LSWR timetable, Waterloo to Ringwood

[DaveInPoole]

Hi,

My hobby is making local history films, and I'm currently working on the old line between Ringwood and Bournemouth.

One of the books I'm using lists the total time from Waterloo to Bournemouth when the line opened in 1862. At that point, the line went from Ringwood to Christchurch and you had to get a bus from there to Bournemouth. Total journey time was a shade under 5 hours. The information I'm interested in is how long would a train from Waterloo to Ringwood typically take back in the 1860's? I'm trying to work out how long the bit on the line from Ringwood to Christchurch would have taken. The bus section took 40 minutes.

Thanks

 

[Snow1964]

The Ringwood-Christchurch line was built on the cheap, it was full of 15mph and 25mph curves.

Sorry don’t know the timings but at those speeds probably around 30-40 minutes

 

[30907]

There is an 1864 Bradshaw on www.timetableworld.com.
It is not yet indexed so you need to find p.48 towards the end of the first row of pages.

The fastest train from Waterloo was the 3pm reaching Ringwood at 6.20 and (probably a connection) Christchurch at 6.55, so about 30min which agrees with Snow1964's estimate.

 

[DaveInPoole]

Thanks for the replies

The point I'm making in the film is that the on-the-cheap construction hampered the speed trains could go on the line, and I can use some facts and figures now.

My son suggested the project, and we've had some good fun trying to trace as much of the old line on foot, and filming it. Just starting to put it all together now.

It's actually been fun working on the project. I used to go to the Avon Causeway pub back in the 1970's when I was at college. This being the old Hurn railway station converted to a pub. I had a car, and us students piled in it and tore down the dual carriageway from central Bournemouth to have a lunchtime pint. Happy memories, though I'm not sure that you could actually "Tear" anywhere in a knackered Vauxhall Viva HB!

On a side note, is it OK to post a link to the film when it's uploaded to YouTube? I know some forums welcome this, and some don't and I wouldn't want to offend. In fact, I've done a series of local history films about Bournemouth, Poole and surrounding areas that feature railways quite heavily. My most recent one was West Moors to Salisbury. I started making them in lockdown.

 

[30907]

Rereading the timetable there was also an 11am from Waterloo with almost identical times. I don't think the route was exceptionally slow, but what is noticeable is that the whole main line service from Waterloo would fit onto a double-page (landscape) of Bradshaw. There were only the two expresses to the Dorcester route plus the Parliamentary which was reasonably fast.

 

[alf]

The Ringwood-Christchurch line was built on the cheap, it was full of 15mph and 25mph curves.

Sorry don’t know the timings but at those speeds probably around 30-40 minutes

I am not sure that it is right to say it was built on the cheap.
I nearly killed myself walking it one afternoon from Christchurch to Ringwood.
Quite hard to work out where it went but there are two very long straight sections & at the Ringwood end there is a really substantial cutting, now very marshy..
It is cut through sand which is perhaps why they did not build a tunnel but it is an unusually deep cutting, & presumably expensive. It could have been avoided by the Victorians taking a slow longer & cheaper route north & then due east into Ringwood.

Hurn station still exists as a slightly drab (in 2017) railway themed country pub in dense woodland.

 

[Big Jumby 74]

I nearly killed myself walking it one afternoon from Christchurch to Ringwood.

Could be a subject for a new thread; old disused routes walked. In the early 80's I and a-another started as near as we could to Kimbridge Junction and headed North to Fullerton Junction, and then took a right and made for Long Parish - what a mistake that was..........too many years had passed since it had been lifted...

 

[Dougal2345]

Out of interest, trying to do Ringwood to Christchurch by public transport these days - bus, of course - seems to take a minimum of about 41 minutes, always involving a change of buses, and some (Google-)suggested journeys are one and a quarter hours.

And don't expect any through-ticketing onto the railway...

So the line may have been built on the cheap, but those 30 minute travel times in 1862 seem like some unattainable dream now...

 

[Wychwood93]

Out of interest, trying to do Ringwood to Christchurch by public transport these days - bus, of course - seems to take a minimum of about 41 minutes, always involving a change of buses, and some (Google-)suggested journeys are one and a quarter hours.

And don't expect any through-ticketing onto the railway...

So the line may have been built on the cheap, but those 30 minute travel times in 1862 seem like some unattainable dream now...

The current direct bus timetable is somewhat slower:

https://passenger-line-assets.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/morebus/WDBC/125-timetable-20210729-4a5915f3.pdf

It is possible to the journey with a change at Bournemouth Hospital - not always quicker, but at least daily!