The line gained its popular name in the days when it was used to transport locally grown watercress to markets in London.

In 1941, prototype Merchant Navy Class 21C1 Channel Packet travelled as far as Alresford after the naming ceremony at Southampton for a trial run with press and dignitaries.

[1] On 12 June 1982, a replica of Sans Pareil visited the Watercress Line, running successfully under its own power from Ropley to Alresford.

The line is now maintained by a small base of paid staff (mostly in administrative duties) and a core of over 400 volunteers.

[4] The Mid-Hants Railway plays host to a large collection of steam and diesel locomotives, passenger carriages and restored wagons, most of which are from the 1920s to 1960s period.

The cheapest viable proposals to reinstate the tracks to rejoin Winchester, calling for platforms, embankments, earth cuttings and/or tunnels, have proven too expensive to submit to government or large charities.

Upon bidding, in October 2008 the Mid Hants Railway received £550,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for improvement projects.

[11] Extensions to the locomotive workshop are a small machine shop, stores area and a set of volunteers' refreshment and changing facilities.

Materials and displays for interpretation and overview are provided to educate visitors in the work and trades used to maintain and improve a largely manually-maintained, bespoke set of rolling stock.

[11] The cost of this round of projects exceeded £1m, assisted by funds within the railway and by additional volunteer labour.