Pines Express

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The Pines Express was a named passenger train that ran daily between Manchester and Bournemouth in England between 1910 and 1967. It ran for the first time under the name Pines Express on 26 September 1927^[1] and is believed to have been named for the pine trees in the Bournemouth area.^{[citation needed]} When the service first ran, unnamed, on 1 October 1910^[2] it was run jointly by the Midland Railway and LNWR, introduced in response to a LSWR/GWR service between Birkenhead and Bournemouth.^{[citation needed]}

The train became known as the top express to use the Somerset and Dorset line,^[3] a steeply-graded railway line through photogenic hilly countryside between Bath and Bournemouth, much loved and sorely missed by enthusiasts. On this line it often had to be double headed due to gradients on the line, producing spectacular photographs and film footage.^{[citation needed]}

The last Pines Express to run over the S&DR was on 8 September 1962, hauled by 9F 92220 Evening Star.^[4] The train was then diverted over ex-GWR metals via Oxford, Reading, Basingstoke and Southampton. From 4 October 1965 it was extended to Poole, but the last train was run on 4 March 1967.

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