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The Watercress Line operates a wide variety of locomotives and other stock as part of its preserved operations. A comprehensive bank of information about the railway's locomotives and rolling stock can be found on the Watercress Line's website in the Rolling Stock section.
Contents
Steam Locomotives
The railway plays host to a number of steam locomotives, some of which are owned by the railway whilst the majority are privately owned by individuals. The railway primarily aims to operate locomotives that would have been seen on the railway during its lifetime as a non-preserved railway. A list of former resident locomotives can be found here.
Diesel Locomotives
The railway also has a range of Diesel Locomotives and Multiple Units. Locomotives are primarily used for shunting and are rarely used on scheduled passenger services. During long periods of dry weather such as July 2013, steam locomotives may be withdrawn due to the risk of line side fires, requiring the trains to be hauled by the diesel Class 50 on a revised timetable.
Passenger coaches
The railway currently operates mainly British Railways Mark 1 for its locomotive hauled services.
General service trains normally consist of sets of four or five coaches, with a general maximum of six due to limited platform lengths at most of the line's stations.
Traditional Southern Railway/Region features of fixed sets formations (typified by a brake coach at each end of the rake) and identifying set numbers painted on the brake coaches external bulkhead ends are not followed by the management of the line.
For a period in the 1990s to early 2000s, the railway invested heavily in British Railways Mark 2 stock whilst significantly reducing its Mark 1 fleet. These vehicles were used on the railway's regular services and on mainline steam charters (known at the time as 'The Green Train') but after a change in direction, both with the abandonment of the charter business and the preference to Mark 1 stock, these more modern coaches fell from favour and were later sold en-bloc to another operator. The Mid-Hants then after many years of winding down its Mark 1 fleet started to purchase stock from other operators and began a programme of rebuilding and overhaul for their Mark 1s.
Very few coaches from the old Southern Region found a preservation home on the Mid-Hants with most coming via the Eastern Region and some as far as Scotland arriving on the line still displaying the former owner's ScotRail branding.
The Mid-Hants standardized on BR Southern green for all of its home based fleet, a contrast to the 1980s, when the whole period of British Railways steam era liveries were in use. Today only one or two coaches stray outside this policy ("Watercress Belle" coaches excepted). In January 2015 4 LBSCR coach bodies for 6 wheel coaches were donated to the Mid Hants Preservation Society. The Mid Hants Railway/Watercress Line does not have any loco that would be small enough to go with the coaches and they would not fit in with other rolling stock, the current plans for the coaches are unknown.
Outside the very numerous Mark 1 home fleet, a number of more vintage Southern vehicles are undergoing restoration or are currently in service.