Introduction

The railway station and signal-box at Cole were located in the county of Somerset, on the southern part of the main line of the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway (S&DJR) from Bath to Wimborne. The southern end of the S&DJR was constructed originally by the Dorset Central Railway (DCR), which was opened on 1-November-1860 as a single-track line from Wimborne to Blandford. In 1863 the DCR was extended northwards to join with the Somerset Central Railway (SCR) and a station was constructed at Cole. The actual meeting point of the SCR and DCR was just north of Cole station.

The DCR and SCR had merged in 1862 to form the Somerset and Dorset Railway, which became the S&DJR in 1875 when the line was leased jointly by the Midland Railway (MR) and London & South Western Railway (L&SWR). After the Grouping of the railways of Great Britain in 1923 the S&DJR remained a Joint line, but now under the control of the London, Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS) and the Southern Railway (SR), who were the successors to the MR and L&SWR respectively. After the railways were nationalised in 1948 the Joint line came under the control of British Railways (Southern Region) (BR(SR)) initially, but by mid-1958 British Railways (Western Region) (BR(WR)) had gained control as far south as Templecombe Junction and retained that until the S&DJR closed on 6-March-1966.

Cole station looking north in BR days

To be completed...

© CJL Osment 2024
Photograph from WCRA collection