Bailey Gate railway station

Bailey Gate railway station was on the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway in the English county of Dorset.

Bailey Gate
Bailey Gate railway station in April 1963
Location	Sturminster Marshall, East Dorset England
Grid reference	SY949995
Platforms	2
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	Dorset Central Railway
Pre-grouping	Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway
Post-grouping	Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway Southern Region of British Railways
Key dates
1 November 1860	Opened (Sturminster Marshall)
31 August 1863	Renamed (Bailey Gate)
7 March 1966	Closed

The station served the United Dairies cheese factory and the village of Sturminster Marshall but was named after a local farm to avoid confusion with another station on the same railway at Sturminster Newton.

The station had extensive sidings and was one of the largest depots for transporting milk on the UK railway system. Milk was carried in tanker wagons from Bailey Gate to London and was a major source of revenue for the railway. Sugar beet was also loaded onto wagons for transportation to refineries.

The station consisted of three buildings, a Waiting Room/Ticket Office, a small shed for the lamps on the downside and a signalbox on the upside, behind the station were the sidings for transhipment. Access to the station from the west was via a small path that ran down from the slope of the bridge, which took the user to the up platform where, to gain access to the station buildings, one had to cross the railway lines via a small wooden crossing next to the bridge. Access from the east was via the main entrance to the goods sidings down the slope and around the side of the station via a gateway. The station closed with the railway under the Beeching Axe in March 1966. Track was finally lifted in 1969, as the railway remained open until the closure of the goods terminal at Blandford that year.

There is now an industrial estate off the A350 road called "Bailie Gate" at the site.