A very enjoyable hours session spent at Hook station on the South Western Mainline where we see endless services from South Western Railway.
Hook station was built and opened by the London and South Western Railway in 1883, nearly 46 years after the line was put in place. It was only made available after a lengthy campaign by the company. The station has kept its charm since it was first built and you can that through the style of the station buildings. When the station was first opened it was done so with two tracks and two platforms, kinda like how it looks today. The line was eventually expanded to accommodate four tracks in 1902 and eventually the station even got an additional island platform, this was done because Hook was slowly starting to grow bigger as more people were leaving London and heading for the country. The island platform was removed in the 1960's but as you can see the track still survives and always will do purely because of the amount of traffic coming through this section of the line going to and from London.
This station as with so many isn't without its tragedies as in 1940 a bomb was dropped a short way down the line from this station. Initially the bomb didn't explode so the army sent in six soldiers to safely dispose of the bomb as it quite clearly posted a safety risk if it was left to the side of the line, even a simple vibration from a passing train could set it off which would have deep consequences. So the soldiers arrived on the scene complete with their sergeant and set about the task of getting the bomb removed and detonated in a controlled environment. Unfortunately for reasons I can't find the bomb was detonated when the soldiers were in the process of getting it move unfortunately killing them all and injuring the sergeant who was overseeing the project.
I'm to believe that there is a plaque set up by a group of locals to commemorate the falling soldiers.
My next station is Winchfield.
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