Railway archive

Certainly a bit of a nostalgic visit down memory lane today, with a visit to the historic railway signal box at Romsey.
Fifty years ago it became part of the infamous axe wielded by Dr Richard Beeching which spelt a sad end for much of Briitain’s railway network serving primarily rural communities.
This signal box was on the old Sprat and Winkle line which ran from Redbridge on the outskirts of Southampton through Romsey to Andover. Originally opened 150 years ago, on March 6, 1865 it had a crucial role in two world wars moving troops and supplies from Salisbury Plain to Southampton Docks en route to France.
Today the signal box is still in perfect working order, although no longer in operation.  In days gone by it controlled the junction of the Sprat and Winkle line with what is now the Wessex main line from Southampton to Bristol still running behind the signal box. After the Beeching axe fell it was scheduled for demolition, but was saved by the Romsey and District Buildings Preservation Trust and restored to working order by volunteers as an historic railway archive.
I never travelled on the old Sprat and Winkle, but today’s visit it brought back loads of memories. My dad spent much of his life working in a very similar signal box in another part of Hampshire, at Alresford, and which similarly fell under the Beeching axe, although also restored and now in full operation as part of the preservation railway, the Watercress Line.
As a youngster I can recall , when not at school, taking dad’s mid-day meal to the signal box from home about five or six minutes away.  He worked two out of three Sundays, and I looked forward to the Sunday afternoon he was on duty because, with few trains on Sundays, I could visit dad’s signal box and more often than not have tea and a piece of cake with dad there.

So while not a follower of the Sprat and Winkle, I can empathise with everything the volunteers at Romsey have achieved in lovingly bringing it back  to working order as an evocative link with our railway heritage, largely decimated for country dwellers 50 years ago at the whim of government.