Portsmouth Stations

[tommy]

I will be in Portsmouth on friday en route to the ferry. I may well spend half an hour or so on one of the stations and wondered do the same trains effectively go to both (Harbour and main) and am I likely to see HSTs at either. My son is keen to see one and I've told him he will, but will he?

[Belmont Road]

Sadly no you will not see anything but multiple units. No freight on the Portsmouth direct for many years now, unless you count engineering trains. No HST's for years either.

Some trains terminate at Portsmouth and Southsea but most go to the Harbour.

[tommy]

Thanks for that. Makes it slightly less important to fit it in really.

[saxokid]

Only ever seen engineering trains at Portsmouth station........

[Dave Rowland]

Originally Posted by Belmont Road

Sadly no you will not see anything but multiple units. No freight on the Portsmouth direct for many years now, unless you count engineering trains. No HST's for years either.

Not STRICTLY true...
A freight terminal was built at Fratton, adjacent to Fratton station (behind the diesel fuelling point), designed for limited container traffic, consisting of a siding & run-round loop/headshunt & substantial roadway access, and a mobile (road) crane; after it had been completed, someone noticed that between Fratton and The Rest Of The World, there were three bridges crossing the track in Portsmouth which weren't able to accomodate container traffic. These were fairly quickly adapted, and the first freight Mon-Fri working (taken off the Wakefield to Southampton Western Docks modal at Eastleigh yard) was on Wednesday 14th January 2009. This was more or less a trial run, with just one empty two-part wagon; the same happened on the Monday; on the Tuesday there were three of these wagons (also empty). The following day, it was one double wagon carrying two Geest Banana containers into Fratton. Most days it was just bananas, but on a number of occasions, rum was in the consist too. It was generally locally known as The Pirate Special. However, this new freight flow, small as it was, began just as the recession started to kick in, and it petered out around the end of February 2009, and hasn't yet restarted. The working from Eastleigh to Fratton was 4T01, and the return (empties) to Eastleigh was 4T02. I made a point of going to Fratton to photograph the first Pompey freight in donkey's years, some pics here & onwards:-
http://daverowland.fotopic.net/p55874575.html

Whole collection:-
http://daverowland.fotopic.net/c1638414.html

Somewhere in the early 2009 collections, there are some pics of the working at Eastleigh.
Let's hope there's an upturn in demand again soon!

PS: There HAVE been two or three HST visitations over the past couple of years in the form of
A) Football specials from the Bristol direction, arriving too late (ie dark) for photos, and
B) The New Measurement Train (Yellow HST), photos in this collection here:-
http://daverowland.fotopic.net/c1669517.html

Hope this clarifies the situation.

[Belmont Road]

Originally Posted by Dave Rowland

Not STRICTLY true...
A freight terminal was built at Fratton, adjacent to Fratton station (behind the diesel fuelling point), designed for limited container traffic, consisting of a siding & run-round loop/headshunt & substantial roadway access, and a mobile (road) crane; after it had been completed, someone noticed that between Fratton and The Rest Of The World, there were three bridges crossing the track in Portsmouth which weren't able to accomodate container traffic. These were fairly quickly adapted, and the first freight Mon-Fri working (taken off the Wakefield to Southampton Western Docks modal at Eastleigh yard) was on Wednesday 14th January 2009. This was more or less a trial run, with just one empty two-part wagon; the same happened on the Monday; on the Tuesday there were three of these wagons (also empty). The following day, it was one double wagon carrying two Geest Banana containers into Fratton. Most days it was just bananas, but on a number of occasions, rum was in the consist too. It was generally locally known as The Pirate Special. However, this new freight flow, small as it was, began just as the recession started to kick in, and it petered out around the end of February 2009, and hasn't yet restarted. The working from Eastleigh to Fratton was 4T01, and the return (empties) to Eastleigh was 4T02. I made a point of going to Fratton to photograph the first Pompey freight in donkey's years, some pics here & onwards:-
http://daverowland.fotopic.net/p55874575.html

Whole collection:-
http://daverowland.fotopic.net/c1638414.html

Somewhere in the early 2009 collections, there are some pics of the working at Eastleigh.
Let's hope there's an upturn in demand again soon!

PS: There HAVE been two or three HST visitations over the past couple of years in the form of
A) Football specials from the Bristol direction, arriving too late (ie dark) for photos, and
B) The New Measurement Train (Yellow HST), photos in this collection here:-
http://daverowland.fotopic.net/c1669517.html

Hope this clarifies the situation.

Hi Dave I knew about the Fratton depot as my journalist friend covered it for a mag.

To be abosolutely technical, I was talking about the Portsmouth Direct route between Havant and London,!!

Cheers,

Jack

[CaravanClub]

A grotty Arriva 150 or one of the ex-Silverlink 150/1 pair on a Cardiff run is probably about the most interesting working to be seen in Pompey nowadays, though a stricly disallowed movement of a 153 did mistakenly take place a year or two back... tehehe!!