IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Station Hill, BASINGSTOKE, RG21 5NE

A new destination board has been installed at the top of the stairs to platforms 2 and 3 at Basingstoke station. It lists all the stations served from here and the time of the next train to each (although this was taken on a day when most of the trains had been replaced by buses). Did you know there were so many ways to get out of Basingstoke?

Maunsell Class V 'Schools' 4-4-0 No. 30927 'Clifton' (built 6/34, withdrawn 1/62) is about to leave Basingstoke on the 12.53 slow to Waterloo; ex-LSW Waterloo - West main line.

View westward, towards Salisbury, Southampton etc.: ex-LSW Waterloo - the West main line, junction of ex-GW line to Reading. SR rebuilt Bulleid Light Pacific No. 34045 'Ottery St Mary' left Bournemouth West at 11.16 with this express and will proceed from here to Oxford via the Reading West loop, where it will hand over to a WR locomotive for the next stage and later the train will be worked by the ER and NER, arriving - perhaps? - at Newcastle Central at 18.15. (This seven-hour journey may have been a trial - especially with children, but could hardly be bettered now by motorway; moreover the train was comfortable and had a restaurant car). No. 34045 was built 10/46 as 21C145, rebuilt 10/58, withdrawn 6/64 and scrapped. However, the Severn Valley Railway have given its number and name to a restored No. 34027 - for some reason.

View westward, towards Southampton, Bournemouth and Weymouth, also Salisbury and Exeter on the ex-LSW main lines from London. The dated Summer Saturdays 09.11 from Portsmouth Harbour with WR motive power has come via Eastleigh and will turn off towards Reading West, thence through Oxford to terminate at Wolverhampton Low Level at 14.28. The locomotive is Churchward 43XX 2-6-0 No. 6318 (built 2/21, withdrawn 1/59).

Changing drivers on platform 4, Basingstoke station.

The train stopped for a few minutes whilst there was a change of driver. Not very quiet.

Morning rush hour at Basingstoke station. Taken just after 07:00, I counted 7 staff and 5 passengers on all four platforms. A few more passengers did arrive before my train came in.

A combination of cold weather, an early hour plus a rail strike gave me the opportunity to take this view of an empty station. The platform nearest the camera is platform 3 and at this hour would usually be full of commuters waiting for the fast train to London.