Introduction

The railway station and signal-box at Sturminster Newton, in the county of Dorset, were located 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 a temporary station at Blandford St Mary. In 1862 the DCR merged with the Somerset Central Railway (SCR) to become the Somerset and Dorset Railway (S&DR) and in 1863 the former DCR line was extended northwards from Blandford to meet with an eastwards extension of the SCR. The SDR in turn 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. When the railways of Great Britain were nationalised in 1948 the Joint line south of Evercreech Junction came under the control of British Railways (Southern Region) (BR(SR)), but in 1963 the line southwards through Sturminster Newton almost to Blandford passed to the control of British Railways (Western Region) (BR(WR)) and remained as such until the S&DJR closed to passenger traffic on 6-March-1966.

Sturminster Newton station looking north in 1957

To be completed...

© CJL Osment 2022
Photograph © Ian Scrimgeour courtesy Signalling Record Society.