Eastleigh Works is a locomotive, carriage and wagon building and repair facility in the town of

Eastleigh Eastleigh is a town in Hampshire, England, between Southampton and Winchester. It is the largest town and the administrative seat of the Borough of Eastleigh, with a population of 24,011 at the 2011 census. The town lies on the River Itchen, o ...

, in the county of

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

in England.

History

LSWR

The

London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exeter ...

(LSWR) opened a carriage and wagon works at Eastleigh in 1891. In 1903, the Chief Mechanical Engineer,

Dugald Drummond Dugald Drummond (1 January 1840 – 8 November 1912) was a Scottish steam locomotive engineer. He had a career with the North British Railway, LB&SCR, Caledonian Railway and London and South Western Railway. He was the older brother of the eng ...

, oversaw the construction of a large

motive power depot The motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is the place where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained when not being used. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine shed ...

in the town; replacing the existing maintenance and repair shops at

Northam, Southampton Northam is a suburb of Southampton in Hampshire. On the West bank of the River Itchen, it shares borders with St Mary's, Bitterne and Bevois Valley. Beside the border with St Mary's is the Chapel area, which has been home to some recent apartm ...

. In January 1910, locomotive building was likewise transferred to the new workshops at Eastleigh from

Nine Elms Nine Elms is an area of south-west London, England, within the London Borough of Wandsworth. It lies on the River Thames, with Battersea to the west, South Lambeth to the south and Vauxhall to the east. The area was formerly mainly industrial bu ...

in London. Among the locomotives produced by the LSWR under Drummond at Eastleigh, were the S14 0-4-0 and M7 0-4-4 tank engines, the P14 and T14

4-6-0 A 4-6-0 steam locomotive, under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, has four leading wheels on two axles in a leading bogie and six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles with the abse ...

, and D15

4-4-0 4-4-0 is a locomotive type with a classification that uses the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement and represents the arrangement: four leading wheels on two axles (usually in a leading bogie), four po ...

, classes. Following the appointment of

Robert Urie Robert Wallace Urie (22 October 1854 – 6 January 1937) was a Scottish locomotive engineer who was the last chief mechanical engineer of the London and South Western Railway. Career After serving an apprenticeship with and working for various ...

as Chief Mechanical Engineer in 1912, the works were responsible for the construction of the H15, S15, and N15 (King Arthur)

classes, and the G16 4-8-0, and H16

tank engines.

Southern Railway

Following the merger of the LSWR and other railways in southern England to form the Southern Railway, as part of the Railways Act grouping of 1923, Eastleigh was to become the principal works for the new railway. The new Chief Mechanical Engineer,

Richard Maunsell Richard Edward Lloyd Maunsell (pronounced "Mansell") (26 May 1868 – 7 March 1944) held the post of chief mechanical engineer (CME) of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway from 1913 until the 1923 Grouping and then the post of CME of the ...

re-organised the works and directed the design and construction of various new classes. Like most of the railway works, Eastleigh was heavily involved in the war effort, producing, in 1938, sets of parts to convert Blenheim bombers so that they could be used as fighters. The works was also part of a joint venture with other workshops, railway and private, to produce Horsa gliders for the

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

airborne assault. With Lancing works, it turned out 200 tail units. It also produced 1,500 anti-tank gun barrels and, with

Brighton railway works Brighton railway works (also known as Brighton locomotive works, or just the Brighton works) was one of the earliest railway-owned locomotive repair works, founded in 1840 by the London and Brighton Railway in Brighton, England, and thus pre-da ...

, 240 multiple rocket launchers, plus landing craft, fuel tenders and harbour launches. Under the Southern Railway, the works were responsible for building the Maunsell

SR Lord Nelson Class The SR class LN or ''Lord Nelson'' class is a type of 4-cylinder 4-6-0 steam locomotive designed for the Southern Railway by Richard Maunsell in 1926. They were intended for Continental boat trains between London (Victoria) and Dover harbour ...

, the

Schools A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compulsor ...

, U1 2-6-0, W class 2-6-4 tanks, and Q class

0-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. This was the most common wheel arrangemen ...

locomotives. Under the regime of

Oliver Bulleid Oliver Vaughan Snell Bulleid Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (19 September 1882 – 25 April 1970) was a British railway and mechanical engineer best known as the Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the Southern Railway ( ...

, after 1937, Eastleigh works constructed all thirty of the SR Merchant Navy Class and six of the

West Country The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Gloucesters ...

4-6-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and two trailing wheels on one axle. The locomotiv ...

. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Eastleigh works built 23 examples of the

London Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally ...

designed 8F 2-8-0s. By the end of 1947, the works had built 304 locomotives with a further 16 before steam locomotive building ceased in 1950. In 1945, the carriage works began constructing all-steel carriages, both electric and steam hauled. It pioneered the use of plastics and glass fibre reinforced resin for doors, seating and roof sections. Eastleigh Works Ex-LSW 0-4-0T geograph-2658538-by-Ben-Brooksbank

Eastleigh Works Ex-LSW 0-4-0T geograph-2658538-by-Ben-Brooksbank

British Rail

In 1950, following the nationalisation of the Southern Railway to form the

Southern Region of British Railways The Southern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948 until 1992 when railways were re-privatised. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s. The region covered south London, southern England and the sout ...

new steam locomotive building ceased at Eastleigh. However the works were kept fully occupied between 1956 and 1961 in rebuilding over 90 of the Bulleid 4-6-2 classes. Thereafter the works gradually changed over to steam and diesel repairs. In 1962, the works was again reorganised with the carriage works site being sold, and carriage and

electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a numbe ...

repairs transferred to the main locomotive works. In 1962, Eastleigh Works built the first six electro-diesel locomotives of

British Rail Class 73 The British Rail Class 73 is a British electro-diesel locomotive. The type is unusual in that it can operate from the Southern Region's 650/750 V DC third-rail or an on-board diesel engine to allow it to operate on non-electrified routes. Thi ...

but the remainder of the class were built at the

Vulcan Foundry The Vulcan Foundry Limited was an English locomotive builder sited at Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire (now Merseyside). History The Vulcan Foundry opened in 1832, as Charles Tayleur and Company to produce girders for bridges, switches, crossi ...

