5th July – A evening trip to Bournemouth

5^th July – A evening trip to Bournemouth

A little bit of history, early last year after doing all the stations the first time round (for boarding or alighting) I decided to do a challenge to complete as many bay platforms as possible, just to pass the time giving me something to do as some of those bays are lightly used.  One bay which was on the list of “no regular service” was platform 1 at Bournemouth, a tiny (can only hold a 450) bay on the northern side of the station facing east, normally fenced off from the travelling public (seems to be a bin store).  It’s been years since the last regular use of this bay (I seem to recall reading somewhere it was used by the old Bournemouth – Brighton services before they got cut at Southampton).  In a way it’s a shame it isn’t long enough to take a 5-coach voyager as XC could run into there to avoid having to shunt to the reversing siding to the west of the station.

Anyhow, since the May timetable change, the bay has come back into use with the 16:38 Winchester – Bournemouth service terminating there, this was previously a DMU worked service to Totton, but has been extended to Bournemouth to get rid of a “Diesel over the 3^rd rail” service.  Today was the first Friday since the timetable change I’ve been home on the Friday night, so it was a little drive to Romsey, arriving into the library car park at a couple minutes to 4pm, free parking after 4pm so I was a little bit naughty and left the car park a couple minutes early for the short walk to Romsey station where I purchased my ticket to Bournemouth.  The first option was a late running GWR service to Portsmouth, but I turned that down for 158890 working via Chandlers Ford, where I bailed at Southampton Airport (Parkway).  Since I was last at this station a new footbridge/lift combo has been installed.

A pair of 444s were up next, which I turned down to wait for the slightly delayed Bournemouth service which was formed of 450550, as I managed to get a bay of 6, switching over to a bay of 4 at Southampton Central, where my fears of the train getting heavily loaded were unfounded, and after Redbridge I was along in the coach for the semi-fast trip towards Bournemouth, although it did catch up with the preceding late running Poole stopper around Christchurch.  I always enjoy this part of the network as it travels via the New Forest, brings back memories of when I was at school when a camping trip to the Brockenhurst area happened nearly every summer, as there was a Hampshire County Council owned campsite where schools could hire for outdoor activities.

Anyway, back to the train, on the outskirts of Bournemouth it slowed right down to take the crossover at the eastern end of the station before heading into platform 1 where it terminated (and I believe spends the weekend before heading towards Southampton on Monday morning, but not in service).  My original idea was to linear hop via Pokesdown to Southampton, but a late running voyager terminated into platform 3 a few minutes after the 450 had arrived, and was announced as going back out, so I put my Branch Line Society hat back-on, crossed over the footbridge to board 220005 which soon departed back out towards Manchester from platform 3, hence scoring the other crossover at the eastern end of the station.  A speedy run back towards Southampton Central, where I changed over to board a Bristol bound service from Brighton, which was 158957, however all 3 toilets were locked out of use and it was held at Southampton for 10 minutes for a toilet stop.

A quick trip back to Romsey, for a short walk back to the car with a little drive home, my random mission of the day was complete, as pointless as it sounds.🤣