A day return is the smallest rail tour, and it is easy to waste. The fare is cheap, the day is short, and the town is whatever is two hours down the line. Worth doing means you chose the place for a reason and the trains for a margin.
Choose the out and the back first
Pick a departure that gets you there late morning and a return that leaves late afternoon, with a later train you could still catch. The gap in the middle is the day. If the only cheap tickets are the 6am and the 4pm with a connection of four minutes, that is not a day out. That is a dare. Pay a little more for a direct train if the change is the sort of station where you would have to run.
What to do with five hours
Walk from the station in one direction until you have seen the thing you came for: a seafront, a market, a cathedral close, a river. Eat once. Turn around with an hour spare. Five hours is a long lunch and a proper walk, or two walks and a rushed sandwich. Pick the first. You can read on the train. You do not have to fill the town.
The return
Be on the platform early enough to be bored. A day return fails in the last fifteen minutes, when the attraction was five minutes further than you thought and the train is the one your ticket allows. The next town along the line will still be there. This one was a day, and the point is to be home for supper.
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