North Dorset Trailway - Part 4: Blandford Forum

Beyond Stourpaine & Durweston Halt, the Trailway continues for another three miles to Blandford where, sadly, all trace of the station has been obliterated by houses and a car park although these two very short lengths of track remain on what was the entrance to the goods yard.

The trailway from Sturminster ends at the entrance to what was Blandford Station, see the photograph below.

As at Sturminster Newton, there is a short section of track and a buffer stop in, roughly, the same alignment as the original track.
The footbridge that can just be seen at the top of the photograph is original and was Bridge Nº 194.

 

Just beyond the station site, heading towards Shillingstone, are these remains of a buffer stop that were originally at the end of a short loading dock siding.

The photograph above shows the trailway heading north, towards Shillingstone with Bridge Nº 193 in the distance.
Of course the line here was single track, doubling through the station and beyond to Corfe Mullen Junction.
On the right, and now grassed over, there used to be lines leading, behind the cameraman, to the Loading Dock and Goods Yard.
There was also a head shunt nearer to the bridge.
To continue walking the Trailway towards Charlton Marshall and Spetisbury, a diversion now must be made through Blandford.
This, unfortunately, means walking through the town and crossing busy roads since all of the bridges, viaducts and embankments that carried the line through the town have long since been demolished and replaced by houses and roads.
However, there is but one exception and it is the two arches of a viaduct (formerly Bridge Nº 198) that carried the line across the River Stour for the fourth and final time.

These forlorn arches of the bridge to nowhere still cling grimly on to a useless existence.
There were a further two arches on the southern bank of the river but these, together with all of the embankments, have long-since been removed.
Before we leave Blandford there was just one more nod to the town's railway heritage in the form of this sculpture.

It was created by Richard Gransby and adorns the wall of the Tesco superstore that now stands where, once, the Pines Express thundered by.
It is an excellent work of art, though, and features many S&D related scenes and subjects.