Wednesday January 25th to Tuesday January 31st 2023
Dorset railway station Pokesdown (or to quote current station signage; “Pokesdown for Boscombe”) has been in the news recently and on Wednesday January 11th 2023 was subject to an Adjournment debate at the House of Commons as Tobias Ellwood, Conservative MP for Bournemouth East, raised the question of when customer lifts would be installed at the location. Describing the station as “pretty grim” Mr. Ellwood, who has been campaigning for improvements to the station since 2016, pressed Minister of State, Department of Transport, Huw Merriman for an update on promised improvements. At the weekend, Yoshi and I decided to go along and take a look at the station ourselves.
Pokesdown railway station serves the Pokesdown, Boscombe and Southbourne areas of Bournemouth and is on the South West Main Line, situated 106 miles 24 chains (171.1 km) from London Waterloo (Railways in the UK historically are measured in miles and chains, there being 80 chains to one mile). The station is served by South Western Railway (SWR), who operate semi-fast services from London Waterloo to Weymouth and stopping services from London to Poole. The station was originally opened on 1st July 1886 by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) at an estimated cost of £2,000. It was originally named Boscombe, but was changed to Pokesdown (Boscombe) on 1st October 1891 as it is situated noticeably closer to Pokesdown than Boscombe. On 1st May 1897, when (the now closed) Boscombe station was opened, the station was renamed to just Pokesdown. In 1930, the station was again renamed, becoming Pokesdown for Eastern Bournemouth, but was once more changed to Pokesdown following the formation of British Railways in 1948. At one time there were two centre roads allowing non-stopping services to pass through the station without being encumbered by stopping trains at the platforms. These up and down fast lines were removed in the 1970’s.
The station entrance at Pokesdown is at ground level with the platforms 20 meters below, access can only be currently gained by two 42-step flights of stairs, one to catch trains in the Weymouth direction and the other for stations to London. The goods lifts at Pokesdown are 90 years old and have not functioned for over 35 years. In 2021, the BBC reported that at least two passengers had suffered broken bones after falling on the steep steps. One, Jacky Dempsey, broke both arms. There is no alternative access for passengers with restricted mobility and wheelchair users are advised to use the main Bournemouth station instead.
Installation of lifts for passenger use was an obligation in SWR’s 2017 franchise agreement and although the franchise has since been replaced by a new National Rail Contract in the wake of the pandemic, SWR has reconfirmed its £1.6m contribution, subject to third-party funding to meet any shortfall. In January 2022, Bournemouth Christchurch Poole Council (BCP) pledged £2.6m from its Future Fund, with Network Rail (NR) providing the balance of the overall project cost of £5.7m which in addition to new lifts include refurbishment works on the bridge across the railway line to connect both lifts and other much needed modernisation of the Station facilities. The steelwork on the bridge is of around the same age as the redundant goods lifts and requires assessment prior to the construction of new lifts.
SWR and NR are hoping to be in a position to put the job out to tender later this year which will give all parties a final construction cost for the lift project. In the meantime work to upgrade the platform canopies is expected to be completed by mid-2023. Local Premiership football club, AFC Bournemouth, whose ground is only a stone’s throw from the station, has offered to help to give the station some local personality by donating large football montages to brighten the platform spaces. Other opinions on this addition may vary! I would much prefer the mural by Krishna Malla, aka Tech Moon a Bournemouth based artist specialising in photorealism, which currently adorns the down platform walls remain in situ. The mural, entitled “Hope”, was created at the request of Network Rail and SWR in 2020 to create a positive image and help uplift an area which has been beset with hard times over the past few years for depressing circumstances surrounding mental health. Doves were chosen as the subject matter because “The dove represents peace of the deepest kind”.
Regular stopping services are operated using SWR Class 444 or Class 450 electric multiple units with a weekday and Saturday service of two trains an hour. Sunday’s see one stopping train an hour. CrossCountry Voyagers are regular visitors as they pass non-stop through the station.
So, is the station “pretty grim”, as opined by Tobias Ellwood? I liked the mural, but I think I’d describe Pokesdown station as unloved and in urgent need of TLC. We look forward to making a return visit to Pokesdown in the future to see the results of the £5.7m upgrades.
