A HISTORIC railway station has been given a facelift with a new waiting shelter and canopy.

Dedicated volunteers gave up 5,000 hours over 50 weeks to put up the new building at Ropley Station on the Mid Hants Railway – known as the Watercress Line.

It was made to match the historic Southern Railways style with Victorian decorative cast iron canopy columns from the disused Ringwood Station which closed in 1967.

An original clock from Aldershot Station was donated by South West Trains.

Tim Shoveller, managing director of South West Trains and longstanding volunteer at Ropley Station, officially opened the new shelter and canopy.

The managing director at the Mid Hants Railway, Colin Chambers, and chairman of the Mid Hants Railway Preservation Society, Stevie Crowther, also attended last week’s opening.