Introduction

Bailey Gate station was located in the county of Dorset at the southern end of the 'main line' of the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway (S&DJR), about 2 miles north of the junction at Corfe Mullen (where the S&DJR routes to Wimborne and Broadstone diverged). Bailey Gate was the first station north of Wimborne and had Up and Down platforms, with a goods yard on the Down side behind the station. A local road crossed the railway by an over-bridge No 220 immediately to the north of the platforms. Adjacent to the goods yard was a dairy, which provided daily milk traffic to the railway throughout its existence.

The southern part of the S&DJR was constructed originally by the Dorset Central Railway (DCR) as a single-track line running northwards from Wimborne Junction, but later the line through Bailey Gate was converted to double-track. The station is actually close to the village of Sturminster Marshall and originally it was named after that village when first opened on 1-November-1860. However after the DCR line was extended northwards beyond Blandford the station was renamed in 1863 (probably to avoid confusion with the new station further north at Sturminster Newton), the new name 'Bailey Gate' being taken from the turnpike gate on the nearby main road.

The earliest known reference to any signalling at Bailey Gate (BG) is a mention in the S&D Officers' Minutes for 8-November-1876 (Public Record Office file RAIL/626/16) of the decision to provide a signal-box there. It is believed that the signal-box was opened on 10-February-1879 and certainly the signal-box which existed at BG in later years was of the SDJR TYPE 1 style used during the late-1870s. At that time the number of passing-loops on the DCR was very limited (see notes on S&DJR Early Signalling) and some new loops were provided during this period - it is uncertain whether the signal-box at BG was built to control an existing loop, or coincided with the construction of a new one.

The New 'Cut-Off' Line

S&DJR trains originally had to reverse at Wimborne in order to run over the London & South Western Railway (L&SWR) to Bournemouth. To ease this problem a new "cut-off" line was constructed eventually, which left the S&DJR route at Corfe Mullen and ran southwards to rejoin the L&SWR at Broadstone Junction. Known officially as the ''Poole & Broadstone Junction Railway", the new line was brought into use for goods traffic in December 1885 and for passenger traffic in November the following year (1886). This new line was the first section of the S&DJR to be worked by the Electric Train Tablet (ETT) method (being so listed in Appendix No 7 to the S&DJR Working Timetable dated 1-Mar-1886.) Although the actual divergence from the original DCR route was at Corfe Mullen there was no physical junction here - instead the Wimborne and Broadstone lines continued northwards as parallel single-lines as far as Bailey Gate station, where the actual junction was made at the south end of the station. BG now became an important location in controlling the passage of trains onto or off the southern end of the S&DJR.

Two Signal-Boxes?

In Working Timetable (WTT) Appendix 7, and also the succeeding issues 8 and 9 for 1886 and 1889, there are references to separate 'Station' and 'Yard' signal-boxes at BG, with details of the bell-codes for use between the two boxes. From plan evidence the 'Station' box was situated on the up side of the line between the Blandford end of the up platform and the road overbridge, whilst the 'Yard' box was located on the up side adjacent to the junction facing points at the Wimborne end. However it is clear from careful reading of the WTT Appendix details that in fact only the 'Yard' box was a 'block post' controlling the Electric Train Tablet single-line sections, with the 'Station' box being merely a ground-frame (GF) to work the points at the north end of the station. Because of contemporary Board of Trade restrictions on the distances for the mechanical operation of points it was a common feature at many S&DJR passing-loops at that time for the points at one end to be worked by a GF locked from the SB - this GF was worked probably by a member of staff who went to it as required. However most such GFs are barely mentioned in the various WTT Appendices, so it is unclear why the example at BG warranted detailed instructions.

Change to Double-Track

In 1900 a new temporary siding was provided at the north end of the station (on the Up side of the single line) in connection with the preparatory work for the doubling of the line to Blandford. This siding was inspected for the Board of Trade by Major Pringle, whose report dated 18-Oct-1900 is in PRO file MT6/971/9 with the diagram shown below. The old 'Station box' ground-frame was utilised to control the new connection to the siding, whilst in the 'Yard' signal-box a new lever 'A' was added to the left-hand end of the lever-frame to act as a release lever for the new siding.

1900 Signal Diagram
Click diagram for larger image (130KB)

The new double-track to Blandford (together with a new signal-box at Spetisbury) was brought into use the following year (1901), and with the necessary alterations at the Blandford end of the station the layout then became as shown in the diagram on page 86 of the OPC book "An Historical Survey of the Somerset & Dorset Railway". (NOTE. The OPC diagram is labelled as being for the period from 1885 onwards, but obviously this conflicts with the MT6/971/9 evidence. The OPC diagram was copied from one in British Railway records dated 1895, so perhaps the diagram was prepared for the new works somewhat earlier than would be normal.) Regardless of the doubts surrounding the OPC diagram it is likely that it would be correct for the 1901-5 period. A further lever 'B' was added at the left-hand end of the lever-frame, in addition to lever 'A' added previously in 1900, these two levers now being used to work a new crossover at the Blandford end of the station and its associated shunting disc signals.

