Swanage Railway General Discussion

And then she left - 60103 Flying Scotsman left Swanage on Tuesday 8th November to work back to Bury and the East Lancs Railway - a 12 hour working! She is seen approaching Sway in the New Forest - and still carrying the Swanage Railway headboard. Great publicity for the railway - and a good photo adorning the cover of the latest Railway Magazine! A very successful visit to the seaside!

 

How amusing that whilst on the branch she ran with express headlamp codes, yet on the mainline she ran with Swanage branch headlamp code.

 

Is that not a mainline head code with the NR required high intensity lamp in the centre?

 

it was an irritation

 

The middle lamp is mandatory, the lamps over each buffer don’t mean anything on todays railway.

 

True but virtually every mainline tour runs I photograph runs withe two "old style" lamps and the mandatory centre high intensity lamp. Only exception seems to be if running with Southern discs which can be in all sorts of places, but still of course has the centre high intensity lamp.
My point, badly described in retrospect, was that the mandatory lamp does not make it a Wareham to Swanage routing.
Mind you a lamp froth would make a change from debating a paint colour.

 

I saw something on here ages ago in regard to 80078 coming for the winter services. Is this still happening or is it now cancelled following the return of Manston (subject to commissioning)? Thanks in advance

 

Manston did 3 or 4 very slow LE runs from the shed area to across the park during our lunchtime period today.
Driver taster programme ended yesterday for the year and a rather poor attempt to get the 16:10 leaving against the sunset is attached.

 

From the facebook page of the Swanage Railway-Heritage Carriage Group
"1346 and 1381 continued in use until the last train of the ‘summer season’. The railway has decided that they will now be tarpaulinned until the spring to give them some protection from the winter weather in the absence of a carriage shed."
Will car 14 also be tarpaulinned or sent back to Margate for storage?
There does not seem any update on the carriage shed, presume contractors would be lined up to start building it when the line is quiet in January, or will it be delayed?

 

Car 14 is down for the lights trains this year as far as I know.

 

Hi all, first time posting on here.
During the flying Scotsman visit I noticed Sheets covering what seems to be 3/4 tall tubes where the long-term water tower is going to be. Are they now powering ahead with this? Any info would be appreciated

 

They are the new 60 ton lifting jacks ex. Bournemouth Depot waiting for the new reinforced concrete pad outside the goods shed to be finished

 

It’s at Corfe Castle now on the Webcam

 

I guess that was probably the second LE engine, that I missed along with what I think was a loaded run with the two coach driver experience set.
A couple of images from the first LE run on the approach to HX where they stopped to check the loco.

 

There were various discussions about diesel services and no running post the lights trains on the MHR thread.
I do not think the reasonably recently announced post Christmas diesel service and the Winter Warmer on January 7 & 8 have been mentioned here. It will be interesting to see what loading's are like.
The Sandbanks Ferry will still be out of action for both of these events (having been damaged during its tow to Falmouth for scheduled maintenance) as well as lights trains so worth allowing extra time for those coming down.
The 50 bus (or X50 as it is currently) is also impacted having to go via Poole.

 

Unglamorous though they may be a couple of strong tank engines would be definitely in keeping with the Swanage Branch as a lot of us remember it.

80104 and 30053 can foot the bill but they are a a year or so off i believe.

 

Although the MHR and other railways are running Christmas lights trains during the full traditional 12 days of Christmas (to Jan 5), whereas the Swanage railway for some reason is stopping the Christmas lights trains early on Dec 23rd!
But at least the Winter Explorer DMU service will be easy to staff and is a good price for a £10 return trip.
https://www.swanagerailway.co.uk/events/view/winter-explorer-diesel-service
Sad the DMU service is not ready to connect with mainline trains at Wareham with the ferry out of action again, maybe later in 2023?

 

I speculate that SRC are not running the Christmas Lights on the 24th December because of a belief that other commitments would impact both passenger demand and volunteer availability.

Fingers crossed that the Wareham service operates in 2023.

 

SRC priorities for 2023 must include
The Herston carriage shed
Swanage to Wareham trials
to do nothing on these issues would seriously strain credulity with punters and members alike

 

Awwww....