FIFTY years ago, the railway line that brought thousands of people to Bournemouth for their holidays was shut for good.

Those holiday trains were far from the only purpose of the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway, but they were one of the reasons generations felt affectionate for it.

The S&D ran 71 miles from Bath to Bournemouth West.

Alex Barnes, of the conservation group Somerset & Dorset at Shillingstone, said: “In those days, you could get on a train in Bournemouth West and spend a day in Bath or Bristol and be back in a day. Now you’ve got to go to Southampton and up to Salisbury.”

After Henstridge on the Somerset-Dorset border, trains stopped at a long list of stations in Dorset: Sturminster Newton, Shillingstone, Stourpaine and Durweston Halt, Blandford Forum, Blandford Camp, Charlton Marshall Halt, Spetisbury, Bailey Gate, Wimborne, Corfe Mullen Halt, Broadstone, Creekmoor Halt, Hamworthy Junction, Poole, Parkstone and Branksome, before entering Hampshire to reach Bournemouth West.

The S&D dated from 1862, when the Somerset Central Railway and Dorset Central Railway were amalgamated. In the early days, it ran from Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset to Wimborne, beyond which its trains could use the London and South West Railway’s line to Hamworthy.

However, the expected demand for an overland route between the English Channel and the Bristol Channel did not come, so the company built an extension to Bath, creating a direct route to the Midlands and the North.

Despite that move, the original Somerset and Dorset Railway company went into administration and the operation came under the joint ownership of the Midland Railway and the L&SWR, under the new name Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, in 1876.

Meanwhile the line was expanding, reaching Poole in 1872 and Bournemouth in 1874 – much to the irritation of some Bournemouth residents, who feared the influx of the lower classes that a railway station would bring.

For generations thereafter, the S&D was the link to the south coast, running until the Beeching review in the 1950s earmarked it for closure.

Mr Barnes said: “Somerset and Dorset was a strange line in the sense that most of the lines that Beeching axed were small spurs or branch lines like Swanage.

“Somerset and Dorset was a double tracked main line. The only single track section was from Templecombe to Blandford.”

There was a vigorous campaign to save the line, but to no avail. Although the incoming Labour government had pledged no further railway cuts, the new transport secretary Barbara Castle approved the closure proposals in 1965.

Bournemouth West station closed in November that year as work was done to electrify the network, and trains went to Bournemouth Central until the S&D finally closed on March 6, 1966.

Bournemouth West station was later demolished, but its signal box is Grade Two listed and stands among the sidings at South West Trains’ train care depot. Most of the stations north of Poole disappeared one by one.

But as with many railway lines, the S&D’s closure after Beeching was not the end of the story, and today there are around half a dozen groups working on restoring and preserving parts of the line.

They range from the New Somerset and Dorset Railway, which is lobbying to rebuild the whole line as an alternative to the car, to several efforts to honour its heritage.

The Somerset & Dorset Railway at Shillingstone has been working to restore Shillingstone Station, which dates from 1863 and is the last surviving station built to have been built by the Dorset Central Railway.

The station has an unusual canopy, thanks to its links with Edward VII, who visited several times on his way to stay with Lord and Lady Wolverton at Iwerne Minster House.

The Shillingstone Railway Project aims to restore the station to its condition in the 1950s and 1960s and also enhance it. It has already renovated the station buildings to include a shop, café, museum and model railway, and is working on re-laying track and sidings.

Last weekend, to mark the 50th anniversary of the line’s closure, its Yankie tank locomotive 30075 was ‘in steam’ with two carriages behind it, to recreate the last days of the railway.

It has two of the Yankie engines, which worked in Southampton Docks from 1940 until the late British Rail era, and also owns an 08 class diesel shunting engine.

Within a small number of years, the volunteers believe they could have trains running again.

“We’re about to break out of our boundaries. We’re waiting for this event to finish and we start in the next two years to get a running railway sorted,” said Mr Barnes.

Although much of the line further afield has been covered over, he believes up to 18 miles could be re-opened. “In the next five to six years, we will probably get six miles,” he said.

He points to a blunder by the legislators of the time which might be seen as a good omen.

“Shillingstone never really closed,” he said.

“In the closure report, it was spelled wrong – so technically it’s still open up to this day.”