Signal-Box Relocated?

In the 1901 layout the lever-frame had been extended by 3 levers - as well as lever B, two 'push-pull' levers 21 and 22 were added to control new shunting discs for the sidings. In addition the signal-box (SB) was now in a different position nearer the station than in 1900 and this suggests that either the SB was replaced, or that the existing structure was moved. The SB that appears in photographs of Bailey Gate is a S&D TYPE 1 box, which would equate with a construction date of the late-1870s. If this SB had been replaced circa-1900 then one would expect it to have been of the contemporary S&D TYPE 3 style, and it is extremely unlikely that the numbering of the new lever-frame would have been identical to the old. It seems fair to assume that the original SB was moved, although there is no mention of this in any records. The reason for such a move is unknown, although one can speculate that it was decided to relocate the SB in a better position for overall control and sighting of the layout - this alteration would also have the benefit of dispensing with the need for the ground-frame at the north end of the station.

Abolition of Junction

The use of two parallel single-lines south of Bailey Gate came to an end in 1905, when a physical junction between the 'old' and 'new' S&DJR lines was constructed at Corfe Mullen and a new Corfe Mullen Junction signal-box was opened on 16th April that year.  The junction at Bailey Gate was removed and henceforth the two separate single lines from Bailey Gate to Corfe Mullen Junction were worked as ordinary double-track and controlled by the standard S&DJR block telegraph. Facing crossover points 12 were removed, together with the associated facing point locks 13 and 14, and also the redundant Down 'junction' signals (5, 6, 7, 8). In the Up direction the actual signals 17 and 18 were removed also, but their levers were re-used for the remaining Up Home and Up Distant (previously 19 and 20). The Down Advanced Starting signal (4) was renewed as a single post some distance further towards Corfe Mullen. The diagram below is taken from PRO file MT6/1373/4.

1905 Signal Diagram
Click diagram for larger image (84KB)

Later Alterations

After the removal of the junction in 1905, apart from some minor alterations, the basic layout at Bailey Gate remained unchanged for the majority of its existence. Indeed a S&DJR copy of the signal diagram produced in 1930 (77KB) shows the installation still to be identical to the 1905 arrangements. However on 24-March-1932 (as described in S&DJR Signal Instruction 322) a new 'Down Siding No 2' was provided, which was connected to the existing Down Siding. The new connection utilised levers 12 and 13 for its points and shunting disc - click for the 1932 signal diagram (81KB). At some stage between 1932 and 1955 one of the pair of shunting discs worked by lever B PULL was removed, with the other disc being used to control both routes. Then in 1955 an additional 'United Dairies' siding was provided on the Down side, but this had its own separate connection to the main running line For this alteration levers 14, 19 and 20 were brought into use for the points and shunting discs - see the diagram below.

Signal Diagram post-1955
Click diagram for larger image (99KB)

Closure

The station was closed to general goods traffic on 5-April-1965, although the milk traffic continued. On 7-March-1966 passenger services ceased on the whole of the S&DJR and so the station was closed to passengers. Although most of the S&DJR was now closed a few sections remained open for goods traffic and this included the line from Broadstone as far north as Blandford. The line from Corfe Mullen Junction through Bailey Gate to Blandford remained as double-track, but Bailey Gate signal-box was reduced to ground-frame status (the date being given variously as 7-March-1966 or 25-July-1966).

At some time during the 1966-69 period the Up line was taken out of use and traffic was worked in both directions over the Down line. During this period all levers in the ground-frame (former signal-box) were out of use except for 10 and 14, which controlled the two sets of siding points (although Down Siding No 1 was clipped out of use also and the trap-point at the exit from Down Siding No 2 was connected to lever 10 instead of 12). There were then no signals at Bailey Gate, only 'STOP' boards facing approaching trains at each end of the station. The ground-frame was closed eventually on 7-May-1968.

The last remnant of the old S&DJR line in Dorset was closed finally on 6-January-1969. All traces of Bailey Gate station have disappeared now under the development of an industrial estate. The road over-bridge has been removed, with a new roundabout built on the site. To the north of the former bridge the trackbed has been obliterated by a housing development.

© CJL Osment 2001

Bibliography

"An Historical Survey of the Somerset & Dorset Railway" by CW Judge and CR Potts, pub OPC 1979
"History of the Somerset & Dorset Railway: Wimborne Junction to Blandford St Mary 1860-1966" by WH Coomer 1997
"The Somerset & Dorset: Then and Now" by Mac Hawkins, revised edition Grange Books 1999
"Track Layout Diagrams of the GWR and BR(WR): Section 18" by RA Cooke, 2nd edition 1980
Public Record Office files: RAIL/626/16, MT6/971/9, MT6/1373/4
S&DJR Signal Instruction 322
S&DJR WTT Appendices: No 7 - 1886, No 8 - 1886, No 9 - 1889

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