Class 47s on Portsmouth Direct Inter City Diversions, 14th March 1993

A now long gone feature of winter weekends in the days of British Rail used to be engineering work diversions, where trains would be sent to their destination by an alternative route. Sometimes these diversions would be over freight only lines or, like the Portsmouth Direct line between Havant and Guildford, a line where locomotive hauled passenger trains are an exception. On 14th March 1993 an engineering block between Southampton and Basingstoke meant the Inter City Cross Country services between Poole & all points north were diverted from Southampton via Fareham, Havant, Guildford and then on to Reading. As well as Inter City Class 47/8s, a few Network South East services are seen, mostly formed of Class 423 "4-VEP" units although one train was lead by a Class 412 "4-BEP" unit. The locations are Chalton on the Hampshire-Sussex border north of Rowlands Castle and at Bedhampton near the A3/A27 junction. Both of these locations have become heavily overgrown since 1993. [Hi8 source]