The last lever has been pulled at Petersfield Signal Box to end nearly a century and a half of railway history.

There was a quiet moment of reflection around 1.30am on Sunday when Chris Lacey oversaw the safe arrival of the 2P77 southbound SWR service to Petersfield.

It was the last to be welcomed manually with signalling on the Farncombe to Petersfield stretch of the Waterloo to Portsmouth line now being controlled digitally from a central hub in Basingstoke.

The signal box replaced an earlier structure when it opened in 1884 with the station handling goods and Midhurst traffic at the time.

People with a connection to the listed building would have watched with horror as its counterpart in Farncombe was reduced to rubble the very next day.

But the good news is that Petersfield Signal Box will remain part of the town’s landscape for at least the near future as it’s being retained as a training facility following a rethink by Network Rail.

“It will remain visible in place by the level crossing, but now somewhat diminished,” said a spokesperson for the Liphook & District Model Railway Club in a moving post.

“It’s a testament to the constant change on our railways.”