50 Years Later - the Winchester to Alton railway

It's unusual for people to remember something that happened exactly 50 years ago, but sometimes as railway enthusiasts we do!

The Winchester-Alton 'Watercress Line' closed on 5 February 1973. I was there on the last day (the 4th) as it was a line quite close to me.

I first travelled on the line a few years earlier, in 1970, to actually visit another line. We were staying in Winchester were we had relatives, and me and my brother took the train from Winchester to Alton, changing there to continue to Bentley. From Bentley we planned to travel to Bordon by bus to visit the Longmoor Military Railway, which had closed the previous year. First problem was it was a bank holiday and the buses were running a Sunday service, which meant NO buses! So we had to walk to Bordon! We found the Longmoor Military Railway there but just an empty trackbed, they'd already lifted the line which was a shame.

This was BC, Before Camera, so no pictures and just vague memories unfortunately. My first photo was taken on 9.7.1971, about a year later.

I then made another trip on a rover ticket AC (after camera) and took a few very misty shots, but I think they captured the gloomy atmosphere of a soon to be closed line very well.

(Two above Alresford 4.1.1973 Copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

(Winchester Junction 4.1.1973 copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

                         (Medstead and Four Marks 4.1.1973 Copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

On the final day I only travelled to Itchen Abbas, to get some photos there. I felt a built guilty as I couldn't book a ticket directly from Littlehampton to Itchen Abbas, I had to rebook at Winchester but didn't have time to do that as I'd have missed the Alton train! I got some surprisingly good quality photos there on a cheap camera. The light must have been good.

                                         (All copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing 4.2.1973)

I visited Itchen Abbas a few years later, the station was intact but the line had been lifted. I was on a motorbike back then which was an easy way to visit railways after they'd closed.

                                                      (All copyright Steve Sainsbury 1976)

Medstead and Four Marks, further east, was a wreck with track lifted and junk everywhere. A sadder sight than Itchen Abbas in a way.

                        (Medstead and Four Marks 24.6.1976 Copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

I visited Alresford a few years later after it had become the site of a heritage railway, track down, steam locos and rolling stock in the platforms and yard. A sign that things were turning round at last. 

I travelled on to Ropley which with track down but no activity was more a haven for wildlife than railway fans!

                                 (All Ropley 24.6.1976 copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

Now of course the Alresford to Alton stretch is a busy heritage line, a premier league one at that. It's inevitably lost a lot of the atmosphere both the BR line and the deep closure line had, but it's doing a job now and providing a fair amount of employment locally.

                                    (Ropley 18.7.2015 Copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

The stretch beyond Alresford via Itchen Abbas to Winchester Junction is still lost and although a Winchester connection would tap into possible extra custom from the Southampton area coming up the main line, in reality, at least for now, most visitors come by car anyway, although the Network link at Alton is well used. And there would be the issue of shared track for a couple of kilometres at Winchester not to mention the need for extra capacity at Winchester station. It may well become a hot issue in future decades but for now that part of the line is in deep sleep.

East Sussex rural idyll

BODIAM

(All pics 18.4.1976 copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

FACEBOOK - RAIL THING - LIGHT RAILWAYS

RAIL THING WEBSITE

The Kent and East Sussex Railway had quite a struggle to survive. The original line closed to passengers in 1954, with the section north from Tenterden to Headcorn closing completely, the rest of the line followed in 1961. Track remained in situ though and the line was eventually opened in stages from Tenterden westwards, but only after an epic struggle with the Minister of Transport, who refused the line permission to cross the main A22 with a level crossing just short of its junction with the main Tonbridge-Hastings line at Robertsbridge. This section is now being restored by the Rother Valley Railway which plans to make an end-on junction with the KESR in the future.

This was all in the air when I visited in 1976. What I found was a rather ramshackle station at Bodiam which hasn't seen any public trains since 1961. It had a real air of Colonel Stephens (which I imagine is lost now) and was set in pleasant countryside. It's currently the terminus for trains from Tenterden, the nearby castle being a big draw for passengers.

Threading through the South Downs

LAVANT

(Lavant 24.6.1976 Copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

(Lavant 15.5.1977. Copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

FACEBOOK - RAIL THING ROUTES - RAILS OF SUSSEX

Imagine a single track railway with impressive tile hung stations running through a National Park linking a cathedral city with a country town, using exclusively steam - over bridges and through tunnels cutting through the South Downs.

Not quite the Bluebell or Cuckoo lines - the line was the Chichester to Midhurst branch of the LBSCR. The line closed throughout to passengers as long ago (as did Chichester's other branch line) but kept going with freight traffic throughgout until 1951 when flooding led to an accident which effectively cut the line between Cocking and Midhurst. Most of the remainder of the line closed in 1953, apart from the two mile section to Lavant which remained open until 1970 for seasonal sugarbeet traffic. An even shorter section of the line opened as far as a gravel pit south of Lavant, this final section closing as late as 1991.

