Trains at Winchester (SWML) - 01/08/2024

The 243rd video of my train spotting adventures.
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This video follows on from Shawford railway station, one stop north along the SWML to Winchester railway station. A small, 2-platform DfT Category C1 "Important feeder" train station, it was first opened in June 1839 by the London and Southampton Railway (L&SR, later the London and South Western Railway, L&SWR). It became a temporary terminus for the Winchester to Southampton section. On the same day, another station was opened at Basingstoke, which was a temporary terminus of the London to Basingstoke section.
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In the following year, a line was built joining Winchester and Basingstoke and the line was complete. This line was the trickiest to construct; it had four tunnels and a single station called Andover Road (now Micheldever), rather optimistically given that Andover lay 13 miles (21 km) west. Winchester became a through station in 1840.
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As the line bypassed Kingston upon Thames, Winchester was the only major settlement on the line between London and Southampton. Since the original Southampton line ran via the then small market town of Basingstoke, where lines to the west would be built, it was not very direct. Another line was constructed to run via Guildford, Farnham and Alton, which joined the main line north of Winchester. The present day line runs via Aldershot instead of Guildford, and the line finishes at Alton. British Rail closed the line from Alton to Winchester in 1973, but a section from Alton to Alresford is preserved as the Watercress Line, a heritage railway. The final gap from Alresford to Winchester is unlikely ever to be reinstated, owing to housing and the M3 having been built on the former track bed.
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Later, the Great Western Railway (GWR) built the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway. This passed at a separate station on the eastern side of Winchester, called Winchester Cheesehill; in 1949, it was renamed Winchester (Chesil), whilst Winchester's main station was renamed Winchester City. This did not last long; in 1966, Chesil closed and an alternative diversionary route to Oxford, Birmingham and beyond, bypassing Basingstoke and Reading, was consequently lost. The following year, British Rail changed the station name from Winchester City to Winchester.
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Renovations in summer 2004 gave the western side of the station a refurbished entrance and second ticket office, albeit with shorter opening hours than that on the eastern side. In summer 2009, both platforms received ticket barriers with CCTV, with the entrance to platform 2 from the forecourt reorganised as part of South West Trains' plan to fit or refit ticket barriers on the busiest stations on the network. In July 2013, a brand new footbridge was constructed between the platforms.
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Filmed on the:
South West Main Line
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Services seen:
SWR) Services towards Shawford, Eastleigh, Fareham, Cosham, Portsmouth & Southsea, Portsmouth Harbour, Southampton Airport Parkway, Southampton Central, Brockenhurst, Bournemouth, Poole, Weymouth, Micheldever, Basingstoke, Woking and onwards to London Waterloo.
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XC) Services towards Southampton Airport Parkway, Southampton Central,
Bournemouth, Basingstoke, Reading, Oxford, Banbury, Leamington Spa, Coventry and onwards to Birmingham and the North of England.
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Trains seen:
SWR) Class 444/450 Desiro, Class 455, Class 458 Juniper, Class 701 Aventra
XC) Class 220/221 Voyager
FL) Class 66
DB) Class 66
GBRf) Class 66, Class 69
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[@ukrailspotter21]

Excellent video mate