Ropley railway station is a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

Ropley Ropley is a village and large civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It has an acreage of , situated east from New Alresford, and is served by a station on the Mid Hants Railway heritage line at Ropley Dean, just o ...

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 ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, which opened in 1865 and reopened in 1977 after four years' closure, to be served by steam and select diesel trains on the

Watercress Line The Watercress Line is the marketing name of the Mid-Hants Railway, a heritage railway in Hampshire, England, running from New Alresford to Alton where it connects to the National Rail network. The line gained its popular name in the days w ...

which shares its terminus at

Alton railway station Alton railway station is a station in the town of Alton, in the English county of Hampshire. The station is the terminus for two railway lines: the '' Alton Line'' which runs to Brookwood and on to London Waterloo, and the '' Mid Hants Wa ...

along with the more major

Alton Line The Alton line is a railway line in Hampshire and Surrey, England, operated by South Western Railway as a relatively long branch of the South West Main Line. The branch leaves the main line at Pirbright Junction to the west of Brookwood stati ...

History

The station was opened by the Mid-Hants (Alton Lines) Railway (MHR) on 2 October 1865. The MHR was leased to 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) in August 1880, which fully absorbed the MHR in June 1884. The LSWR amalgamated with other railways to form the Southern Railway on 1 January 1923. The station was destaffed in 1967 and closed by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

on 5 February 1973.

Preservation

Ropley railway station was reopened by the Mid Hants Railway (Watercress Line) on 30 April 1977. It is an intermediate station on the , four-station route which runs from

Alton Alton may refer to: People *Alton (given name) *Alton (surname) Places Australia *Alton National Park, Queensland * Alton, Queensland, a town in the Shire of Balonne Canada * Alton, Ontario *Alton, Nova Scotia New Zealand * Alton, New Zealand, ...

New Alresford New Alresford or simply Alresford ( or ) is a market town and civil parish in the City of Winchester district of Hampshire, England. It is northeast of Winchester and southwest of the town of Alton. New Alresford has independent shops, a t ...

, also in Hampshire. The main locomotive shed and workshops for the Mid Hants Railway are just to the east of Ropley station. The station gardens feature notable yew

topiary Topiary is the horticultural practice of training perennial plants by clipping the foliage and twigs of trees, shrubs and subshrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes, whether geometric or fanciful. The term also refers to plants w ...

, which has been in situ for over 100 years (an 1898 postcard shows the topiary well established). A footbridge was added to the western end of the station in 1986. This was recovered from the closed station at in Devon in August 1983, restored and installed by volunteers. A gauge

miniature railway A ridable miniature railway (US: riding railroad or grand scale railroad) is a large scale, usually ground-level railway that hauls passengers using locomotives that are often models of full-sized railway locomotives (powered by diesel or petro ...

opened in 2015. This railway was previously running in the Top Car Park of Ropley station from 2009 until 2012.

Footbridge

In 2012–13, a footbridge, originally at King's Cross station in London, was dismantled to connect instead the raised picnic area, orchard and children's play areas to the buildings at Ropley station taking in for part of its length the maintenance shed, where passengers can walk over and view the works below.

Route

Unusual_view_of_Ropley_station_-_geograph

References

External links

{{UK railway stations Heritage railway stations in Hampshire Former London and South Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1865 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1973 Beeching closures in England Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1977