In an era of intense territorial rivalry, the Midland and London & South Western railways jointly agreed to take ownership of a struggling independent line bridging the two in 1875. Running through the heart of GWR territory, the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway as it became known, gave the MR at Bath direct access to ports and towns on the South Coast and provided the L&SWR with traffic from the heavy industries of the Midlands and North East. In time, as Bournemouth grew as a fashionable seaside resort, the line gained a year-round 'named' express from Manchester, the 'Pines Express', its name derived from the many pine tree-lined chines and gardens in the town. The line was also host to a buoyant seasonal holiday trade which reached its zenith in the 1950s but died at the end of the 1962 season, ceded to the old adversary as British Railways diverted the business to run via ex-GWR routes instead. In this feature we explore some of these Bournemouth services, both on the S&DJR and further afield, which ran from such diverse locations as Manchester, Bradford, Leeds, Sheffield, and Nottingham, as well as the Cleethorpes to Exmouth train that also shared the route.
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