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Swanage Railway General Discussion

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by Rumpole, Oct 10, 2012.

  1. Rumpole

    Rumpole Part of the furniture

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    If anyone is interested and ‘does’ Facebook, the railway is currently running a competition on its Facebook page to win a free footplate ride, to be taken at a mutually agreed date and time within the next 12 months. All details and instructions are in the relevant post.
     
  2. free2grice

    free2grice Part of the furniture Friend

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    80104 has just departed from Swanage at 13:55 with the charter. The train ran top 'n tail (33 + stock + 80104).
    Presumably it was a positioning move to start the 2nd part of the charter. 80104 is still facing Swanage. <BJ>
     
  3. free2grice

    free2grice Part of the furniture Friend

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  4. Rumpole

    Rumpole Part of the furniture

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  5. nickt

    nickt Member

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  6. Rumpole

    Rumpole Part of the furniture

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    I have now got permission from the Operations Manager to turn 80104 on Saturday morning, so the locos for this weekend’s ‘S&D Weekend’ will face the following directions:-

    80104 - facing London
    34072, 44871 - facing Swanage

    At least this way we don’t have everything facing the same way, opening up a few more photographic possibilities. The weather forecast is looking good, with both days sunny, and the Autumn colours are looking superb; a good time for a visit to Purbeck!
     
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  7. oliversbest

    oliversbest Member

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    Any news on when a start on the LSWR water tower will be made?
     
  8. buzby2

    buzby2 Well-Known Member

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    Not that I'm aware.
    However, if you have the odd few £thou. to spare ..........
     
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  9. AlexGWR1994

    AlexGWR1994 Member

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    My footage of Saturday's 'Somerset and Dorset Weekend' footage including 44871, 34072 '257 Squadron' and 80104. Enjoy.
     
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  10. oliversbest

    oliversbest Member

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    thank you for some great footage. Were the numbers there ? Some of those trains looked pretty empty.
     
  11. Standard by 4

    Standard by 4 New Member

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    Great Saturday for me, thank you Swanage. Allocations were as the timetable and everything on time. Local set was a bit of a seating squeeze latter on in the day. I really do prefer these smaller events, like the LSWR weekend a couple of years ago.
     
  12. Rumpole

    Rumpole Part of the furniture

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    Glad you enjoyed it. Its funny you should mention the LSWR Weekend, this is still my favourite event that we have put on in recent years, despite only having 2 locos in traffic. The Winter Warm Up is another personal favourite.

    Thanks to those who turned up for this weekend, despite the short notice. It is pleasing to note that passenger numbers were 46.2% up on the equivalent weekend in 2017.
     
    Last edited: Nov 19, 2018
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  13. Standard by 4

    Standard by 4 New Member

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    Sometimes less is more!!
     
  14. Rumpole

    Rumpole Part of the furniture

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    The other thing with events like the LSWR Weekend is it gives you a little more room to be creative with the timetable. You may recall that for most of the day the M7 faced the opposite way to the T9 for the passing shots at Corfe Castle, but was turned before the last trip to double head back, both facing chimney first out of Corfe; magic. Just a shame the T9 failed on the Saturday so we only got one day of it as planned!
     
  15. Jamessquared

    Jamessquared Nat Pres stalwart

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    Often an event with well thought out details can be more enjoyable than a mega-event that is fraying a bit round the seams.

    As an aside, and not specifically aimed at Swanage - I wonder how much additional value accrues from adding more and more visiting locos. People will travel for one, and maybe two makes sense if they really belong together. But I suspect you very rapidly get into diminishing returns, whereby each additional visitor adds significant extra cost, without generating many more passengers over and above the number that would have come in any case.

    Tom
     
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  16. Hampshire Unit

    Hampshire Unit Well-Known Member Friend

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    Some of the best galas I have been to have had only one or two guests, but interesting things have been done with them. I'm also a fan of "smaller engine" galas, nice as it is to see three pacifics together, running such large locos on single track doesn't do a lot for me. I suppose I am lucky living close to the Mid Hants, which is one line where large Southern locos were used regularly in later BR steam days on diverted trains, but even then, it is rare that the MHR runs trains longer than 6 coaches to go with the large locos.
    Anyway, well done to the Swanage, it looked like a good weekend.
     
  17. martin1656

    martin1656 Nat Pres stalwart Friend

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    for me the best gala line up the Swanage could have would be the M7 ,U and T9, with maybe a Beattie well tank shunting at Corfe , with maybe just the one visit by an original spamcan on a through waterloo re creation . and of course of those 5 engines, 4 are already based on the line.
     
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  18. free2grice

    free2grice Part of the furniture Friend

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    Your wish for a Beattie well tank could so easily have been granted as 30587 has been sat at the Avon Valley Railway near Bristol since their gala on the 11th November. :rolleyes: <BJ>
     
  19. Standard by 4

    Standard by 4 New Member

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    Q 30541 is long overdue for a visit to Swanage, perfect for the freight train.
     
  20. Jamessquared

    Jamessquared Nat Pres stalwart

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    It visited a few railways recently (GCR and Mid Hants off the top of my head in the last couple of years) so I guess the answer is to ask and see what is possible! Bluebell locos have been rather more roving in the last couple of years than in the earlier part of this decade: 3, 178, 323, 541 and 73082 have all been away recently.

    Tom
     
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