Dorchester West railway station is one of two

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

s serving the town of Dorchester in

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

, England. The station is managed by

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

. The station is located on the

Heart of Wessex Line The Heart of Wessex Line, also known as the Bristol to Weymouth Line, is a railway line that runs from to and Weymouth in England. It shares the Wessex Main Line as far as Westbury and then follows the course of the Reading to Taunton Line a ...

between and , from the zero point at

London Paddington Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a London station group, Central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services pro ...

(measured via

Swindon Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...

and Westbury), and is at the southern end of a

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section from . The line becomes double at the station and remains so to just before nearby Dorchester Junction, where the line joins the

South West Main Line The South West Main Line (SWML) is a 143-mile (230 km) major railway line between Waterloo station in central London and Weymouth on the south coast of England. A predominantly passenger line, it serves many commuter areas including south we ...

from

London Waterloo Waterloo station (), also known as London Waterloo, is a central London terminus on the National Rail network in the United Kingdom, in the Waterloo area of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is connected to a London Underground station of ...

to Weymouth.

History

The station was opened by the

on 20 January 1857, when it completed the former Wilts, Somerset and Weymouth line from Castle Cary and

Yeovil Yeovil ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the district of South Somerset, England. The population of Yeovil at the last census (2011) was 45,784. More recent estimates show a population of 48,564. It is close to Somer ...

through to Weymouth. In October 2021, a new ramp was opened allowing step-free access to platform 1.

Stationmasters

*Peter Leach 1859 - 1860 - 1862 (afterwards station master at Castle Cary) *Edwin Wall from 1860 (formerly station master at Castle Cary) *George Prowse 1864 - 1870 *Henry Maggs 1870 - 1872 (formerly station master at Shepton Mallett, afterwards station master at Didcot) *Henry Yeo 1876 - ca. 1894 (formerly station master at Maiden Newton) *Alfred Reeve 1897 - 1901 (afterwards station master at Warminster) *Jesse Higgs 1901 - 1907 (formerly station master at Warminster, afterwards station master at Trowbridge) *John Charles Neville 1907 - 1910 (formerly station master at Weston-super-Mare) *William Best 1910 - 1917 (formerly station master at Shepton Mallet, afterwards station master at Salisbury) *Thomas Frederick Edwin Jakeman 1917 - 1926 (formerly station master at Didcot, afterwards station master at Westbury) *C.A. Drew 1926 - 1932 (formerly station master at Droitwich) *H.M. Wood 1932 - 1942 (from 1930 also station master of Dorchester South) *John Charles Leach 1942 - 1945 (also in charge of Dorchester South) *S.A. Smith from 1945 (formerly station master at Winchester and Shawford, also in charge of Dorchester South)

Accidents and incidents

An accident occurred at this station in 1974 when an excursion train from Hereford to Weymouth, on its return journey, did not stop at the signal controlling the entry to the single line section, and ran into the sand drag. The locomotive (a Class 47) ran right through the sand drag and out the other side, followed by a couple of coaches. Eighteen passengers suffered minor injuries in the derailment, but no one was seriously hurt. The passengers were taken home by train via

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

later that evening, and the loco was subsequently re-railed and recovered during the night several weeks later.

Services

operate services between and (eight trains per day Mon-Sat, five on Sundays - some extended to/from ). South Western Railway used to run additional services between and

Yeovil Junction Yeovil Junction railway station is the busier, but less central, of two railway stations serving the town of Yeovil in England. The station is outside the town, in the village of Stoford. Although Yeovil is in Somerset, the station was in Dor ...

on Summer Saturdays. More frequent services (usually every hour) are available to Weymouth from the nearby Dorchester South station.

Notes

{{Dorset railway stations

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...

Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1857 Railway stations served by Great Western Railway 1857 establishments in England DfT Category F1 stations

History

Stationmasters

Accidents and incidents

Services

See also

Notes