The history of Stokes Bay Railway Part 4
| Published: 4th June 2008 13:37 |
However by 1866 the steam boat 'Her Majesty' was usually to be found working on the Stokes Bay run. One assumes that the reign of the 'Prince of Wales' on this route was a short lived one.' Her Majesty' was a 75 ton iron paddle steamer which was built in 1850. It had had a varied career and in 1863 had sunk off the coast at St Helens on the Isle of Wight was subsequently raised refurbished, repaired and reboilered and returned back into revenue earning service.
However after even more problems by march 11th 1865 a petition for winding up the Isle of Wight Ferry Company was applied for. At this point the company had accumulated debts of well over £15.000 and on 13th May all the assets of the Company were sold to the Ryde Pier Company.
To a degree the failure of the Isle of Wight Ferry Company was not entirely its own fault. At that time the trains to Stokes Bay Pier were still having to reverse at Gosport station,which added at least another 15 minutes onto the journey time ( the western arm of the triangle had yet to be constructed), and the ferry accommodation on the pier during heavy weather was far from adequate. In fact it was virtually impossible to tie up a craft if a strong southwesterly wind was blowing. As the southwesterly was the predominant wind at the bay this was a great disadvantage. All this plus the unreliability of the South Western Railway to forward passengers as fast as possible from Bishopstoke made for bad passenger relations.
As already stated originally all the Stokes Bay traffic had to reverse at Gosport station but in 1864 the South Western Railway traffic committee recommended that a spur be constructed to connect the Stokes Bay line directly with the Fareham line at a junction in Forton and to be called Lees Lane Junction. It was also recommended that a small passenger station be built on the Stokes Bay line just beyond the junction with the Gosport spur of the newly opened triangle. The work was put in hand and the opening of the spur came into effect from 1st June 1865, just after the sale of the Isle of Wight company. The coaches were now split from the west of England trains at Bishopstoke where passengers from other services, could join and the train could be worked from Fareham right out onto Stokes Bay Pier without having to call at Gosport first. Initially, however, only two trains a day used this avoiding line.
Leesland Crossing Signal Box in LSWR Days
The construction of the new link at Lees Lane Junction was followed the new small station just south of the Bury Arch bridge. This station was a very simple affair and naturally the local residents of Gosport and Alverstoke lodged objections stating that the new station was far too basic for the needs of the area.
Five years after the sale of the Isle of Wight Ferry Company the London and South Western Railway, who were still running the train services to the pier offered to buy (Stokes Bay Pier and Railway Company in exchange for £35.000 worth of ordinary London and South Western Railway, stock. The Stokes Bay Company rejected the terms and negotiated for £40.000 and an increase in the annual rental by £200 per annum. This was not surprising, as this figure had remained unaltered since 1858. The South Western agreed to these terms although the transfer of all the assets dragged on and on and was not complete 1875.
