Lymington Branch Line facts for kids

The Lymington branch line is a short railway line in England. It connects the town of Brockenhurst to Lymington Pier. This line is operated by South West Trains. There is one station in the middle, called Lymington Town. The part of the track between Lymington Town and Lymington Pier is quite slow. Trains can only go up to 20 miles per hour there.

Special Trains on the Line

For many years, special trains called 421cig units ran on this line. These trains were very popular with "rail-fans." Rail-fans are people who love trains and enjoy watching them. Two of these special units were kept in good condition. Unit 1497 was named "Freshwater." It was painted in the classic British Rail white and blue colors. The other unit, 1498, was called "Farringford." This one was painted in a green color. Both names came from places on the Isle of Wight. This is because these trains only ran on the Lymington line. Until May 22, 2010, these were the last "slam-door" electric trains still running in Britain. Slam-door trains have doors that you open by hand.

New Trains and Why Things Changed

Today, the Lymington line uses different trains. These are called 158/9 Sprinter units. These new trains run on diesel fuel, not electricity. This means the old electric power system is no longer needed. It might seem odd because many railway lines are adding electricity. But there's a good reason for this change. The newer electric trains, called 450 units, are too long. They have four carriages. The station at Lymington Town is too short for these longer trains. The train company did not want to remove a carriage from these trains. So, the best solution was to use shorter, three-carriage diesel trains instead.

Images for kids

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  A map showing the layout of the Lymington branch line.

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  The restored 3Cig unit no. 1498 "Farringford" at Lymington Pier on May 26, 2005. This train was painted green, like trains from the 1960s. It stopped running on May 22, 2010. Now, it is kept at the Epping Ongar Railway. It has even had an extra carriage added to make it a 4Cig train again.

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  A South West Trains 159008 train. This train replaced the older, special trains on the Lymington line on July 17, 2009.