South West Main Line

The South West Main Line runs from London Waterloo to Weymouth on the south coast, via Woking, Basingstoke, Winchester, Southampton, Bournemouth, Poole and Dorchester. The line is 3rd rail electrified in its entirety. From London to Basingstoke the line is four tracks, then the remainder is two tracks with the exception of a short length of four tracks in Southampton, and single track near Dorchester.

South West Main Line
Description	The South West Main Line from Southampton Central to Dorchester South
Country	United Kingdom
Time period	2023
Train Operating Company	South Western Railway, Great Western Railway, Southern, CrossCountry
Simulation difficulty
Author	Oxalin
Website	South West Main Line
Rolling Stock	Class 158 Class 165 Class 166 Class 220 Class 221 Class 377 Class 444 Class 450
Route map Eastleigh & London Southampton Tunnel Southampton Central Millbrook Southampton West Docks Freightliner Terminal Redbridge Maritime Freightliner Terminal Romsey & Salisbury Totton Totton Yard Fawley Line Redbridge Beaulieu Road Brockenhurst Sway Lymington Town New Milton Lymington Pier Hinton Admiral Christchurch Pokesdown Bournemouth Bournemouth Middle Sidings Bournemouth West Carriage Sidings Branksome Parkstone Poole Poole Loops Holes Bay Causeway Hamworthy Goods Hamworthy Holton Heath Wareham Down Sidings Wareham Wool Up Siding Swanage Railway Wool Winfrith Siding Moreton Dorchester South Sidings Dorchester South Weymouth

This simulation covers the section of the South West Main Line from Southampton Central to Dorchester South. Services are predominantly operated by South Western Railway using Class 444 and 450 units on the main line, with Class 158 units operating the Salisbury to Romsey "Rounder" service. Great Western Railway services also use Class 158 units, along with Class 165 and 166, on their Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central service via Southampton Central. CrossCountry operates a service to Bournemouth using Class 220 and 221 "Voyager" trains, and Southern operate several services terminating at Southampton Central using Class 377 units.

Timetable

The timetable included represents a Wednesday in March 2023, running from 04:20 until about 03:30 then next morning, with the following standard off peak services:

South West Main Line Services
Train Operating Company	Origin	Destination	Frequency (tph)
CrossCountry	Manchester Piccadilly	Bournemouth	0.5
South Western Railway	Winchester		1
	London Waterloo	Weymouth	1
		Weymouth & Poole splitting at Bournemouth	1
	Salisbury	Romsey	1
	Brockenhurst	Lymington Pier	2
	Southampton Central	Portsmouth & Southsea	1
Southern		Brighton	1
		London Victoria	1
Great Western Railway	Portsmouth Harbour	Cardiff Central	1

In peak hours additional services operate, and some services split/join at Southampton Central instead of Bournemouth. There are also plenty of freight services in and out of the ports at Southampton throughout the day.

Operational Tips

• Keep an eye on the platform allocations given in the description of each train for Southampton Central and Bournemouth - if you stick to these everything should work.
• Double check the instructions for trains terminating at Poole - some can arrive on the normal platform and enter the sidings/loops, while others need to arrive on the northbound platform.
• Its a good idea to set points for the route you want before actually setting the route - this is due to the amount of bi-directional track, and helps avoid blocking up the throats to the larger stations by mistake.
• Keep an eye on passing times for freight services - they tend to run early so it might be necessary to find somewhere to hold them for a bit (Southampton's Down Goods Loop is helpful for this!)
• Some trains may be held at red signals behind slower services - provided they've been routed in the correct order this shouldn't impact their schedule.
• The line operates as four tracks in the Millbrook area, with the fast lines on the outside and slow lines on the inside. In general only trains stopping at Millbrook use the slow lines, but it may sometimes be necessary to route other trains along them as well.
• Typically, it is best to keep freight on the bottom track in the Southampton area (past Millbrook) unless multiple freight trains need to pass each other. This keeps it out the way of passenger services.