The Meon Valley Railway was a cross-country railway in Hampshire, England, that ran for 22 miles (36 km) between Alton and Fareham, closely following the course of the River Meon. At its northern (Alton) end, it joined with the Alton Line from London. It was conceived as an additional main line to the area around Gosport, and it was opened in 1903. It never fulfilled its planned potential, and remained a local line through sparsely populated agricultural areas, and it closed to passenger services in 1955; some local goods services continued until total closure in 1968.
The name does not refer to an independent company; it was constructed and run by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR).
History Background
By the last decade of the nineteenth century, the railway map of Great Britain was already mature, and there were few gaps waiting to be filled by speculators. In 1852 the London and South Western Railway had reached Alton, from Brookwood on the London to Southampton main line,R A Williams, The London and South Western Railway: volume 1: The Formative Years, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1968, ,, volume 1, page 184 and the Mid-Hants Railway was opened in 1865, continuing from Alton to Winchester.Roger Hardingham, The Mid-Hants Railway, Run Past Publishing, Cheltenham, 1995, , page 40 There were a number of proposals for railways in the Meon Valley in the middle and late 19th century; its south-westerly orientation suggested a direct line to an area west of Portsmouth, but successive schemes came to nothing.
Nevertheless in 1895 a line was promoted to connect the Great Western Railway at Basingstoke to Portsmouth, in part using the Meon Valley. The agricultural district through which it was to run was not prosperous, and the northern part of the area is rather poor for farming, but the promoters urged the idea of national defence, requiring rapid connection with Portsmouth in the event of war. The cost of the line would be £2,000,000.Extension of the London and South-Western Railway: the New Meon Valley Railway from Alton to Fareham, in the Railway Magazine, June 1903, pages 499 to 503
The incumbent railways at Portsmouth were the London and South Western Railway and the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR). These companies had established main line connections between London and Portsmouth, and after a period of intense mutual hostility, had formed a working arrangement that suited them and which they did not want to have disturbed. A line that would give the Great Western Railway access to Portsmouth was greatly undesirable to them. There are conflicting reports whether the GWR actively encouraged the proposals, but in any case the parliamentary bill failed in the House of Lords on the grounds that the scheme was too costly in relation to its benefit.
Nevertheless, fearing that a modified scheme might soon be put forward by some party supporting the GWR, the LSWR responded by undertaking to connect Alton with Basingstoke and Fareham. As part of the measures to fulfil that, the Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway was built under the Light Railways Act 1896, obtaining the Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway Order 1897 and opening on 1 June 1901.Martin Dean, Kevin Robertson, and Roger Simmonds, The Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway, Barton Publishing, Southampton, 2003, , page 12Edwin Course, The Railways of Southern England: Secondary and Branch Lines, B T Batsford Ltd, London, 1974, ISBN 0 7134 2835 X, page 60
Authorisation of the Meon Valley Railway
So far as the Fareham connection was concerned, the LSWR progressed a scheme for a railway down the Meon Valley; it was successful in Parliament and the (60 & 61 Vict. c. xxxv) was passed on 3 June 1897. It was to run from a junction west of Alton to another junction north of Fareham, joining the Gosport branch of the original London and Southampton Railway there.Colin G Maggs, The Branch Lines of Hampshire, Amberley Publishing, Stroud 2010, , page 99
The line was conceived as a main line, and the Directors stated that it would be designed so as to be suitable to carry express trains from London via Aldershot to Southampton, Gosport and Portsmouth.
Accordingly it would be designed with moderate curvature, but the undulating terrain made a ruling gradient of 1 in 100 unavoidable. The formation and structures would be made for double track, but only a single line would be laid, with passing loops at the stations. Long platforms, at capable of handling ten-coach trains, would be provided.K Robertson and Leslie Oppitz, Hampshire Railways Remembered, Countryside Books, Newbury, 1988, , page 60
In anticipation of the development of a new, and busy, main line, the Farnham to Alton section of the existing LSWR network was doubled in 1901.Course, page 56
The line was constructed two tunnels, Privett Tunnel, 1,056 yards, and West Meon Tunnel, 539 yards, and a viaduct at West Meon, with four wrought iron lattice arches of 56 feet span. The summit of the line was 519 feet above sea level. As the emphasis was on aligning the railway as a through route, several of the stations were some distance from the settlements they were to serve. However they were well-designed by the architect T. P. Figgis with leanings towards the Arts and Crafts movement, including the provision of stained-glass door windows and tiled interiors. Relfe & Son of Plymouth were awarded the construction contract. The LSWR's engineer in charge of the works was W. R. Galbraith; Henry Byer was the resident engineer.Course, page 228
Construction and opening
Construction began in 1898, with the first sod being cut just south-east of Farringdon. A problem during construction was obtaining a water supply for locomotive use, and for concreting, since the geology of the area is chalk.
