As promised in the previous article on the Isle of Wight steam railway, we take a closer look at Havenstreet, the headquarters of the railway.

Most people join the train at Havenstreet and it has a large car park.  It isn’t the terminus of the railway however and the train will travel to Wootton, return and then carry on to Smallbrook Junction and return (or vice versa).

Access to the platform is via a gate-controlled crossing, so when trains are arriving or leaving for Smallbrook Junction, passengers have to wait until they can access the platform if they are not there beforehand.  This arrangement was common on branch lines in the past as footbridges are relatively expensive to build.

Havenstreet is home to the locomotive works and yard, so is good place to spot members of the railway’s fleet that are not in operation.  The picture above shows W24 Calbourne and W8 Freshwater on-shed, with a glimpse of an Ivatt 2MT tank engine in the works.  The picture below shows WD198 Royal Engineer returning to the loco yard at the end of the day.

The station has a shop where you will find a large-scale model railway running overhead.

There is a very interesting museum located adjacent to the shop that contains many relics from the Island’s former comprehensive railway network.  I’ve included a few pictures below to give you a taste of what can be seen.

Finally, I took a variety of photographs around the station of the many details that help make Havenstreet feel like a 1930’s station.  I hope you enjoy looking through the pictures!