Swanage Railway General Discussion

If the 31806 with manual locking carriages, topped and tailed with a 33 Diesel is just going to be used occasionally to Wareham, track changes will be hard to justify.
Hopefully the DMU service will be successful and 31806 will be able to run more often which will eventually help pay for track changes if the crossing is replaced?

 

A hand worked crossover in the Down Yard shouldn't cost the earth, even at NRs gold-plated prices.
Pat

 

Where does it say that NR would have to do the installation? They use private contractors so whats to stop SR P-Way team doing the installation?

 

Paperwork? Burocracy? Not decrying the Swanage P-way team I'm sure they're competent but I can't see NR letting them loose on a 125mph railway. Could you imagine the field day the media would have if something went wrong?

 

Do they have NR PTS?
Are their tools certified for use on NR?
&c and so forth . . . .
Pat

 

You would think it dead easy, wouldn't you. However, the NYMR's experience is something different. The original concept of the second platform at Whitby was to lease the land from NR and effectively put in a private siding, which, once off the running line, the NYMR could do with its own staff equipment. dead easy and originally costed at £700K in total. NR then decided that it actually wanted to be in full control of Whitby station as it would be a much simpler arrangement in the end. I think the total bill for the job jumped to £2.3m, of which c£700K were NR management charges. the NYMR still managed the overall scheme but had to use approved contractors. I think it wasn't deemed worth having our own staff approved as contractors for the works. The foregoing is my understanding and may not be totally correct but the essence is right.

A simple crossover might be all that is required at Wareham but Whitby just has four turnouts (a crossover and a loop) and is provided with 8 lever and a 3 lever ground frames to control it No signals.

I'm old enough to remember the days when Fred Youell organised gangs of volunteers to slew running lines at Chappel & Wakes Colne and Embsay to connect otherwise isolated heritage lines to enable stock transfers. All that was needed at the end of the day was the local PW inspector to sign it off when the track was returned to normal. Life was oh so simple then.

 

The main line already has the crossover and a run around facility but on the juce rails. The preference for steam to Wareham is to arrive in the up platform. Run to down sidings via the crossover (which cant be commissioned because of the foot crossing). Runaround in the sidings where there is no juice and its safer to be on the ground around the train. Return to Down platform ready for departure. Its in the down sidings where we would need the crossover added.

We are talking about currently fenced off disused sidings. Not the main line. Different kettle of fish. H&S + ORR Regs are such that all SR plant and personnel are all pretty much to the same standard as NR now. In any case if there is an issue we do know NR approved contractors so can still undertake the work without using NR.

I take @Steve point. Although the line through Wareham station is significantly more 'Main Liney NR territory' than Whitby, we can live in hope that the sidings will be considered less 'Main Liney' and hope to avoid the worst. We have not yet entered in to any serious discussions but this would at least be my starting point.

 

I am still relishing in the thought of a 125MPH line in Dorset. Still I guess I can dream!

 

Evidently Dorset isn't plagued by graffiti artists to the same extent as other parts of the country.
125

 

And I thought that was a daily occurrence with Bulleids towards the end of steam. Was this exaggerated?

 

We have a new 125 mph railway between Paddington and South Wales. Pretty isn't it ? <BJ>

 

I see the first two Diesel Gala visitors have been announced:
55019 Royal Highland Fusilier
D4 Great Gable
Be nice to see the Peak finally make it.

 

Some of them, Yes. As do all the crews we are training for operating the service.

 

It hasn't got there yet!

 

106 mph was my highest and also the highest known speed with steam. It has also been my highest with modern traction, REP power in fact

 

I always thought the highest known speed with steam was Mallard at 126mph. But there you go, learn something new every day.

 

Didn’t you know that the mile wasn’t standardised during the steam era, but varied across the country, in the same way that the time varied?

The Southern used long miles. So the drivers could legitimately keep inside the 90mph mark while routinely exceeding 100 real miles per hour. A Bulleid Pacific doing an indicated 106 southern miles per hour was knocking on the door of 130 Eastern miles per hour. By contrast, Western parts of the country used short miles, hence the claim for a Saint doing 130 western miles per hour was probably only about 90 real miles per hour.

The scale of miles had a change on the West Coast line south of Crewe, with the result that a Duchess sauntering along at a nice easy 90-odd “London and Birmingham” miles per hour on the run out of Euston suddenly crossed into the area at which the scale changed and found itself rattling over junctions at 112 “Grand Junction” miles per hour, with near disastrous consequences.

Tom

 

The fireman of Bradley Manor insisted that the loco had only done 60 climbing Whiteball, despite the fact that the BMW's could not keep up on the adjacent M5 so clearly BMW use very short miles

 

Getting back to Swanage Railway, just in case some haven't already seen the IOW Railway gift to Swanage https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2020/0...into-the-building-of-the-swanage-railway.html

 

I was replying to the thread above about Bulleid and high speed on the Southern