Broadstone (Dorset) railway station

Infobox UK disused station
name = Broadstone (Dorset)
gridref = SZ004959


caption =
manager = Poole& B'th Rly
LSWR
owner = Southern Railway
Southern Region of British Railways
locale = Broadstone
borough = Poole
platforms = 4
years = 2 December 1872
events = Opened ("New Poole Junction")
years1 = January 1875
events1 = Renamed ("Poole Junction")
years2 = July 1883
events2 = Renamed ("Poole Junction & Broadstone")
years3 = January 1887
events3 = Renamed ("Broadstone & New Poole Junction")
years4 = 15 February 1889
events4 = Renamed ("Broadstone Junction")
years5 = 7 July 1929
events5 = Renamed ("Broadstone (Dorset)")
years6 = 1956
events6 = Renamed ("Broadstone")
years7 = 7 March 1966
events7 = Closed

Broadstone was a railway station in the northern part of the town of Poole in the county of Dorset in England. It opened in 1872 under the name of New Poole Junction and closed to passengers in 1966 and to goods in 1969. Between these dates there were several changes of name for a station which at its height provided a suburb of Poole with four substantial platforms and a goods yard. A prominent feature of the station was the large footbridge needed to span the four running lines.

Opened as "New Poole Junction" in 1872, as part of the Southampton and Dorchester Railway, the station was the junction for the new line into Poole that superseded the old station at Lower Hamworthy. When the line was extended to Bournemouth West Broadstone became the junction for the trains to the Bournemouth station. Then the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway constructed a cutoff line to avoid the need to reverse in Wimborne and Broadstone became the meeting point of two lines, although the construction of further cutoffs to improve access to Bournemouth reduced its importance.

Decline and Closure

The first line through Broadstone to close was the Old Road, closed in 1964. The line to Hamworthy Junction was lifted in 1966. This same year, the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway lost its passenger services. This left Broadstone the junction of two goods lines, one to serve a goods depot at Blandford via a stub of the SDJR and one which passed through Wimborne to serve the RAOC fuel depot at West Moors. The Blandford freight line closed and was lifted in 1969 but the track to the oil depot kept tracks running through the site until policy changed to the use of road transport. The last track through Broadstone was lifted in 1977.

The Site Today

Today the site is occupied by Broadstone Leisure Centre, its car park and a traffic roundabout. A subway to Broadstone's shopping area passes under the roads where the railway bridge used to be. This, and the building of some houses on the old trackbed north of the station site, mean that the Castleman Trailway skirts the edge of the former site before regaining the old trackbed on the way to Wimborne.

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Further reading

*cite book|author=R.V.J.Butt, |title= The Directory of Railway Stations |publisher=Patrick Stephens Ltd |year=1995 ISBN 1 85260 508 1
* ISBN(no ISBN)

External References

* [http://www.npemap.org.uk/tiles/map.html#400,95,1 Broadstone station on navigable 1946 O. S. map]
* [http://www.broadstone.net/photogallery/historical/railway/imagepages/image17.htm Station picture on Broadstone.net]
* [http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/stations/b/broadstone/index.shtml Broadstone station on Subterranea Brittanica]