Historic Services between Paddington and Weymouth

[RichHI]

I am doing some research into the history of Weymouth services.

I visited the old station as a youngster, which was a bit of a ghost town.

I know that the GWR opened Weymouth station and allowed Southern to use it. I have read that the original boat trains ran from Paddingtonz as the Southern route to the Channel Islands used to be from Southampton.

I have also read the travelling post office (TPO) ran from Paddington into the 1960s.

A film from the early 60’s shows the Portland line and Weymouth had been handed to the Southern Region, as the Withered arm west of Salisbury was handed to Western Region.

Can anyone direct me to any information on historic Paddington Weymouth services please?

 

[Taunton]

George Behrend's classic book about the (old) GWR "Gone With Regret" has an extensive chapter on travelling on the Paddington-Weymouth boat train shortly before it was discontinued. The two new ships Caesarea and Sarnia were introduced in 1961, when the Southern route from Southampton was consolidated into the Western route from Weymouth, with the boat trains from Waterloo. Until this time the two separate routes operated to the Channel Islands, where the ships tied up one behind the other at St Helier.

The original GWR line was actually from Chippenham, all the way down by the present lines through Trowbridge, Castle Cary and Yeovil, the "Wilts Somerset & Weymouth Railway". Everything else has been retrospectively plugged into that, for that was indeed a Great Way Round from London. It included the lines through Weymouth town to the quayside, which were used as much, if not more, for freight as well as passengers, for all the Channel Islands imports of flowers, tomatoes, early potatoes, etc came this way. The GWR had a separate fleet of cargo vessels which also operated from Weymouth quayside.

You can find details of the boat trains in old timetables, their times were variable depending on time of year, for the services to the Channel Islands have always been very seasonal. The main all year shipping service was actually overnight, an evening service from Paddington and a late night quayside transfer at Weymouth. A Western Region Castle loco ran the service throughout, via Newbury once that line had opened.

The whole mix of Western and Southern at Weymouth was a complex one, it varied from time to time and the actual operations did not necessarily align with the management structures. I never saw any Southern loco presence north of Dorchester. The diesel unit on Maiden Newton to Bridport, once the ex-GWR loco shed in Weymouth was closed, was actually staffed from Westbury depot, the crews spending maybe half each shift just going to and fro On The Cushions.

 

[30907]

I am doing some research into the history of Weymouth services.

I visited the old station as a youngster, which was a bit of a ghost town.

I know that the GWR opened Weymouth station and allowed Southern to use it. I have read that the original boat trains ran from Paddingtonz as the Southern route to the Channel Islands used to be from Southampton.

I have also read the travelling post office (TPO) ran from Paddington into the 1960s.

A film from the early 60’s shows the Portland line and Weymouth had been handed to the Southern Region, as the Withered arm west of Salisbury was handed to Western Region.

Can anyone direct me to any information on historic Paddington Weymouth services please?

Welcome!

Your best bet is to look at the timetables on www.timetableworld.com.
The Dorset TPO always ran from Waterloo and until the mid 50s terminated at Dorchester.
Castle Cary to Dorchester "became" SR in 1959ish , and the boat trains switched to Waterloo that winter, with through Paddington-Weymouth semi fasts ceasing soon after.

The Portland line was jointly owned and the owners took turns to run it for 5 years.

 

[Taunton]

There are four books in a series "Isle of Portland Railways" by B L Jackson, very detailed, paperbacks, typical Oakwood Press volumes, published about 20-25 years ago, which when I was last in the W H Smith in Weymouth were all still available as new there - I was checking up, having received over recent times family Christmas presents from the Weymouth contingent of same, which duplicated what I had bought when the books first came out. Of course, I had to conceal this, and express considerable pleasure ...

Item no longer available

The item you are looking for is no longer available. <br/>

www.abebooks.co.uk

 

[Gloster]

There are also several books by J.H.Lucking, who was probably the historian of the GWR at Weymouth. His ‘The Great Western at Weymouth’ of 1971 is a thorough, if traditional, history of railways and shipping there.

The original route from Thingley Junction west of Chippenham ran via Melksham, Trowbridge, Westbury, Frome, Castle Cary, Yeovil, Maiden Newton and Dorchester to Weymouth and was opened in 1857. A shorter route from Reading via Newbury, Pewsey and Devizes to Holt Junction (north of Trowbridge) opened in 1862. A cut off from Patney & Chirton (between Pewsey and Devizes) to Westbury opened in 1900 and speeded up trains to Weymouth as the line the line via Devizes was not a fast one. Lines avoiding Westbury and Frome stations opened in 1933.

Lucking says that boat passengers travelled to and from Waterloo from 3 November 1959. The Weymouth Travelling Post Office continued to run to Paddington until 1966, when it was combined with the Waterloo-Dorchester one.