(Near Lavant 15.5.1977. Copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

These are the basic facts about this line, but I had a much closer attachment to the route, as back in the late 60s and early 70s it was the closest disused line to where I lived in Littlehampton, and I regularly visited the line at Lavant, just catching it whilst the track was still down. The track ran through the station and tantalising beyond northwards to vanish in long grass with the South Downs as a backdrop. So a regular trip for me in that period was to catch the train from Littlehampton to Chichester, then walk until I could pick up the track south of Lavant.

The line beyond was a mystery to me and I never ventured beyond Lavant in those days. But a few years later I had a motorbike and followed the route northwards. I did get to photograph Cocking station, but Singleton was too scary to approach with it being a working vineyard (a rare thing even in Sussex back in pre-Global Warming days!)

(Cocking 24.6.1976 Copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

I had even been lucky enough to see the closed LBSCR station at Midhurst which marked the northern end of this route back in about 1970, shortly before it was demolished and a year before I started taking pictures. I even found the long abandoned LSWR in Midhurst on the same day which hadn't seen trains stop since 1925 (?) when all services began to use the more imposing LBSCR station.

(Midhurst LBSCR 1958. Source Google)

I haven't been back to this line for many years. The trackbed is now a cycleway and footpath and the station at Lavant has been converted into flats (it was a very big station for a small village!) Singleton is still a vineyard and Cocking is an impressive private house. You'd hardly know Midhurst ever had a station let alone two.

The future? Well Midhurst will need trains again one day, that's for sure. There were three branches to Midhurst, from Chichester, Pulborough and Petersfield. But the most useful line never actually got built - a direct route to London via Fernhurst and the Portsmouth Direct route ...

There have been schemes over the years to reopen at least part of the Midhurst network, albeit as a heritage line. One thing's for sure, no railway ever really dies, and they are all just waiting for their time to come.

Medstead and Four Marks 39 years apart

(All copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing B&W - 24.6.1976, Colour - 18.7.2015)

FACEBOOK - BEECHING REVERSED

One of the biggest transformations - and a good one - is the Mid Hants restoration of Medstead and Four Marks station. When I visited back in 1976 it was at its lowest ebb, with the track recently lifted and the building starting to fall apart.

In fact without knowing the station's history it would be difficult to believe that the top two pictures were real!

The station has been lovingly restored and now also has a shelter on the down platform and a classic LSWR signalbox on the up platform.

This shows what can be done with determination and a long term plan and the Mid Hants is a superb example of a line that has been through the process of run down and closure, slow revival starting with industrial locos and an eventual recreation of what inspired the original preservationists. The line is also an excellent tourist attraction in itself as well as a way of reaching a number of other tourist attractions en route. The line now employs people as well, further regenerating the local rural economy.

Return to Ropley - 39 years on!

 

(All copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing 'Then' (B&W) are 24.6.1976. 'Now' (Colour) are 18.7.2015)

FACEBOOK - RAIL THING - MID HANTS RAILWAY

I was lucky enough to visit the Watercress Line on Saturday, though sadly not able to travel on it. For a change I called in at Ropley and Medstead as I've always found the two termini hard to photograph. There were no such problems at the two intermediate stations!

I last visited Ropley in June 1976, before the line was reopened, and it was in deep sleep. The station is completely transformed now, as is the area it sits in, but fortunately there's no housing development and the location is still very rural. The station has of course been totally restored and the up platform and buildings have reappeared. There's a signalbox and also a large locomotive works. All in all a very pleasant spot and still with plenty of railway atmosphere.

I was lucky enough to travel on the line in BR days a few times, and I've also been a couple of times since reopening. I still find it odd that this useful line was closed, serving the large town of Alresford and also providing an excellent alternative route when the main line is closed or blocked. I'm sure the missing link via Itchen Abbas will be rebuilt in the future and the line morph into a community line with a proper 365 day service but with plenty of heritage atmosphere and trains of course!

Mid Hants Railway website

More info (from Wikipedia)

Ropley railway station is a railway station in Ropley, Hampshire, England, which opened on 2 October 1865.

History

The station was opened by the Mid-Hants (Alton Lines) Railway (MHR) on 2 October 1865. The MHR was leased to the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) in August 1880, which fully absorbed the MHR in June 1884. The LSWR amalgamated with other railways to form the Southern Railway on 1 January 1923.

The station was closed by British Rail on 5 February 1973.

Preservation

Ropley railway station was reopened by the Mid Hants Railway (Watercress Line) on 30 April 1977. It is an intermediate station on the preserved Watercress Line, which runs from Alton to New Alresford.

The main locomotive shed and workshops for the Mid Hants Railway are located just to the east of Ropley station.

The station gardens feature notable yew topiary, which has been in situ for over 100 years (an 1898 postcard shows the topiary well established).

A footbridge was added to the western end of the station in 1986. This was recovered from the closed station at North Tawton in Devon in August 1983, restored and installed by volunteers.

Footbridge

In 2012/13, a footbridge, originally located at King's Cross station in London, was dismantled and later re-erected at Ropley station for a new lease of life, above the maintenance shed, where passengers can walk over and view the works below.