Post privatisation

As part of the

privatisation of British Rail The privatisation of British Rail was the process by which ownership and operation of the railways of Great Britain passed from government control into private hands. Begun in 1994, it had been completed by 1997. The deregulation of the industr ...

, the plant was acquired from

British Rail Engineering Limited British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL) was the railway systems engineering subsidiary of British Rail. Established in 1970, the maintenance arm was split as British Rail Maintenance Limited in 1987, and the design and building of trains was ...

through a management buyout in June 1995 and rebranded Wessex Traincare. In 1998 it was sold to

Alstom Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Avelia ...

and renamed Alstom Wessex Traincare. The site was used for carriage and multiple unit repairs. In 2004, Alstom announced the works were to close due to lack of work, which took effect in March 2006 after the completion of a contract to refurbish Class 455s for Southern. The site has been managed since 2002 by St. Modwen Properties; with the site being lease to several sub tenants including Knights Rail Services and Arlington Fleet Services. , the site's facilities include overhead cranes, third rail electricity supply, paint facility, and refuelling facility. Additionally

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...

undertook maintenance of its

South West Trains Stagecoach South Western Trains Limited, trading as South West Trains (SWT), was an English train operating company owned by Stagecoach, which operated the South Western franchise between February 1996 and August 2017. SWT operated the majorit ...

Class 444 and Class 450s on site, and

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

MPVs were stored on site. In January 2018 KPI Property Investments who are jointly owned by St Modwen Properties and Salhia Real Estate sold the works to the corporate pension fund clients of

Savills Savills plc is a British real estate services company based in London. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History The business was established by Alfred Savill (1829–1905) in 1855 in London. B ...

in a £20 million deal.

Knights Rail Services

In 2007 Knights Rail Services (KRS) began operations on site, using it to store off lease rolling stock, as well as undertake repairs and refurbishments. It removed asbestos from withdrawn

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent ceremonial counties of England, counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and He ...

A60, A62 and 1967 stock. In January 2012, KRS signed an extended lease on the site to 2016. In September 2012, KRS was purchased by co-tenant Arlington Rail Services."Arlington takes control of Eastleigh Works" ''Rail Express'' issue 198 November 2012 page 11"Arlington buys Knight Rail Services"''The Railway Magazine'' issue 1339 November 2012 page 7

Arlington Fleet Group

Arlington Fleet Group is based at the site with and is composed of Arlington Rail Services providing storage facilities, Arlington Fleet Services providing repair and maintenance of railway rolling stock and Arlington Fleet Workshops providing paint shop facilities. It started in 2004 when Arlington Fleet Services Ltd was established by a group of railway engineering professionals to perform rail vehicle maintenance including heavy repair. In September 2012 Arlington took control of the work and various activities from KRS becoming the dominant site tenant. By 2014 the works was again nearly fully occupied and Arlington extended its lease of the works until 2019.

Locomotive Depot

Adjacent to the locomotive works was a very large 15-road engine shed which was opened in 1903 and closed in 1967.Hawkins (1979), pp. 28–9. This depot was one of the largest on the SR: in 1946 its allocation was 131 engines of extraordinary variety in age and origin:- 17 4-6-0, 31 4-4-0, 7 2-6-0, 19 0-6-0, 15 0-4-2, 1 0-8-0T, 13 0-6-0T, 23 0-4-4T and 5 0-4-0T. Although closed as a TMD, the site was used for scrapping engines as late as 2003.

References

Literature

* Aves, W.A.T., (2004) 'The locomotives built at the Southern Railway Works, 1- Eastleigh', ''Locomotives Illustrated'', 255. * Boocock, Colin and Stanton, Peter (2006) ''An illustrated history of Eastleigh Locomotive Works'', Hersham: Oxford Publishing Co. * Eagles, Barry J. (2002) ''Eastleigh: steam centre of the South Western'', Settle: Waterfront * Hawkins, Chris and Reeve, George (1979) ''An historical survey of Southern sheds'', Oxford: Oxford Publishing Co. * Larkin, E.J. and Larkin, J.G. (1988) ''The Railway Workshops of Great Britain 1823–1986'', Macmillan Press * Simmons, J., (1986) ''The Railway in Town and Country'', Newton Abbot: David and Charles * Winkworth, Bob (2007) ''Eastleigh: the railway, the town, the people'', Southampton: Noodle Books

External links

Knights Rail Services Official Website (archived at Wayback Machine)

Arlington Fleet Group Official Website
{{coord, 50.96124, -1.34742, display=title, type:landmark} Railway workshops in Great Britain London and South Western Railway Southern Railway (UK) Eastleigh Rail transport in Hampshire