Swanage Railway General Discussion

When you put it like that it makes it sound like the loco plan is a complete muddle! Clearly there is a strategy to try to progress everything at once and hope something comes out on top soon.

I suspect that the ex Dartmoor buffet will be the next coach in line to make up a 4TC. It has more appeal than a 1st class coach which will likely be the one waiting until last. They are very well tarpaulined so hopefully not deteriorating to badly.

Re carriage sheds. Surly any sensible railway would have the objective of getting its entire collection under cover at some stage? Even if it's currently difficult to see how, where or with what cash. Anything without a roof over it is likely going to circumb eventually.

 

Yes Swanage Railway has that as an objective. The challenge is, and has been since the year dot, where. Swanage Railway has literally no room for manoeuvre and can only hope that the Furzebrook sidings do become available at some stage with conditions which do not make utilising them too onerous.

Of course one partial solution would be to slim down the collection though this would be unpalatable to a great many if not all supporters and enthusiasts.

 

Thank you for the reminder. Some heavy guns there firing off in support of a Wareham/Swanage amenity link. Let us hope that the study is published fairly soon and then those pro and con a Wareham/Swanage rail service can debate on the results.

 

Try later this week!
If you google Swanage Railway/Family railway attraction in Dorset, Go to timetable and click on 27th to 30th August and you will see a two train steam service plus a Diesel service which crosses steam at Swanage, so therefore the Diesel will have to use the bay platform , there are no run round facilities
so I will leave it to your imagination to work out what the motive power will be!
The Diesel also works five round trips from SW to Norden on Friday to Sunday evenings.

 

Yes this weekend is the Roads to Rails event at Norden.

The event is taking advantage of the cancellation of this years Great Dorset Steam Fair by running what is in essence a mini steam fair.

It will be good to see the £1M+ DMU in service earning some money.

 

just be sure to keep that DMU under close scrutiny. Llangollen Dmus had the attention of the"artists" a day or so ago. Brake Van, Couple of volunteers (Firemen? they know how to work/sleep!!)Large and active Dog and good sharp imaging device. Get pro-active!!

 

Sadly Swanage has had the attention of the artists before.

On a hiding to nothing though when the BBC and other media outlets celebrate and promote graffiti and other unauthorised works of art on someone elses property.

 

On the whole, they merely report on something that's scarcely a recent problem and by no means always in a positive light.

 

The point I was making was about Banksy. He / she goes around painting on other peoples property without permission and is lauded by the BBC and others as being a great artist.

What is the difference between that and someone tagging a heritage dmu or carriage?

Surely it is all art and open to interpretation!

After all a Jackson Pollock is considered to be art though there are some who would say he just flung paint around or take a look at the work of Shozo Shimamoto.

 

I've no small sympathy with you on that .... especially concerning all the Jackson Pollocks.

The Banksy 'Kissing Policemen' print, prominent in my own hallway, is there for a reason ..... it drives the nosey, polyphobic old bat three doors along up the wall!

 

Thanks, so the heritage railcar class 117 unit mentioned in the Road to Rail webpage, doubt the 3TC will be ready to work in push pull mode with the 33 by then?

 

Let us not forget that the reason the Swanage Railway exists at all today is the original motive was to retain/ re introduce a service for local residents and the tourists coming to holiday in Purbeck by rail to use, as they always had, the railway. This was to be subsidised by the "heritage" (a term i personally loathe) steam service. Those of us that were there in the beginning, well the survivors (and alas lets not forget so many who put so much in who are sadly no longer with us) will recall those pioneering days when for example the P.Way gang had to have a whip round at Victoria avenue bridge to send someone to the garage with a jerrycan as Beryl had run out of petrol !!!!!!!!!

 

The WSR & KWVR had similar aims

 

Have my original PLM bakelite(?) card! My membership arose from the purchase of 80078. My first Swanage Railway journey circa 1951. an M7 and stifling old suburban coaches. I do hope to one day step aboard a scheduled Swanage bound train at Wareham Station. Is Beryl close to running again. I believe Beryl or one of her classmates used to do the shunting at Poole Gasworks, relieved sometimes by a popping,banging smoking Hibberd!

 

In the case of the WSR perhaps that is one of the present causes of all the turmoil?? and the KWVR is a walk across the original passenger bridge.

 

As did the Mid Hants, until a failed first share issue forced a closer acquaintance with reality.
Pat
PS I was at the meeting in London when Andrew Goltz stsrted the Swanage Railway Society. In my innocence it all seemed fairly straightforward. P

 

..but they do run into Alton Station and once again a bridge takes you "out of time" BTW Alton seemed like the "wild west" to a north American visitor on a Saturday night. I was informed that the nearest Police Station was about 20 miles away!