Eastleigh from Railway Junction to Railway Centre

On Monday 28th April at Cox Green and on Zoom, we welcomed as our guest speaker Thames Valley branch member Gordon Adams, who gave a presentation entitled “Eastleigh from Railway Junction to Railway Centre” covering the town, the station and the works.

Eastleigh was originally a small village called Bishopstone but developed with the coming of the railway and the opening of the station and the railway works. The village expanded from a rural backwater with the need for workers housing, shops, schools and everything else associated with urban development into the Eastleigh we know today.

The London and South Western Railway opened a carriage and wagon works in1891 and 1903 saw the construction of a large motive power depot in the town replacing existing maintenance and repair shops in Southampton. In 1910 locomotive building was transferred to the new workshops in Eastleigh from Nine Elms in London.

When the Southern Railway was formed in 1923 Eastleigh became the principal works for the new railway producing various classes of locomotive during the interwar years including the Lord Nelson Class, the Schools Class, the Merchant Navy Class and the West Country Class.

During the Second World War it produced Horsa Gliders, anti-tank gun barrels, rocket launchers and landing craft for use on D Day and afterwards the carriage works began constructing all steel carriages, both electric and steam hauled, pioneering the use of fibre glass and plastic for the various sections of the carriages.

Under nationalisation steam locomotive building ceased in1950 but rebuilding of some locomotives continued for a time. Eventually the works changed over to steam and diesel repairs with the closure of the carriage works in 1962.

Finally, with privatisation there have been various buy outs with emergence of Wessex Train Care, Knights Rail and Arlington Services.

The evening was most very informing  and was enjoyed by all in attendance.

Bob Horner