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Salisbury
Salisbury station continues to be am important
junction on the main line from London to Exeter. It is joined by the
Southern line from Romsey to the east whilst the Great Western Railway
had a presence, being the terminal for their line from Bristol and
Westbury. Salisbury had a large steam locomotive shed but this was
demolished after the end of steam in 1967 and the land is now derelict
and overgrown. However there are still extensive servicing facilities
for the trains using the London to Exeter route, the location of these
facilities being on the site of the old GWR station.
There are a few steam era reminders, principally
the water tower and the ticket offices from the old GWR station. More on
this below.
This set of pictures looks at a brief visit on
Friday 12 May 1967, together with some contemporary views.
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My visit
in 1967 involved catching the 7.18am train from Waterloo. This was
a semi-fast service to Salisbury and a BR standard locomotive was
usually rostered.
On this occasion it was BR
Standard Class 5 no. 73037.
On 15 March 1998 the Mid Hants
Railway (under the banner of Daylight Railtours) ran their
Standard 5 to Salisbury and I took this occasion to replicate the
1967 shot.
Apart from the cleanliness of
73096, the main difference over the years is the replacement of
semaphore signals with colour lights.
I had a very memorable run on the
7.18 in November 1966 on my way to the Isle of Wight. The story
plus a photograph can be found here.
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servicing, 73037 is at the London end of the station waiting to
leave with a parcels train.
The large running in board in the
1967 photograph has gone, replaced by an even larger advertising
hoarding.
The 2017 shot shows 66-165
waiting to leave with a UK Railtours excursion to Waterloo. (This
train is featured on another page here). The GWR water tower and
buildings to the right are survivors from the steam age. These
buildings are what's left of the old GWR station which was
adjacent to the Southern Railway one. Designed by Brunel, the former passenger
buildings were Grade II listed in 1972 and continue in non-railway
use today. They can be glimpsed in the view below.
34072 "Tangmere"
departing from Salisbury on 5 August 2004.
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Another
view from the London end of Salisbury station.
The 1967 shot shows Battle of
Britain locomotive no. 34089 "602 Squadron" arriving
light engine. This engine was the last to receive an overhaul at
Eastleigh Works in October 1966 - an event that attracted media
coverage. By May 1967, the engine had lost its nameplates but
still looked fairly respectful.
Move forward to 30 September 2000
and West Country no. 34016 "Bodmin" arriving with a
Daylight Railtours excursion from Alton to Okehampton.
Over the years most of the
sidings in the background have disappeared and by 2016 the land is
very overgrown but the old yard lamp survives (see the picture
below). The other 1960's infrastructure, the semaphore signal and
signal boxes have been swept away.
Photo taken on 15 October 2016 |
Published
19 May 2017
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asserts his intellectual property rights under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988
No images, audio, text or documents may be reproduced in any form without
written permission of Des Shepherd.
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