The Government Sidings

By Paul H. Vickers, Friends of the Aldershot Military Museum

By the junction of Ordnance Road and North Lane can be seen a short piece of railway line, terminating in a fixed buffer. This is all that remains of the Army’s private railway line, known as the Government Sidings. Now rusting and overgrown with grass and weeds, this sad remnant gives no impression of the importance of Government Sidings to the garrison in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The first public train line to Aldershot town was opened by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) in 1870, branching off the main line between Brookwood and Farnborough, passing through Ash Vale to Aldershot, and then continuing on to Farnham. As soon as it opened, the Army used Aldershot station not only for routine movements in to and out of the Camp, but also for deployments on campaign, such as troops departing for the Zulu War of 1879.

As the garrison grew in size the Field Stores in the south east corner of the camp expanded into a huge complex, such was the volume of food, equipment and materiel necessary to support around 17,500 soldiers plus families. Efficient transport to the stores was essential, so in June 1890 the War Office signed an agreement with the LSWR for an Army branch line to be built off the LSWR line half a mile east of Redan Hill.

The material for the Government Sidings was brought back from the Sudan, where it was originally intended for the Suakin-Berber Railway. In early 1885, shortly after the fall of Khartoum to the Mahdi and the death of General Gordon, a force was assembled at Suakin, on the Red Sea coast, with orders to advance against the Dervishes. One of the objectives was to build a railway from Suakin to Berber on the Nile, a distance of over 200 miles. The railway would not only supply the soldiers in the field, it was thought to be an essential part of governing the country once it had been re-taken.

The contract for the railway was given to the company of Lucas and Aird, and the first ship laden with railway material left London on 22 February 1885, reaching Suakin on 11 March. A succession of ships followed over the next few weeks. The campaign began in March and had some success in the first clashes with the enemy. However, in mid-April the government, led by Prime Minister Gladstone, reversed its policy and decided to abandon the campaign in the Sudan as they feared a war with Russia was imminent. When the expedition left the Sudan only 18.75 miles of the railway had been completed, yet there was all the remaining material still on ships in Suakin harbour. Some was sent to Egypt for a railway on the Nile, but the greater part was brought back to Britain and stored at Woolwich, Chatham and other depots. A subsequent report showed that 38 ships loaded with railway material had left Britain, of which only six had been completely unloaded at Suakin and five partly unloaded, leaving 27 ships which returned to Britain with their loads intact (two ships had never left England). The total cost of the failed Suakin-Berber Railway was calculated as £865,000, the equivalent of £73 million in present day values.

Over the next few years the railway construction material was issued for various War Department projects, one of which was the line into Aldershot Camp. The first siding ran from the LSWR line into the Field Stores, which were in the area of the modern day Goose Green Park. At the end of the nineteenth century a northern spur was added, to service the Ordnance Stores. With later developments this line was also used for the Command Workshops and for taking fuel to the military power station.

Although initially intended for freight, a passenger platform was built at the Field Stores for units coming into or leaving the camp. Initially this was just open platforms, but a covering was added in 1900. The terminal was first used by units deploying on overseas operations at the start of the South African War (Second Boer War, 1899-1902). The first unit to leave from Government Sidings was the 1st Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers, who left on 23 September 1899. Many units followed and over the course of the war 100,000 troops passed through Aldershot for service in South Africa, the majority departing from Government Sidings. The last unit to leave was a draft from the Provisional Regiment of Hussars, who embarked for South Africa the day before peace was declared.

On 4 August 1914 the First World War broke out and Aldershot mobilised immediately, with the resident units becoming the 1st Corps of the British Expeditionary Force. In order to deploy as quickly as possible, special trains were run from Aldershot and Farnborough stations and once again Government Sidings were used, with the 5th Infantry Brigade of 2nd Division leaving from there on 13 August. Shortly afterwards some of those deployed would return as wounded, again via the Government Sidings. The first hospital train carrying wounded from the front arrived on 30 August, bringing around 200 injured men from the battle of Mons who were sent for treatment at the Cambridge and Connaught military hospitals. Throughout the war the sidings were used for troop movements, returns of wounded, and transport of stores and equipment. Such was the volume of traffic that the passenger platform was extended and the single track made into a double line.

The sidings continued to be used until after the Second World War, but by the time of the 1960s re-building of the garrison their use had declined. A 1964 report of the Aldershot Planning Group stated that all the lines of the southern spur (which served the Field Stores) would be lifted, but most of the northern spur would remain for use by the REME workshops and for taking oil fuel supplies to the power station. With the decommissioning of the power station and closure of the workshops this line became redundant and all sections were removed.

The 1964 report provides the reason for the survival of the existing short piece of track. It noted: “British Railways require 1,200 feet of this southern length as a refuge siding. A buffer stop will be provided just to the east of the Ordnance Road level crossing.” As a result we still have this small reminder of the once bustling Government Sidings.

Credits

Article originally published in the The Garrison, Autumn 2021

Copyright © Paul H. Vickers. This article, including the accompanying pictures, may not be reproduced or republished, in whole or in part, either in print or electronically, including on any websites or social media sites, without the prior permission of the author.