The Dorset Coast Express

We are offering a number of attractive summer day trips from London to Weymouth by steam train. These trains provide plenty of opportunity to visit the beautiful Dorset coast and relive the ‘golden age’ of steam. Passengers have the option of spending time at the celebrated seaside resorts of either Bournemouth or Weymouth, where both have fine sandy beaches. Each train will be hauled by a steam locomotive that was built for express passenger train work.

Our train leaves London Victoria station in the morning steam hauled and travels westwards, crossing the river Thames at Barnes Bridge, through Kew and Feltham. We stop at Staines and Woking to pick up further passengers. At Winchfield, we pause for our steam locomotive to take on water before continuing to our final pick up point at Basingstoke.

From Basingstoke we continue through Andover, bypassing Salisbury and on through Romsey to Southampton. We reverse direction of travel at Southampton and continue towards Weymouth, diesel hauled, with our steam locomotive on the rear.

We stop at Bournemouth to set down those passengers wishing to visit this coastal resort, a spa town famous for its parks and pine trees. After leaving Bournemouth, there are spectacular views of Poole Harbour. We continue to Wareham and Dorchester travelling through classic Dorset countryside and delightful scenery. We arrive at Weymouth early afternoon and have around three hours there to discover much of what this seaside town has to offer. The railway station is close to the beach and shops.

We return from Weymouth steam hauled late afternoon for the entire return journey. We stop for our locomotive to take on water at Southampton and then continue through Winchester to Basingstoke, where we stop to set down passengers and for our steam locomotive to again take on water. We then continue to Woking and Weybridge, from where Staines passengers will return by service train and on to our final destination at London Waterloo.

On Board Catering