Longmoor reminders.

One of railway preservation's most intriguing might-have-beens was the onetime Longmoor Military Railway. In use by the Army as a training railway for the Royal Engineers until closed by the MoD in 1969, it was a ready made preservation project complete with stations, signal boxes and a circular loop as well as an end to end line.

Unfortunately, the local NIMBYs put paid to the preservationists big ideas and we can only speculate on what might have been. Being a military training ground, it was well guarded and difficult to photograph; I was escorted off the premises by the Military Police and a very large Alsatian guard dog on the one occasion that I went there! They did, however, have open days at which the public could attend and on those occasions photographs could be taken.

Although I did not go to any open days myself, I have been lent some slides and these are now on my Fotopic site with the few that I did manage to take before being slung out. The most recently added ones are in the 'Stop Press!' collection with other new pictures :

http://ronfisher.fotopic.net/c1099919.html

In due course, however, these will be moved to join the others already in the Longmoor collection and they will then be here :

http://ronfisher.fotopic.net/c1680438.html

Hope that they are of interest.

 

Ron, thanks for the memories!
As a member of the school Cadet Force, I did a fantastic fortnight's Railway Operating Course on the LMR in 1965. The course covered just about everything, and we acted as signalmen, guards, shunters and footplate crew. I even got to take a WD 0-6-0ST solo into the yard at Bordon, on a goods train, after the crew had got off at the level crossing, to go to a cafe. I then ran round the train, coupled-up and went to join them for a cuppa. On a run into Liss, we put the loco into second valve, quite a rarity, but couldn't close the regulator when we rounded a bend and found the Liss Forest Road distant was on. There was me, driver and fireman hanging on the handle trying to close it, and after putting the gear onto reverse we managed to stop just before hitting the sand drag at the home, where IIRC, it went to single track.

The second photo is probably not Longmoor Downs, but possibly Cranmer Bottom or some sidings which I think were known as "A & B Range".

Incidentally, whilst doing a military exercise at Longmoor, in 1982, I discovered a WD 0-6-0ST boiler in the undergrowth. Was this the Strategic Reserve?

Grüße

Dick

 

Thanks for this. One for the "what if?" thinkers to ponder. If that line had passed straight to preservationists, would the Mid Hants exist today?

Altough Longmoor closed, the Army continued a railway section of the Royal Engineers. I was serving in Germany when there was a major exercise in 1984. A batallion of TA engineers came out and whilst wearing full NBC protective clothing, laid a half mile branch line and connected it to a DB main line that was in operation.

More recently, many of the staff at the Long Marston Open Days aren't just "Army", they are from a TA railway operating unit.

 

I was invited to visit Longmoor by the son of a then neighbour in about 1962. Having got to Liss, I then travelled in the Birdcage that is now in use on the KESR. On arrival I found that my 'friend' had gone off with his girlfriend so I was left to wander around. Some of the pictures I took that day are in:-

http://phil-edwards.photobook.org.uk/c1255577.html

 

Superb pictures. Thanks for putting the link on here. It's a real shame that the LMR didn't survive although there are now talks of getting the railway back to Bordon running from Bentley on the Aldershot -Alton branch.

 

Where abouts was the workshop Martin?

I visited Longmoor twice in 1968/69 and bunked it once in about 64, found the engine shed which was just a corregated iron clad building but never located a workshop.