Decline
Bournemouth's rapid development in the late Victorian era as a residential town and holiday resort indirectly led to the decline of Wimborne station. The Somerset and Dorset avoided the awkward reversal there by opening a bypass from Corfe Mullen to Broadstone in 1885 (goods) and 1886 (passengers). A handful of local S&D passenger trains still ran into Wimborne, as well as some goods trains as the large yard made for a more convenient point of interchange. Worse still came in 1888 when Wimborne was bypassed by the opening of a direct line to Bournemouth from the east. When that was extended in 1893 across Poole Harbour to join with the original Southampton and Dorchester line at Hamworthy Junction via the Holes Bay Curve - forming an alternative through-route between Southampton and Weymouth via Bournemouth - this meant that most main line passenger trains to and from London, Dorchester and Weymouth had no need to run through Wimborne.
Nevertheless, the generally increasing level of traffic on the railways up to 1914 meant that it was still a busy station, although post-war economies led to the withdrawal of the last S&D passenger trains from 11 July 1920, followed by milk and parcels in February 1932, with freight traffic ceasing completely from 17 June 1933. Loss of the S&D traffic only left Wimborne with the infrequent pull-push services between Brockenhurst and Bournemouth West, a handful of trains from Salisbury and some long-distance Summer Saturday traffic when the station was used to relieve Bournemouth. This seasonal holiday traffic built up in the inter-war period and boomed in the 1950s. Goods trains also used the route all year around for the same reason.
Read more about this topic: Wimborne Railway Station
Famous quotes containing the word decline:
“But only that soul can be my friend which I encounter on the line of my own march, that soul to which I do not decline, and which does not decline me, but, native of the same celestial latitude, repeats in its own all my experience.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I heard a Californian student in Heidelberg say, in one of his calmest moods, that he would rather decline two drinks than one German adjective.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have to keep track of are our failures, discouragements, and doubts. We tend to forget the past difficulties, the many false starts, and the painful groping. We see our past achievements as the end result of a clean forward thrust, and our present difficulties as signs of decline and decay.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)