Saturday 8th February seen me attend my first Timeline Events photo charter at the Mid Hants Railway, in Hampshire, also known as The Watercress Line (as back in the day, it transported fresh, locally grown watercress to the London markets).

The subject of the charter was SR Schools Class 30925 Cheltenham, which had recently been repainted into BR Brunswick Green at the end of 2019 on rake of green coaching stock - a truly authentic Southern Railway prototypical train. 

After a relatively pleasant 2½ drive from the Midlands, travelling mostly via the M40 and A34, I arrived at our starting location, the pleasant Ropley Station, where our locomotive was in the process of being prepped for the day ahead. As ever, with any photo charter, all of the photographers had to be present for the all important safety briefing before the train pulled into the station and we all boarded. The train was a 5 coach train, with coaches 2 and 3 being made available for our use to travel in.

Our first location was an area known as Bishops Sutton, where a solitude tree stands line side, more than likely back from a time when the railway was once part of the main rail line between Alton and Winchester prior to closure in 1973, at this point is was quite cloudy and a number of run pasts was executed for the photographers and videographers, the absence of sun made it possible to take many different angles as the light was neutral for whatever side you were on. 

As the morning went on, we decided to head up to the line's terminus at Alresford for a break, stretch our legs and have a bite to eat, from a personal point of view, I always try to keep my business to the railway concerned and use their facilities as much as possible - in this case, using the station at café. I had a very tasty breakfast bap which consisted of sausage, bacon and fried egg on a white bap/roll/cob/batch/barm depending on what part of the country you're from.

Afterwards, we boarded the train for our afternoon session, whilst we was having a break, the clouds began to clear and soon we was blessed with some sunshine, we retraced our steps back to Bishops Sutton with that tree and began run pasts again.

After we filled our boots, our next location was Chawton Woods, which is more or less at the opposite end of the line between Alton and Medstead & Four Marks Station, it was seeing other peoples work online of Chawton Woods which actually swung it for me to book on the charter. At this location, the line is on an embankment running on the Southern fringe of Chawton Woods, and looking at the location seems a quiet and idyllic location. Don't be fooled however, as the A31 trunk road between Winchester and Farnham passes close by.

Having spent some considerable time at Chawton Woods, we had to head back to Ropley to give Cheltenham a drink, again the photographers had a choice of either disembarking the train or staying on the train whilst it was shunted into a siding where the water facilities are located. I disembarked the train to stretch my legs at Ropley and to spend a penny shall we say lol. Once watered, Cheltenham eased back into the station, and we headed West back towards Bishops Sutton, although there are a wide number of various locations to visit at Bishops Sutton, so the shots weren't all the same as when we visited in the morning.

We ended the day on the Western fringe of Bishops Sutton, at a location collaquially known as Weavers Curve, after which time we returned to Ropley Station, and subsequently time for me to retrace my steps back to the Midlands.

LINKS:

Timeline Events

Mid Hants Railway