Bournemouth Belle

The Bournemouth Belle was a named train run by the Southern Railway (Great Britain) from 1931 until nationalisation in 1948 (with a break for the war until 1947) and subsequently by British Railways until it was withdrawn on 9 July 1967.

The train, composed of Pullman stock, first ran on Sunday 5 July 1931. [Kidner, R W (1958). The Southern Railway. South Godstone, Surrey: The Oakwood Press.] It initially ran direct from Waterloo Station, leaving at 10:30, to Bournemouth Central, returning at 19:18. The service was later amended to stop at Southampton and go on from Bournemouth Central to Bournemouth West. Journey time was between two hours one minute and two hours twenty minutes, depending on direction, configuration and motive power.

At first the train ran on summer Sundays. It was sufficiently successful to be run on all weekends and summer weekdays until in 1936 it was a daily working.

Before the war the train was usually hauled by SR Lord Nelson Class locomotives. On its reintroduction on 7 October 1947 the superior SR Merchant Navy class provided motive power. The final trains in 1967 were hauled by British Rail Class 47 diesels.

The Southern ran four Pullman trains with the suffix 'Belle'. The others were the Brighton Belle, the Devon Belle and the Thanet Belle.

References

External links

* [http://www.semgonline.com/misc/named_02.html SEMG Bournemouth Belle page]
* [http://www.southernposters.co.uk/famoustrains-sou.html Southern Posters famous trains page]