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The railway at some point became known as the’ Sprat and Winkle’ and there are several theories why it was blessed with such a name. One possible reason is the suggestion that the line went through areas where sprats and winkles might be harvested nearer the sea at Southampton; another refers to the single engine and carriage formation that operated over part of the line − the engine being the ‘sprat’ and the carriage the ‘winkle’!

The railway was strategically very significant in World War 1, providing transport for both personnel and munitions. During World War 2 it was also used extensively and particularly in the latter stages to transfer wounded service personnel from Chilbolton airfield (Walk 7) via Fullerton Junction (Walk 6) to the American hospital at Stockbridge.

From the 1950s the use of the railway for both freight and passenger traffic gradually declined. The line between Andover and Kimbridge (Stage 7 and Walk 13) had become financially unviable and was closed in 1964 as one of a series of closures of parts of the rail network made in the wake of Dr Richard Beeching’s report, The Reshaping of British Railways, published in 1963.