Longmoor Military Railway

Longmoor Military Railway
Bordon Light Railway to Bentley White Hill Road LC Bordon Oakhanger Halt Whitehill Junction Two Range Halt Hopkins Bridge Woolmer Hollywater Longmoor Downs Griggs Green Weaversdown Halt Liss Forest Road Liss Junction Liss   to Guildford London to Portsmouth line to Havant

18 inch gauge military railway at Longmoor

Authorised for construction from 1902, activities date from 1903 when an 18 in (457 mm) gauge tramway was laid to assist in removing 68 large corrugated iron huts from Longmoor Military Camp to Bordon.

The railway was relaid to 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge in 1905–1907 and was initially known as the Woolmer Instructional Military Railway. It was renamed the Longmoor Military Railway in 1935. The Liss extension was opened in 1933. The stations and junctions included:

• Bordon – the northern terminal, adjacent to Bordon station and with access to British Railways via the LSWR owned Bentley and Bordon Light Railway.
• Oakhanger Halt - serving the village of Oakhanger, Hampshire. Bordon station was nearer to Oakhanger and Oakhanger station was nearer to Bordon.
• Whitehill Junction - serving the village of Whitehill, Hampshire.
• Two Range Halt
• Woolmer - serving the hamlet of Woolmer.
• Longmoor Downs – the original terminus, and largest station on the line, serving the military camp.
• Weaversdown Halt – originally a passing place at the hamlet of Weaversdown, a station was constructed which served the eastern side of Longmoor Military Camp.
• Liss Forest Road - serving the hamlet of Liss Forest.
• Liss Junction – with access to the exchange sidings, and onwards into Liss British Railways goods yard.
• Liss – the southern terminus, with a platform adjacent to those serving the Portsmouth Direct Line (still running).

An additional loop ran eastwards from Longmoor camp via a station at Hopkins Bridge to Whitehill Junction, completed in 1942. This provided circular running to the line, allowing for improved training without the need to turn trains at the terminals.

As a training railway, it was often being constructed/deconstructed. The layout would often change, and at one time housed a machine which could lay 1,500 yards (1,400 m) of track a day. At its peak, the railway ran to over 70 miles (110 km) of operational laid track and sidings.

The trackbed of the Military Railway in 2007, looking north from near Woolmer

The trackbed looking the other way, with Longmoor Camp around the curve to the left

The vehicles and stock on the LMR were very much an assortment to give the maximum learning opportunity. Well over a thousand locomotives had associations with the railway, although many only through the need for storage. The same was true of the signalling at the various locations on the line, including an Army version of flag signalling. After the end of World War II, the collection also included captured enemy equipment, including a "Schienenwolf" or railroad plough: a German wagon which dragged behind it a huge hook, used to destroy sleepers and so render railway lines unusable to advancing enemy troops.

In addition to the various military items, there were old versions of standard passenger carriages. A passenger service was operated over the line at various times, nominally for personnel required on the railway, and others from the War Department/Ministry of Defence and their families.

There was only one fatal accident recorded on the line, which occurred in October 1956.[1][2]

With a declining military role for railways both in Britain and the rest of the world, it was inevitable that the significance of the facilities offered by the LMR would be reduced in later years. Even so, the LMR was still important enough for the tracks of the Bentley to Bordon branch to be left in place when passenger services were withdrawn on 16 September 1957. This line remained in place as, although there was a British Railways connection at Liss, the Bordon branch made it easier to accommodate the movements of military traffic at short notice. In 1966, the movement of goods over the Bordon branch was suspended, and the line was taken up in 1967.

Closure

Disused platform at Liss

In the light of the reducing role of the military and the severely reduced British Empire, it was decided by the Ministry of Defence to close the railway. On hearing of its impending closure, local locomotive preservation groups became interested in acquiring the small but complete rail system, and a bid was placed to purchase LMR along with the airstrip at Gypsy Hollow which would have enabled the production of a unique transport museum. The MOD rejected this proposal, which had been backed by the Association of Railway Preservation Societies and The Transport Trust. However, the Army did offer the last 1½ miles of line from Liss Forest Road to Liss. The offer was accepted, a provisional lease was drawn up and planning permission was sought for developments at Liss.[9]

Unfortunately, the people of Liss did not share this enthusiasm and opposed the planning permission. Several residents raised £9,100 in a successful bid to buy this last piece of line. Longmoor Military Railway closed down with a ceremonial last day of operation on 31 October 1969, though for another two years some locomotives and stock remained on site, and there were occasional movements. Three items of rolling stock (a van, a brake van, and a bogie flat) still remain on the Longmoor site, as part of the FIBUA training village.[10]

Preservation

Preserved buffers in Liss

Some of the stock of the LMR did pass into the hands of preservationists, for example Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST No.118 Brussels to the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, and many relics went to the Museum of Army Transport at Beverley, Yorkshire, itself since closed, with the exhibits transferred to care of the National Army Museum, although mostly held in storage. WD Austerity 2-10-0 locomotive LMR 600 Gordon, resident on the Severn Valley Railway for many years, was donated to the SVR by the National Army Museum in 2008.[11]

The railway was used as the location for a number of films, including The Lady Vanishes (1938), Bhowani Junction (1956), The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958), Runaway Railway (1965), The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery (1966), The Magnificent Two (1967) and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968).[30][31] It also appeared in Marty Feldman's comedy sketch "The loneliness of the long distance golfer"(1968).

In February 1956, the railway was used to stage a train derailment for the BBC programme Saturday Night Out, when ex-SR King Arthur class locomotive 30740 "Merlin" and three coaches were pushed down an incline onto a specially canted section of track.[1]

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  Montage on display at Liss railway station
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• Melbourne Military Railway – Derbyshire

• Ronald, D.W and Carter, R.J, (1974) The Longmoor Military Railway, Newton Abbot: David & Charles, ISBN 0-7153-6357-3.
• Ronald, D.W. and Christensen, M., (2012) The Longmoor Military Railway: A New History: Volume One: 1903–1939, Lydney: Lightmoor Press, ISBN 978-1-899889-69-3.
• Mitchell, V. and Smith, K., (1987), Branch Lines to Longmoor, Midhurst: Middleton Press, ISBN 0-906520-41-X.

• History at HantsWeb
• Industrial Railway Society article from 1966 also includes a map of the system
• British Pathe "Army Railway" newsreel from 1961
• Recollections of LMR operations
• History at Military Railways in Hampshire
• "Army historical article on the LMR". Archived from the original on 31 October 2006.

51.0895°N 0.8302°W / 51.0895; -0.8302