Dorchester South is also seeing some ‘Railway Improvement Work’ as Network Rail undertake the demolition of the station canopy and removal of the former postal office at the end of platform 1. The major part of the work is planned to take place over the weekend of 4th / 5th February 2023 with follow up work expected to be completed by Friday 10th February 2023.
Our regular reader may remember a couple of weeks ago when one of the monthly test trains scheduled to visit Weymouth via Bournemouth and Poole did not materialise because of the landslip at Hook. A cause of much disappointment as the train was being hauled by Class 37 locomotives instead of the usual Class 73 electro-diesels. We had a sense of déjà vu this week when a Class 37 hauled test train to Weymouth via Yeovil also terminated early without visiting the Dorset seaside as 1Z22 0752 Derby RTC to Bristol Kingsland Road with No.’s 37610 and 37612 went off route at Wootton Bassett Junction and instead of heading south carried on a westerly trajectory and arrived at its final destination 481 minutes early because of lack of train crew to take over for the afternoon / evening shift.
Thursday 26th January saw SWR Class 458 EMU No. 458503 working 5B39 1001 Wimbledon Park Depot Sidings to Bournemouth T&R.S.M.D. To my knowledge, I have not previously seen a Class 458 in Dorset, so armed with a long lens for the camera, Yoshi and I stopped off at Bournemouth Traincare depot on our way to Pokesdown and from the safety of the car park took the following photos.
Two other Class 458’s could be seen stabled on the depot amidst the Class 444’s, Class 701’s and Class 455 EMU’s.
Our final port of call on Saturday was a brief visit to the Swanage Railway and Corfe Castle station. As track work has been ongoing at Swanage this week, resident Class 33 diesel locomotives No. D6515 ‘Lt Jenny Lewis RN’ and No. 33111 have taken it in turns to be stabled adjacent to the signal box in Corfe. On our visit it was the turn of BR Blue liveried No. 33111 which made an interesting composition with a brake van and carriage.
From The Archive
The only 8mm video footage I recorded at Pokesdown station is of SR Merchant Navy Class 4-6-2 No. 35028 ‘Clan Line’ working the return LSW Railtours “The Strong Counrtyman” on 11th June 1995. My intention was to clip this shot and include it with this weeks blog section on Pokesdown. However, I enjoyed the complete 38 minute sequence and I thought you might be interested in seeing the whole thing as well. Starting at Eastleigh with views which could not be replicated today because of new building developments (Lidl, I’m looking at you) and including Class 47’s, a Class 58, a Class 07, Class 442 Wessex Electrics and Slam Door EMU’s the video also includes shots of ‘Clan Line’ at Bournemouth Traincare Depot before they erected an annoyingly huge fence. The appearance of No. 35028 at the Bournemouth depot was the first visit of a ‘Merchant Navy’ Pacific locomotive to the approaches of the former Bournemouth West station, on which the depot now resides, in almost 30 years. Has there been one since I wonder?
This was LSW Railtours, run by Paul Blowfield formerly of the British Rail Special Trains Unit, first ever steam hauled tour. Looking back at the pages of the August 1995 edition of “The Railway Magazine” we discovered most of the seats on the tour had been sold in advance, with well over 300 passengers travelling on the train. It appeared to be a difficult time for rail tour operators with a whole page in the magazine devoted to readers letters discussing the topic dramatically entitled “Main Line Steam In Crisis”. From the small section of letters included from amongst the many apparently received on the subject by the editor it is apparent that tour organisers were generally failing to market and promote trains aggressively to a wide audience. In addition, poor time-keeping and the lack of photo opportunities for these onboard coupled with the uncertainty as to if the tour would run or not did little for the future confidence of main line steam. Mr Blowfield admitted that it was difficult to promote trains in a climate when more and more tour operators were competing for the same market, often with several trains running on the same date.
Many thanks for your corrections, comments, contributions and observations – they are all most welcome. This weeks blog was brought to you courtesy of caramel latte and Twirl bars.
If you, or someone you know, have been affected by mental health here are a few links below that may help. Two specific to Dorset and an NHS index of further support:
http://www.dorsetmentalhealthforum.org.uk
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