The Eastleigh Lakeside Steam Railway has issued an update on progress with laying its new track.

Before laying the new track, the permanent way team assembled and bent the new pieces of track then transported it to the part of the railway known as “The Top curve”. Here, the boards across the level crossing boards were taken up, the old ballast loaded into wagons and taken away together with the old rails.

A JCB was used to scrape away the loose soil and level the ground as much as possible. New ballast was then delivered and laid before laying the new rails and replacing the boards over the level crossing.

The railway used its diesel and electric locomotives to move new and old materials between the construction site and the main yard. The new track panels were transported on a makeshift flatbed wagon so that they were ready to be unloaded and laid down. Plastic sleepers were used instead of wooden ones.

The new section of track was completed in good time and ready for use by trains this weekend and during school half-term holiday this week. However, until the new track has had a good tamping, it will be subject to a speed restriction.

Eastleigh Lakeside Steam Railway is in Lakeside Country Park, which is in Wide Lane at Eastleigh near to Southampton in Hampshire. In keeping with its Southern Railway heritage, the railway has a third rail, but that is very low voltage and is only used signalling purposes and is quite harmless. But that does mean that the railway can run 7¼” gauge locos on what is essentially a 10¼” gauge railway. Trains are all hauled by steam locomotives, the entire trip takes 15-20 minutes.

There is a large locomotive fleet with 19 steam locomotives, and two diesel-hydraulic and a battery-powered Eurostar that were built by the railway, although Eurostar was built in co-operation with Southampton University.