Dumped rail footbridge rings a bell with John

Iconfess I doubted if we would find an answer to one of last week's posers '“ what happened to the old railway footbridge that once languished at Hilsea Lines in Portsmouth?

By The Newsroom

Published 20th Sep 2016, 06:00 BST

Updated 5th Oct 2016, 13:43 BST

The former railway footbridge that was dumped at Hilsea Lines and is now at Alresford on the Mid Hants railway. But where did it come from?

But John Ring did us proud. He dated the picture, below, to the mid-1980s when he was, and still is, part of a club renting part of Bastion 4 in the lines. The bridge was outside.

John says: ‘It was a typical LSWR/LBSCR bridge and I used to know where it came from but I have unfortunately forgotten.

‘I have always been a railway enthusiast and at the time I used to visit the Watercress preserved line between Alresford and Ropley.

RUBBISH The former railway footbridge dumped at Hilsea

‘I was chatting to one of that line’s officials and he happened to mention they were desperate to find a suitable double-line bridge. I told him I knew where one was and who owned it. He was stunned.

‘Cutting a long story short, the line obtained it and it is now at Alresford station.’

Portsmouth