The Portsmouth Flyer

The Portsmouth Flyer

We depart from London Victoria behind our steam locomotive No. 35028 Clan Line, which will be working hard as we make our way out of the Capital and run through Clapham Junction to make our way via Barnes and the bridge over the Thames towards Staines, our next pickup point. We thread our way through Virginia Water and Chertsey and join the LSWR main line at Byfleet. After a fast run along the South Western main line towards Woking, our final stop for passengers, we leave the Basingstoke line here and make our way towards Guildford. We now take the Portsmouth Direct line away from Guildford which is renowned for its pleasant scenery and undulating gradients which include a 4 mile climb at 1 in 80 up to Haslemere. Running across country via Godalming to Haslemere, we will pause here to water the loco. We will climb hard to Buriton Summit before descending through Rowlands Castle towards the coastline at Havant, where the main south coast line is joined. The Portsmouth Flyer now leaves the main line through Fareham where we will reverse direction of travel where we make our way diesel hauled towards Portsmouth and Southsea station, where you will have the option of alighting here to visit this historic city. Continue to the end of the line at Portsmouth Harbour and experience its true naval heritage. Portsmouth is a port city and naval base on the south coast, mostly spread across Portsea Island, known for the National Museum of the Royal Navy, HMS Victory, where Nelson died in the Battle of Trafalgar, HMS Warrior 1860, and the Mary Rose, conserved in a dockyard museum. After time in Portsmouth, we return to London via Fareham and Southampton steam hauled, calling at our outward pick up stations to set down before arriving back into London Victoria.