Swanage Railway General Discussion

Showing great credit to those that had cleaned it, SR U Class No 31806, wearing a Royal Train Headcode, approaches Harmans Cross on June 8th 2018. The loco was hauling the dining set conveying His Royal Highness Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who was visiting the railway to present The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service to the Swanage Railway.
Also crossing 80104 on the service train and earlier in the day still being cleaned on shed.

 

After the first two weeks where the SWR service from Castle returned to Salisbury, today it went all the way to Waterloo.
The platform board showing Waterloo and the U arriving with the connecting 15:20 service from Swanage. The 159 was already quite well loaded before the steam arrived and I counted 45 that crossed the bridge and got onto the SWR unit. So another good Saturday for this new operation.

 

Am organising a jolly boys day out in Corfe on the 27th using this service. Two birthdays being celebrated. Hope they have plenty of Sanatogen in!

 

I am sure Boots in Swanage stocks lots of it. We have an old population (me included) in Purbeck. Then I am sure you already know that!

 

Oi! Its not that Old......

 

Don't forget the Phyllosan, Fortifies the over Forties.

 

Or even better find the cheapest fare via one of these sites and go down and book the same fare via your local booking office who may save you even more money.
Llandrindod station has a fabulous independent ticket office run by 2 very knowledgeable brothers. They go out of their way to split tickets to get the best deal, saving me £14 only this week. They will even take phone bookings and mail out the tickets same day (01597 822053 if anyone wants to try them Mon - Fri, office hours). They sell all UK rail tickets to anywhere from anywhere - fee free. Even sold me a Scotland travelpass once - that was a first for them!
These places need supporting if they are to survive and because of the complexity of ticketing are vital if you want the best deal. Very rarely will you get the best deal via a bot or a machine! Check out Barry Doe's column in Rail magazine for a cautionary tale about a 'hidden' London to Liverpool fare which is virtually impossible to buy unless you put in certain combinations into a route planner, over 50% cheaper than the one that initially appears for the same route.

 

I hear that there was a protest in Wareham yesterday, though don't know how well it was attended, about the proposed ramps for the footbridge over the railway. I just wonder how much longer this will go on before Network Rail decide to cut their losses and remove the rails from the sidings that remain unusable while the pedestrian level crossing remains in use. Would this would have any impact on the Wareham to Swanage rail service or has the trial service to date proved that a run around facility at Wareham is no longer required?

 

Don't worry that wont be happening..

 

I would think that SWR would make good use of the London end crossover for turning back trains at Wareham during engineering works and service recovery.

 

Not 100% sure as I have not bothered to see the recent terminators there due to the Weymouth engineering works, but with the re-signalling I think you can reverse at the west end, as the down line is bi directional because of the Swanage Branch. I know from RTT that they seemed to reverse at Wareham Signal Pw5242 although not sure exactly which one that is but I think it is down towards Worgret Junction and controls the crossover to the up line off the bi directional down.
PW5236 is on the London end of the up Platform (P1) and PW 5239 & PW5241 are shown on the attached image at the Weymouth end of the platforms.

 

The sidings won’t be going anywhere, however I think it is highly likely that the foot crossing will be closed by Network Rail eventually regardless of whether a replacement bridge has been approved and built or not. As it is a permissive path, not a right of way, I believe they are quite within their rights to do so once the lease to the council expires

 

They can close the crossing but even if they do so can they prevent people from crossing regardless?

 

It would just leave the footbridge for people to use, which of course isn’t suitable for many people with an impairment

 

So @Colin Morgan , what is the solution to the problem?

Peter

 

Lifts?
They would take up less space than the proposed ramps and the cost of power and maintenance must surely be less than crossing keepers wages.

 

Sounds reasonable. Is there any reason why this option is not being persued?

Peter

 

1. Even if the installation cost is not greater the ongoing maintenance costs are unlikely to be attractive to the local authority. I cannot see the county council wanting to pick up the bill for lifts any more than they want to carry on contributing to the cost of the security guards (not crossing keepers) at the level crossing.
2. Lifts will be pretty much as ugly, and take as much time to use, as a ramped footbridge. The key issues for most of those objecting is that they don't want the hassle of going up-and-over, with some objections on aesthetic grounds as well.
3. Given the relatively isolated location (and on the evidence of the road underpasses nearby) I am not sure how often a lift would actually be in a condition to use and, even then, in as state where someone would voluntarily get in it! Of course, the lifts could be turned off when there was no-one to supervise them, and ensure they were not vandalised or used as public toilets, but who would meet that cost?