EASTLEIGH TO PORTSMOUTH
The trick with ‘Great British Railway Journeys’ is to meander from somewhere to somewhere, preferably with some places of interest along the way. Starting at Eastleigh, a genuine railway town, home to a carriage and wagon works since 1891, and ending at Portsmouth, a naval base that punched its weight from the late 12th century, ticks the boxes. Intermediate stops could be enlivened by radical journalist William Cobbett, the humble brick, a Roman fort cum medieval castle, and 18th and 19th century fortifications, but I digress. The Eastleigh-Portsmouth route saw plenty of steam but would have had a mix of motive power from 1957, when diesel-electric multiple units were also operating on at least part of the journey with Western Region units also working cross country from 1965, by which time steam was approaching its end.
Eastleigh
Eastleigh is here because of the railway, or at least its modern bulk is. There was an Anglo-Saxon village (‘East Leah’) here in the 10 century and the place was mentioned in the Domesday Book, but nothing much happened until the London & South Western Railway (LSWR) arrived with its line between Southampton and Winchester, Eastleigh opening as ‘Bishopstoke’. The Carriage & Wagon Works arrived in 1891, transferred from Nine Elms, and was augmented in 1909 when the latter’s Locomotive Works also headed to Eastleigh. The Works were massive, employing thousands at their apogee. Eastleigh shares a
