Fotopic Site Updated

I've updated my Fotopic site with some photos I took whilst down in Portsmouth during the Christmas break.

Firstly there's a look at the modern scene around Cosham, dominated by modern EMU's and First Great Western's slightly ageing 158s. I still vaguely remember the days before the Solent Link electrification was completed in the early 1990s and the DEMU's that used to run through here and a little further back Class 33 hauled trains to Cardiff. Since the late 80s these have been in the hands of DMUs, firstly the Sprinters and now 158s. Cosham station itself hasn't changed much in those years, although modern passenger information displays and automated announcements are in place and the signalling has recently been replaced as part of Network Rail's botched Portsmouth Resignalling Project. It should have been completed last Christmas but it wasn't until October 2007 that it was finally commissioned. Control of the signals in the area and the crossing gates is exercised from the Havant Area Signalling Centre.

On 31 December I took a visit to Gosport to see the remains of the railway station, which I've seen only briefly in passing a few times before. It is not in the most central of locations for the town, owing to the insistence of the Board of Ordinance that the railway could not penetrate the town's defences.

It is sad to see what was obviously once such a magnificent building left to ruin. It has been closed since 1953 and any hope of a rail link being restored has been lost forever. Houses are built on the site of the old track bed immediately to the west of the station and the line as far as I am aware has been lifted all the way back to the junction at Fareham. There used to be stub that ran as far as Bedenham but I believe that even this is out of use now.

The future for the Grade II listed building and site does seem a little more optimistic with a proposed residential and office development - see here for details and pics: http://www.formatmilton.co.uk/news_gosport_aug07.html