 

[mailbyrail]

The history of travelling post offices on the LSWR main line has been complex over the years, but there has never been a TPO working to or from Weymouth to Paddington. Mail may have been carried along the GWR route, but never in a TPO or Sorting Carriage.
The first mail train was a Sunday Sorting Tender from Waterloo to Southampton running on Saturday and Sunday nights commencing 20 April 1850.
In April 1860 a District Sorting Carriage started to run from London to Southampton on Monday to Friday with the Sunday Sorting Tender continuing to operate. It seems it was 13 November 1869 when the two trains became the South Western Night Travelling Post Office.
From September 1875 it was proposed that the train was extended to Dorchester but it was July 1876 before it started. In April 1876 it was proposed to continue to Weymouth but this was not implemented and the terminus remained Dorchester although from 1 October 1910 the train divided at Brockenhurst with one portion for Dorchester and the other for Southampton.
From 5 December 1915 a stowage van with no onboard sorting worked from Reading to Bournemouth and then returned to Waterloo before running empty back to Reading.
It was not until 27 November 1961 that the TPO was extended from Dorchester to Weymouth although for many years the TPO carriages had been worked empty from Dorchester to Weymouth for stabling. The SW Night TPO ran for the last time on 13 May 1988.
In May 1866 a Day Mail began running from Waterloo to Southampton connecting to a separate mail train from Southampton to Weymouth. These were conventional trains which carried bagged mail but from 5 February 1890 the London to Southampton train became the South Western Day Travelling Post Office which extended to Dorchester on 10 June 1890. The SW Day TPO was suspended 3 November 1917 due to the war and when it recommenced on 26 November 1923 it ran to only Bournemouth until it ceased for good in September 1940.
Full details of TPOs and their histories have been included in the definitive book by Harold Wilson published by the Railway Philatelic Group in 1996 and still available from me if anybody is interested

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

The last steam-hauled up working from Weymouth on 9th July 1967 was actually over the WR route, a Channel Islands tomato special hauled by 73092 as far as Westbury. Earlier in the day there had been two other specials, hauled by 34052 'Lord Dowding' and 34095 'Brentor', again to Westbury.

 

[Magdalia]

I am doing some research into the history of Weymouth services.

I visited the old station as a youngster, which was a bit of a ghost town.

I know that the GWR opened Weymouth station and allowed Southern to use it.

One other interesting GWR long distance flow was summer Saturday holiday traffic from/to the West Midlands. The route was via Oxford, Foxhall curve, Swindon and Westbury, with steam haulage up to 1965. In that year locos worked throughout Wolverhampton/Weymouth with the depots at each end providing the loco on alternate weeks, out one weekend and back the next. The Weymouth locos were usually Standard 5s but the West Midlands end could provide Halls, Granges or Black 5s. The loco workings don't balance up neatly in the middle of the summer when relief trains also ran.

 

[Taunton]

That routing, via Didcot west curve, was also what was behind the pioneer Wilts Somerset & Weymouth Railway, which was concerned not so much with traffic from London, more freight, especially household coal of course from Midlands collieries, to all the towns along the line. Broad Gauge was possible all the way from Wolverhampton (and the coal mines) via Worcester and Oxford to Weymouth. The freight traffic this way continued throughout Weymouth's cargo shipping to the Channel Islands and France, as described above; the island produce would be headed for Birmingham or Manchester. Steam coal from South Wales for the ships, before they were converted to oil fuel, was a further rail traffic along Weymouth Quay.

Any old hand in Weymouth will tell how Napoleon made a surreptitious visit in 1804 to Weymouth to judge the army ranged against him; it's not far across and claims that on the clearest day you can see Alderney from on top of Portland still show this. The GWR got stuck into the traffic, and for many generations of ships, up to the final Southern takeover, these were shared between Weymouth-Jersey and Fishguard-Rosslare, about the same distance and the ships were passed occasionally back and forth.

The last steam-hauled up working from Weymouth on 9th July 1967 was actually over the WR route, a Channel Islands tomato special hauled by 73092 as far as Westbury. Earlier in the day there had been two other specials, hauled by 34052 'Lord Dowding' and 34095 'Brentor', again to Westbury.

That must have been a last-ditch effort; this was the very last day of steam on the Southern, and the Western had already banned steam more than a year before, so to have not one but three steam locos turn up at Westbury must have caused a bit of a laugh at SW Division Control. All the Southern steam was withdrawn at the end of that day, so these would be last workings for the locos involved, but it saved having to ask the Western to send Hymeks down, normal power for this traffic after the fleet of Class 03 shunters had moved the wagons along the quay. 73092 was a Guildford loco at the end, so I wonder if SW Control actually asked the Western if they could possibly send it on from Westbury to Guildford the easy way, through Reading .

 

[Harvester]

The last steam-hauled up working from Weymouth on 9th July 1967 was actually over the WR route, a Channel Islands tomato special hauled by 73092 as far as Westbury. Earlier in the day there had been two other specials, hauled by 34052 'Lord Dowding' and 34095 'Brentor', again to Westbury.

These perishable freights from Weymouth to the Midlands regularly ran during the summer months, and were usually steam hauled. It must have irked the WR authorities to have to regularly tolerate SR steam on the Castle Cary to Westbury stretch of their mainline, over a year after a ban had been imposed. To rub salt into the wounds the steam locos had to travel deeper into WR territory, beyond Trowbridge to Bradford Junction, to turn on the triangle before running LE back to Weymouth.

Guildford’s 73092 was an unusual choice on 9th July 1967, but it appears to have been working from Nine Elms on Bournemouth line duties that final week. It also worked from Weymouth to Westbury on the same train on Friday 7th July 1967, while 73018 performed the duty on Thursday 6th.

 

[Helvellyn]

It was not until 27 November 1961 that the TPO was extended from Dorchester to Weymouth although for many years the TPO carriages had been worked empty from Dorchester to Weymouth for stabling. The SW Night TPO ran for the last time on 13 May 1988.

Seems like through electrification to Weymouth may have killed this off because it will likely have used a Class 33/1 at least between Bournemouth and Weymouth that would have otherwise been stabled overnight from TC workings Bournemouth-Weymouth. So it would have needed a Parcels loco to be stabled all day at Weymouth, and I think the Parcels sector only had Class 73/1s allocated (and not many).