A regular and familiar name to appear in the pages of Railways Illustrated is Arlington Fleet Group, with the company carrying out a wide variety of railway engineering at its Eastleigh Works base. Andy Coward met up with systems director John Campbell and Carl Watson, a key figure, to find out more about this thriving company.
All Photography: Carl Watson
Big enough to cope but small enough to care is very much the impression I got during my visit to Arlington Fleet Group (or Arlington Fleet Services, as it is often known) at Eastleigh Works. The works is large and thriving, but Arlington has only been in existence for 20 years, and the quality of its work and ability to be flexible for customers has seen it quickly grow to become a leading railway engineering and facilities company.
We were invited to take a look at the facilities and discuss the firm’s work with systems director John Campbell, one of the founding ex-BR railway engineers who set up Arlington in 2003 and later took over operations of the vast site at Eastleigh, which had been closed and stripped out by its previous occupier, Alstom, the works sitting on prime redevelopment land and facing a far from certain future. We are also joined by the ever amiable Carl Watson, who was Arlington’s services manager until he retired last autumn. He remains an important part of the team and continues to work for Arlington three days a week due to his extensive knowledge and experience. Carl is also Arlington’s official photographer and I am grateful for his images of various projects undertaken at Eastleigh over the last few years to accompany this feature.
The activities carried out by Arlington are regularly reported in the pages of Railways Illustrated and it has gained an impressive number of customers throughout the rail industry on its order books, but what exactly goes on at Eastleigh in the old BR Works complex that the company now occupies? “We are an open access facility,” says John, explaining: “Our facilities are available to any rail companies that need to use us, whatever the issue, and we pride ourselves in having a proactive attitude and a skilled workforce that can deal with almost anything, from the smallest of repairs to complete rebuilds.”
A brief history
So, what is the story of this relic from the Victorian era that is still proving to be so use
