Main Line to The South - Part 2: St.Cross (Winchester) to Eastleig...

Main Line to The South - Part 2: St.Cross (Winchester) to Eastleigh and Swaythling

The London and Southampton Railway opened its line in 1840, the first major railway in the south of England – soon to become the London & South Western Railway and eventually in 1923 the Southern Railway. Part 1 was concerned with the line from Basingstoke to Winchester. Continuing our jornney, Part Two describes the line through to Eastleigh and beyond to Swathling.

Once again, we cover in great detail all facets of the construction, opening and operation of the line over the many decades with our usual extensive use of maps, plans and diagrams. Every archive, contemporary account or historical description has been thoroughly investigated in depth and presented as part of the narrative.
A central pillar of Part Two is inevitably the great and continuingly important operating centre at Eastleigh, including the Carriage and Wagon Works, the Locomotive Works and the vast locomotive running shed.
The line gathered frenzied interest in the 1960s as the last steam-worked main line in England until its electrification in July 1967.
Today the line between Basingstoke and Southampton carries not only heavy passenger traffic but, with the demise of coal traffic elsewhere, some of the nation’s heaviest freight traffic, in the shape of containers from Southampton Docks.
Part Three will complete the story to Southampton itself; the stations at Terminus and Central.