PART of Hampshire's railway history has hit the buffers - generations after trains started serving the local community.

The Totton to Fawley branch line has finally closed following the refinery's decision to stop using the rail route to deliver crude oil to the huge petro-chemical complex.

Nostalgia was the order of the day as the last train trundled along the single-line railway that linked communities on the Waterside.

Passenger services ceased in the 1960s after the line fell victim to the infamous Beeching cuts that decimated Britain's railway network.

After that it became a freight-only route delivering supplies to the refinery, which occupies a huge site at the southern end of the track.

The refinery's decision to receive all its crude oil by sea has fuelled fears that proposals to restore passengers services will be shunted into the sidings.

Campaigners fear the track will be ripped up, consigning part of the county's transport heritage to the history books and ending hopes of giving villagers a rail route to Southampton for the first time in half a century.