CORFE MULLEN JUNCTION
The completed Somerset &
Dorset Line, between Bath (Green Park) and Wimborne Junction was opened for
public traffic in July 1874, although the Dorset Central Railway had opened
its Wimborne Junction-Blandford section of line on 1st November 1860,
thereby taking the railway to the east of Corfe Mullen village. However, it was
a further eleven years, December 1885, before the name Corfe Mullen appeared on
any railway map. This resulted from the opening a new single line section from
Corfe Mullen Junction, as it become know, to Broadstone by the Midland Railway
and London and South Western Railway - now the joint owners of the S & D
(as it affectionately became known). The name Corfe Mullen was to remain on the
railway map, in one shape or another for the next 108 years.
A new signal box, named Corfe Mullen Junction,
was opened in 1905, complete with a twenty four lever frame, to control the
junction and points between the double line from Blandford and the single lines
to Broadstone and Wimborne Junction. Prior to the opening of the junction box
there had been gate boxes, both here and at Bailey Gate crossing, which
signalled trains running on the then single lines which commenced at Bailey
Gate Station.
The first alteration at Corfe Mullen Junction
occurred in July 1920 when the Corfe Mullen Junction-Wimborne section closed
for passenger traffic; all through trains now running direct to Broadstone,
although the section remained open to freight traffic. Thirteen years later,
June 1933, saw the section finally closed except for a mile long stub to
Carters siding near Corfe Mullen. This ultimate section closing on 19th
September 1959. The Somerset & Dorset Joint line closed to all passenger
traffic on 6th March 1966, but the section between Broadstone and Blandford
remained opened, for goods and milk traffic, until 7th May 1968, when this
final section was reduced to siding status and Corfe Mullen Junction box
closed, some nine months before total closure on 6th January 1969.
The Model
CORFE MULLEN (Broadstone Junction)
CORFE MULLEN (Broadstone
Junction), as the name implies, is based on Corfe Mullen Junction and uses the
junction layout of the early 1930s, after the direct line to Broadstone had
been opened, but before the spur to Wimborne had been closed. Certain other
features of the location have been included, e.g. level crossing, crossing
keepers house, but that is about all, the rest is pure fiction - a case of what
might have been, for operation is based on the following never having taken
place:-
[1] The Somerset & Dorset was never closed.
[2] The spur to Wimborne, together with the associated LSWR line between
Brockenhurst and Holes Bay/Hamworthy never closed.
[3] both the resulting single lines from Broadstone and Wimborne became double
at Corfe Mullen Junction
If that wasnt fiction enough, weve hopefully built the layout to
enable us to operate trains from two different time periods, late 1950s/early
1960s (i.e. steam era) or early 1990s (i.e. diesel era), but not at the same
time!