future junction

(1970s, copyright Rail Thing)

These were the remains of West Moors station in the 1970s. This line retained a freight service until about 1973, when the route was further cut back to Wimborne, which itself lost all its trains in 1983. But until 1964 this was a junction with trains on the main double track route between Poole and Brockenhurst plus trains on the branch to Salisbury.

West Moors has developed surprisingly since the railway closed and would now produce a fair amount of originating traffic. All the routes serving West Moors are likely to reopen over the next 20-30 years, the New S&D has always planned to reopen the old Castleman's Corkscrew route to Brockenhurst to give greater capacity and flexibility for trains on the southern end of the route, and a group is likely to be formally constituted to restore the Salisbury-West Moors line any time now.

Closure of these lines was always a little strange, depriving Ringwood, Wimborne, Broadstone, West Moors and Fordingbridge of modern transport - a mistake that will be corrected soon enough!