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.

Bishops Waltham branch

1962 (Copyright Jim Lake).

                                      

1953 (Copyright John Aston)

A reminder (2015) (Sourced via Google)

Branch railmotor at Botley 1906

Durley Halt - a rare photo!

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On our regular trips to Winchester to visit relatives in the 1960s and 1970s we normally went via Bishops Waltham, and there was an intriguing pair of old level crossing gates by a roundabout near the town centre.

Research revealed that these were a remnant of the branch line from Botley, on the Fareham to Eastleigh line, to Bishops Waltham. This line opened on 31 December 1863, closed early to passengers on 31 December 1932, and completely in 1962.

Following the course of the River Hamble for much of its route it was single track throughout and lightly engineered with just a few underbridges. There was a small halt at Durley (see pic above) which only opened in 1910 and only saw light traffic.

There were other rail proposals in the Bishops Waltham area which never saw the light of day (or at least not yet!) including a line to Petersfield and another to Alton. A further, later,  proposal was a route to Droxford on the Meon Valley route from Fareham to Alton.

Passenger and freight traffic was generally light, except in the strawberry season when there would be many special trains carrying the fruit to the markets in London.

Railmotors were used for a short time but lacked flexibility as they couldn't pull additional coaches.

A short section of line still exists at the Botley end. I remember walking this in about 1970, it was a real surprise to find it there. It was about 400 metres of so and overgrown with small trees in places! This section has since been restored as a siding for Foster Yeoman aggregate trains, and has even been doubled in recent times. The rest of the route beyond is basically intact but very overgrown in places.

There was a scheme to build a narrow gauge line along most of the route in 1964, but this didn't reach an advanced stage.

Rowlands Castle 1977

ROWLANDS CASTLE

(All pics 6.7.1977 copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

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Four lovely shots I managed to take back in 1977 at the neat station at Rowlands Castle in Hampshire. I took the motorbike up from Littlehampton on a hot summer's day, the roads round Rowlands Castle weaving in and out of Hampshire before I got there.

Back in 1977 the Portsmouth Direct Line wasn't that busy, one express and one stopper per hour I think, but I snapped one train passing through. The station looked in pretty much original condition with few if any passengers. I suspect it's a lot busier now, hopefully all the buildings survive.

A piece of luck was the elderly car in the exterior shot making the picture look like it was taken about ten years earlier!

Basingstoke 28.10.1983

BASINGSTOKE

(All 28.10.1983 copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

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Back in 1983 I was still managing to take a couple of weeks a year rail roving around the south. There was still plenty of variety and a lot of the trains were far from overcrowded (younger readers will find this odd!) My favourite three locations for variety and ease of photography were Southampton, Salisbury and Basingstoke. All had plenty of variety and it was easy to get from one to the other, following the sun if it was shining.

On October 28th 1983 Basingstoke produced a nice variety of electric and diesel trains, including loco hauled of course. 33s and 50s were commonplace, as were 47s. The bottom picture even saw a blue liveried Hampshire unit still up and running.

This scene quickly changed within a few years as BR vanished and more and more loco hauled trains were handed over to units. But all three locations are still interesting in 2016, and of course a lot busier than they were back in 1983.