After that First World War, in 1921, the hangars at the then fledgling airport were converted into dormitories, kitchens and dining rooms as it became a transit camp for refugees, mainly Russian, who were anxious to sail to America from the port of Southampton. The shipping companies Cunard and White Star Line (the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company) together with the Canadian Pacific railway formed the Atlantic Park Hostel Company to house them temporarily.
The hostel was intended to be a short-term clearing house for those trans-migrants changing ships, but following changes to US immigration law which restricted entry to the United States under national origins quotas, some residents were forced to stay much longer. In 1924 about 980 Ukrainian Jewish would-be emigrants were cared for at the hostel. Some of them were still there seven years later, stranded between the US and UK which would not accept them, and unable to return the countries they had fled. Atlantic Park had a school, library, and synagogue while the refugees formed football teams that played local sides and took part in local events, such as Eastleigh carnival.
At the height of its use 20,000 passed through Atlantic Park in 1928, which presumably led to the decision to open the Atlantic Park Hostel Halt station in 1929, but then figures started to fall away, leading to the closure of the hostel in 1931, along with the station (although the exact date of this is not clear).
In 1966, a station was built as Southampton Airport Halt before, in 1986, changing its name to Southampton Parkway, with a final name change in the 1990s to Southampton Airport Parkway.
This is a very popular station with commuters traveling to London and with passengers traveling cross-country to the Midlands and further afield via Birmingham, and in the opposite direction towards Weymouth, Bournemouth & Poole.
There is limited 20 minute parking in the station itself (although this is obviously only for station users), otherwise the next nearest available parking is quite a walk away - being a SideTracked cache you are best off using the train!
You are looking for a small cylindrical container, a little longer than a film pot, and you will need to remember to bring your own writing implement.