Nailsea & Backwell to Lymington Town (14^th April 2010)

Story

The trip to Lymington was one I'd been meaning to make for a while. The line between Brockenhurst and Lymington Pier (the Lymington Branch line) is operated by South West Trains, and, until May 22nd 2010, is the last domain of the venerable Class 421 "slam-door" EMUs. On May 23rd they go back to the depot and get sold or whatever - generally they won't be in use anymore, and I was determined to see them before they disappeared for good. To that end, I got on the Paddington train at Nailsea, got off at Bristol Temple Meads, bought myself some breakfast, narrowly missed seeing one of the new Freightliner Class 70s, then settled onto 158959 for the trip to Salisbury.

As far as Bath Spa, it was all track I'd been on before, but then at Bathampton Junction the Wessex Main Line heads south while the Great Western Main Line heads east, and I was into countries new. The stations we passed through seemed fairly nice, though nothing special, and soon enough we pulled into Westbury. There was a First Great Western Intercity at one of the other platforms, and for the first time I realised that some Intercities actually use the Reading to Plymouth line rather than going via Bristol. From there we headed south to Salisbury. I could have stayed on 158959 all the way to Southampton Central, but I'd hoped that Salisbury would be interesting to wander round, and hoping that I'd be able to get on a 159 for the rest of the trip. A moderate yes on the former, no on the second. The moderate yes being because there's nowhere on the station that you can see into the neighbouring TMD, which maintains South West Trains' fleet of DMUs. I found my way to the eastern bay platform and got on SWT 158886, which I have to say was very comfy and very empty. Actually, I thought the first class section was less comfy than standard, which is a bit odd. We passed through several First Great Western-signed stations on the way to Southampton, but apparently no FGW trains ever stop there. Hooray for ridiculous timetabling. Then, eventually I saw the cranes of Southampton Docks, and somewhat surprisingly a load of tanks on the back of railway wagons. I got off at Southampton and started wandering around taking photos, only to be told that I wasn't allowed to do that without speaking to the station manager, who had disappeared, and I was eventually given the ok by some grumpy guy in a cramped office who couldn't seem to understand that someone might want to take photos of trains. I wandered around a while, then got on 444015 with the service to Weymouth. It was my first third-rail Desiro, and I have to say I think the 158 was comfier.

After a 20 minute journey, I alighted at Brockenhurst, which is meant to be the best medium station in the country or something. I really could not see why. It was a bit dirty, looked run down and very hard to access for disabled people. I accept it was staffed and had a shop, which is somewhat of a rarity these days, but even so I'm sure there are plenty of medium stations which are better. I didn't have to wait long for the first sight of 421497, which was the 421 I'd been hoping to see (I just don't like the green livery on the other one). I can see why these trains are getting mothballed - their first class is really not very comfy, and having compartments on a main line train seems very strange nowadays. I do hope they end up on a heritage railway somewhere, as they seem to work quite well. We soon departed, and I was somewhat surprised by the new forest - it's not very forest-y, much more scrubby. And grubby. My ticket was to Lymington Pier, from which a ferry had just departed, but it turned out that the actual town was accessible from Lymington Town (should have guessed really), so I stayed onboard at the changearound and went back the way I'd come. Lunch was on my mind, so I went to find a chippie - apparently there is only one in Lymington, and on the day I was there they'd run out of wooden forks, which left me attempting to eat battered cod with my fingers on the harbourside. I saw 421497 head back and forth across the harbour bridge once before I got up and tried to find a souvenir for my parents. I failed, so bought an ice cream and a post card instead and then headed back to the station. I took the train back to the pier and turned around back for Brockenhurst, leaning out of the window the entire journey.

I didn't stay long at Brockenhurst, and got the first service (450091) back to Southampton, bought myself a magazine, then took the first SWT service to Salisbury. Mistake - I should have waited for the next FGW service, as when said service reached Salisbury it was jam packed and it just got worse when we all tried to pile in. It was so bad that at Westbury we had to changed trains - I think we swapped with 158958 which had an extra carriage for the trip back to Bristol, where everyone going to Cardiff was again told to get off and go to another train. I just got off and took the Taunton service home.

Route

Nailsea & Backwell  ·  Parson Street  ·  Bedminster  ·  Bristol Temple Meads (change)  ·  Keynsham  ·  Oldfield Park  ·  Bath Spa  ·  Freshford  ·  Avoncliff  ·  Bradford-on-Avon  ·  Trowbridge  ·  Westbury  ·  Dilton Marsh  ·  Warminster  ·  Salisbury (change)  ·  Dean  ·  Mottisfont & Dunbridge  ·  Romsey  ·  Redbridge  ·  Millbrook (Hampshire)  ·  Southampton Central (change)  ·  Millbrook (Hampshire)  ·  Redbridge  ·  Totton  ·  Ashurst New Forest  ·  Beaulieu Road  ·  Brockenhurst (change)  ·  Lymington Town  ·  Lymington Pier (change)  ·  Lymington Town

Lymington Town  ·  Lymington Pier (change)  ·  Lymington Town  ·  Brockenhurst (change)  ·  Beaulieu Road  ·  Ashurst New Forest  ·  Totton  ·  Redbridge  ·  Millbrook (Hampshire)  ·  Southampton Central (change)  ·  Millbrook (Hampshire)  ·  Redbridge  ·  Romsey  ·  Mottisfont & Dunbridge  ·  Dean  ·  Salisbury (change)  ·  Warminster  ·  Dilton Marsh  ·  Westbury (change)  ·  Trowbridge  ·  Bradford-on-Avon  ·  Avoncliff  ·  Freshford  ·  Bath Spa  ·  Oldfield Park  ·  Keynsham  ·  Bristol Temple Meads (change)  ·  Bedminster  ·  Parson Street  ·  Nailsea & Backwell

Click to return to the Journeys & Trainspotting trips log.

Click to return to the Trains index.