Basingstoke

Great Western Railway’s Basingstoke station opened on 1 November 1848, next to the London & South Western Railway station that was already there. The GWR station featured a timber roof which spanned two of Basingstoke’s three platforms.

There was also a two-track GWR engine shed and a goods shed plus several sidings forming the goods yard. In the early days there was a goods ‘transhipment’ shed which had one set of broad gauge rails, and one set of standard gauge rails. All freight and goods had to be unloaded and reloaded between wagons on either track before it could reach its final destination. This took much time and effort so in 1856 the GWR laid a third rail at the standard gauge width on its tracks from Oxford to Reading and Basingstoke making these lines ‘mixed gauge’. This allowed trains of either gauge width to use the lines.

Basingstoke’s GWR engine shed closed in 1950, leaving just the former L&SWR loco shed to service steam engines, until it closed in July 1967 when BR steam ceased. The separate GWR station closed in 1932. However, the current Platform 5 is one of the original GWR platforms and is still in use as the ‘bay platform’ for local stopping services on the line today.