern with notably more profit at the end of the day than the rail passenger service, even though roughly hourly or better, could ever have done.

Melcombe Regis platform was indeed used as an overflow after the Portland passenger service ended. The Western had a liking for this sort of arrangement, Weston-Super-Mare had similar with the Locking Road excursion platforms in the goods yard, and there were others.

 

[Calthrop]

Thanks, people, for additional info. One feels at times, that the standard "123 (if that's the figure -- I might be mis-remembering) separate companies before Grouping" dictum, is an over-simplification, though probably a necessary one. If an outfit was notionally an independent company, but was totally operated by a bigger and better-known concern, integrated with that concern, said concern using its own motive power and rolling stock -- then: for all except the most purist of scholars with a huge amount of time on their hands... !

Very interesting reading, about the set-up on the Weymouth -- Portland -- Easton line pre-nationalisation: much appreciated. Ever since childhood I've been fascinated by this part of the world (have visited it only once, briefly): both the general geography -- the Isle of Portland which isn't actually quite an island, etc. -- and the railway, with its various quirks, which once served it. Wish that I could have had the chance of travelling on it: but it wasn't to be -- born 1948, childhood and adolescence spent far from Dorset.

I've always liked the story from the 1950s, of the chap doing a sentence in Portland prison, commencing same pre-1952: he escaped from the prison, but got in bother and was recaptured, owing to his being unaware that the rail passenger service had been withdrawn while he was "inside": his going to the nearest station and trying to buy a ticket to London, caused people to suspect that something wasn't right.

 

[Bevan Price]

Oakwood Press has published books on the Isle of Portland railways. Now out of print, but you may find second hand copies somewhere:-

http://www.oakwoodpress.co.uk/books_out_of_print.htm

(Scroll down page )

 

[Calthrop]

Thanks. Will explore.

 

[Taunton]

I noticed those books (they also did a companion book on the buses of Portland as well) were still on the shelves of Weymouth bookshops just a couple of years ago.

The old railway is a nice traffic-free walk or bike if you have a spare few hours in Weymouth. Start west from the station, cross the harbour bridge (where the Portland Railway bridge was) and you get onto the path, and start the easy ascent. There's a WW2 anti-aircraft gun emplacement alongside the line, then a short tunnel which has streetlighting inside, always on. Rodwell station at the summit still has its platforms, one side stone, presumably from the opening, the other side brick from the 1900s installation of a passing loop. Then easily downhill along Portland Harbour, and over the causeway, where you can cross the road to get onto Chesil Beach.

 

[Calthrop]

Taunton, thanks -- a walk I'd like to try some time. I live quite a long way from the area, viz. in the West Midlands: but the idea of a brief stay around Weymouth, certainly appeals.

 

[Jona26]

The Weymouth and Portland railways were covered in one of the episodes of Julia Bradbury's Railway Walks BBC series back in 2010.

The book and DVD are still available on Amazon. I can't remember much about the content of the episode but it may be worth a look.

 

[randyrippley]

the remains of Melcombe Regis station and the bridge over Radipole lake were still being used to house surplus / condemned stock in the early 1960's. From what I remember they were green and maroon non-corridor stock - some possibly clerestoried, though I'm not sure. I don't remember any GW coloured stock. They were there for several years, apparently immobile and only vanished when the bridge was scrapped. By then the platform was not being used as overspill for the main station.
My recollection is that at least some of the maroon stock looked very similar to the Hawksworth-era coaches that were towed behind DMUs on the Weymouth-Bristol route on summer weekends. You'd get 2x 3car cross country sets in multiple, with two or three red non-corridor coaches coupled on behind. Needless to say, the approach to Bincliffe tunnel was very very slow, as was the climb out of Maiden Newton


--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
this webpage may answer many of the OP's questions

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/m/melcombe_regis/


and there are some interesting photos of Easton station at
https://www.flickr.com/photos/alwyn_ladell/sets/72157629292291031/