The line opened for traffic on 1 June 1903.H P White, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: volume II: Southern England, Phoenix House, London, 1961, page 124 There was no public ceremony, but anyone was allowed a free one-way trip to the adjacent station. The total cost of construction, including the Fareham deviation line, was £399,500.
Early operation Waterloo to Gosport through trains were mostly hauled by Adams "Jubilee" Class 0-4-2 locomotives and the Alton-Fareham only were firstly Adams 4-4-2 Radial Tanks - the engines were turned on the triangle at Gosport and at Alton a turntable was provided.
Knowle tunnel and junction
The Meon Valley line joined the original Gosport branch of the former London and Southampton Railway at Knowle Junction to reach Fareham station. That line passed through Knowle Tunnel, which had given extraordinary trouble during the earlier construction. The tunnel continued to present difficulties, and as the Meon Valley Line was intended as a first class main line, a deviation line avoiding the tunnel was in the course of construction. On 2 October 1904 the deviation was brought into use for up trains (going away from Fareham), and the line through the tunnel was singled, being used only by down trains (towards Fareham). Double track was laid on the deviation line, and from September 1906 all trains used the deviation, and the tunnel was closed temporarily while major repairs were carried out. On 2 June 1907 a single line only was opened through the tunnel to carry all up and down Meon Valley trains, and all connections at Knowle were removed. Trains to and from the Romsey direction used the deviation line and Meon Valley trains went through the tunnel.Williams, volume 1, page 123
Knowle Junction ceased to be a true junction as the original connection between the MVR and the Eastleigh to Fareham Line was removed. The MVR now used an independent single-track line through the tunnel to Fareham station. One disadvantage of this arrangement was that the section of the original line between Fareham and Knowle was only accessible from the Fareham end, so that the private sidings on it could not be easily reached from the main line. The deviation line had severe gradients which heavy up freight trains had to surmount. In 1921 the junction connections at Knowle were reinstated so that main-line trains from either direction could use the old line.Course, pages 211 to 213
In 1907 the single track tunnel route was provided with a halt for passengers and two private sidings, serving the mental hospital at Knowle. The halt was known as Knowle Asylum Halt. It was alongside the Meon Valley single track, although the double track Romsey line was alongside, but without a platform face. The name of the halt was changed to Knowle Halt in 1942. In the 1950s it had the distinction of being illuminated by two electric lights, powered from the hospital's internal supply, when the neighbouring Botley station continued to depend on oil lamps. One of the sidings adjoined this platform; the other, which served a large brick works, was situated about half-way between Knowle and Fareham. Subsequently a third siding was added to serve an abattoir.David Fereday Glenn, Rail Routes in Hampshire and East Dorset, Ian Allan Ltd, Shepperton, 1983, , pages 23 and 24
First World War During the First World War the Meon Valley line was used for troop trains bound for the docks and France, but during this time the Waterloo to Gosport through services were suspended, and they were never fully restored.
Southern Railway The LSWR was incorporated into the new Southern Railway in 1923 as part of the process known as the grouping of the railways, following the Railways Act 1921. By then passenger train services on the line had been much reduced: there were now six or eight services a day, mainly formed of two- or three-coach trains hauled by Drummond M7 tank engines, with LSWR T9 class engines remaining for faster services. Goods services remained important, with a twice-daily service pick-up train service. The junction at Alton between the Meon Valley line and the Mid-Hants line was called Butts Junction; the signal box was abolished in 1937, and subsequently the two lines up to Alton were operated as two parallel single tracks.
Second World War During the Second World War the line was used lightly compared to other railways in the region, although there was an increase in goods traffic supplying the naval dockyard at Portsmouth. A few troop trains used the line late at night. In 1941 a special military freight train, hauled by a Drummond 700 class locomotive, was stabled for the night at Tisted, with the crew receiving instructions to stay with the engine and be ready to depart instantly in an emergency; the train was carrying 48 mines.
The MVR had a brief spell of intensive use during the build-up to D-Day when huge numbers of men and equipment had to be moved to the south of England, kept in readiness and finally transported to ports. Large numbers of tanks were moved by rail to Mislingford goods yard where they were dispersed to local hard-standings for temporary storage. Mislingford was also the site of a temporary wooden platform to serve the large number of Canadian troops who were encamped in the Forest of Bere.
A final meeting took place on 2 June 1944 in connection with the Normandy landings (D-day). The British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the Prime Ministers of Canada and South Africa, William Lyon Mackenzie King and Jan Smuts, and other Allied leaders arrived in a special train at Droxford station for a conference at the nearby HQ of U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, at Southwick House. The train was formed from part of the Royal Train of the London, Midland & Scottish Railway. The station had an exceptionally long siding and was close to a deep cutting. It was considered that if threatened by an air raid, the train could be pushed into the relative safety of the cutting.
Post-War and British Railways