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17-572: Calshot Activities Centre is located on Calshot Spit near Southampton . Indoor facilities include the oldest indoor velodrome in Britain, a dry ski slope and a climbing wall . Calshot Velodrome is the oldest indoor cycling venue in the UK. It is located inside an old aircraft hangar, is unheated and has a reputation for being rather cold. The current wooden velodrome was built in 1996 to replace an older slightly smaller wooden track. The former wooden track

34-464: A velodrome . In 2005 new public toilets were installed in the spit with a design partially inspired by the spit's beach huts. The spit is a potential navigation hazard for ships entering Southampton Water , and vessels are guided by the Calshot Spit light float. This replaced a Trinity House lightvessel (LV 78) that was anchored off the spit and which was, for a while, a static attraction at

51-456: A former Royal Navy and Royal Air Force flying boat station and Calshot Activities Centre. The neck of the spit is owned by New Forest District Council while the end of the spit is owned by the Crown Estate which leases it to Hampshire County Council . The castle is a low, circular, stone structure and was armed with large muzzle-loading guns . Its purpose, when it was built in 1539,

68-794: A narrow gauge steam locomotive. It was built by Andrew Barclay Sons & Co. Ltd. in 1918. It was originally used by the Air Service Constructional Corps (RAF) then was bought in 1949 by Abelson & Co. (Engineers) Ltd. who then sold it to the Talyllyn Railway in 1953. After being handed over to the RAF on 21 February 1918 the engine was first used at Manston by the Admiralty Air Construction Service . From October 1921 onwards Douglas spent most of its working life at RAF Calshot near Southampton. In April 1949 it

85-512: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about an English sports venue is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Calshot Spit Calshot Spit is a one-mile long sand and shingle bank, near the village of Calshot , located on the southern bank of the open end of Southampton Water , on the south coast of England . At the end of the spit are Calshot Castle (built by King Henry VIII ), an RNLI lifeboat , an NCI station, several slipways ,

102-719: The Ocean Village marina in Southampton . In November 2010 it was moved a short distance to the Trafalgar dock where, after renovation, it was to be displayed at the Aeronautica attraction, due to open in 2015. The plans for Aeronautica came to a halt in January 2012. In December 2019 the ship was relocated to the Solent Sky museum in order to be converted into part of the museum’s cafe. It

119-763: The centenary of both the locomotive and the RAF , it was painted RAF blue . Douglas’s boiler ticket expired in January 2024 after which the engine was relocated to the Severn Valley Railway where it was placed on displayed in the engine house. All the steam-operated engines on the Talyllyn Railway appeared many times in The Railway Series books by the Rev. W. Awdry on the Skarloey Railway . In this case, Douglas

136-431: The conversion being paid for by Abelson) before being taken by road to Tywyn. At the same time as the conversion the engine's buffers were changed from a single centred buffer at each end to pairs of buffers. The cab was also extended backwards by about 6 inches to allow the engine's lever brake to be replaced by a screw brake. Although smaller than the other locomotives on the Talyllyn Railway, it has performed well and

153-612: The railway as Douglas on the Talyllyn Railway . The Spit was transferred to civilian control at the start of the 1960s. A Coastguard tower was added to the end of the spit in 1973. The Coastguard stopped using the castle in 1990. The site is now the location of Calshot Lifeboat Station operated by the RNLI , yachts and the National Coastwatch Institution . The hangars are home to Calshot Activities Centre and house indoor climbing walls , artificial ski slopes and

170-454: The site's status as a military base provided a degree of protection for the local flora. The large scale construction of car parks, beach-huts and the importation of topsoil has reduced the range of plants present. Crambe maritima (sea kale) still grows on the spit and in the 19th century it was apparently harvested for sale in Southampton. Douglas (locomotive) Douglas is

187-583: Was a shortened version of the London six-day racing track used at Earls Court in 1967 (not to be confused with a similar track used at Wembley from 1968 to 1980). The current track is 142.85 metres long with bankings of 45° and straights at approximately 20°. Calshot Winter Track League, run under British Cycling rules, is held weekly from October to February. 50°49′08″N 1°18′29″W  /  50.818761°N 1.308103°W  / 50.818761; -1.308103 This cycling venue-related article

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204-534: Was built in 1914 by J I Thornycroft shipyard in Southampton and decommissioned in 1978. LV 50, which was on the Calshot station between 1943 and 1951, was bought by the Royal Northumberland Yacht Club , and remains their club ship to this day. Personnel from RAF Calshot traveling to and from the spit would sometimes be taken on and off passing Red Funnel ferries in launches . Historically

221-445: Was originally set up in 1913. Its choice as a location for operating flying boats is clear: the landing area is sheltered by land on the three sides of Southampton Water and by the Isle of Wight , several miles away, on the fourth side. As part of the expansion of the site in 1916 the contractor. Henry Boot & Son (Westminster), built a narrow gauge railway in order to move materials. It

238-401: Was returned to service in 1995, with a new boiler fitted, and turned out in its old Air Ministry Works & Buildings livery. In more recent years Douglas has been painted in standard Talyllyn Railway livery of deep bronze green lined with black borders and yellow lining; however as of 2010 it was painted red, acting as Duncan from the fictional Skarloey Railway . In February 2018, to mark

255-571: Was sold at auction and bought for £60 by an engineering company called Abelson & Co (Engineers) Ltd. In the early days of preservation, the Talyllyn Railway had contacted this and other similar firms, asking for redundant equipment. Abelson's offered the locomotive to the Talyllyn, and in return they named it after the donor, Douglas Abelson. After presentation in 1953 the locomotive was retubed and converted from 2ft gauge at Griffin Foundry, Oldbury (with

272-518: Was to protect access to the important harbour at Southampton from seaborne attack, by France or Spain from the English Channel via the Solent . For much of its history the spit was low lying and parts of it often underwater at high tide. This changed in 1703 when the great storm of that year washed enough shingle onto the spit to make it a more substantial structure. Calshot Naval Air Station

289-482: Was transferred to the air-force in 1919 and ran (with a number of branches) from Eaglehurst camp to north pier at the end of the spit. In 1929 and 1931, Calshot was the venue for the Schneider Trophy , an international air race for seaplanes. The railway closed at the end of World War Two when it was found that the wagons had decayed to the point where they were no longer safe to use. One locomotive survives from

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