Swanage Railway General Discussion

It was in service for the last 2 or 3 (?) services on Friday and steaming well.

 

Lets hope the railway does really weel from this weekend.

Lovely having half price tickets. Originally I was only going to go on the train, but BECAUSE of the 50% now we all are (extra two people) so... as long as it doesnt require another train (as in still 1 service as its planned) the railway are making more revenue from us due to the half price tickets

 

The trains I saw today in between doing stuff for my wife, who seems to have caught flu (the real version not what you used to tell the boss at work), was that they were rammed. Probably 3 times more people than I saw in the week on the trains, so hopefully a profitable day.
Light was poor today but the loco at HX, Herston & Afflington (same service) and HX again. Although similar to the first HX image the loco seemed to be struggling compared to the earlier run. Progress at Quarr looked especially slow. Not sure if there is a minor issue.

 

Nice set of pictures, As a matter of interest, Which services was the T3 working, as I was the HX signalman today and yes the T3 was taking longer to go through the sections, but might have been due to damp rails. All trains were well loaded.

 

Andy, the first HX image was the 11:20 and the second the 15:20. The other 2 of the 14:00.

 

Thanks for that.

 

Great to see the trains completely full (hopefully bringing more revenue.. even if not (compares to full price) at least it makes everyone happier it's cheaper!

Has Swanage railway ever thought about visit once.. get 2nd trip half price or something before??

Either that or

Remove railcard/year pass...

But have a 'standard tourist' fare (20 return like it is now) then a 1/3 off for Dorset and half price for purbeck people....

 

Have you put your suggestions directly to the SR?

 

Although I had other things to do managed a look at the last two trains today.

 

The folks who have been on the Bulleid experience the last couple of days have sure had some horrible weather. Although of course now they are finished for the day the sun is out.
In a brief interlude from the rain and despite not feeling at all well I needed to take my Dad his shopping. Luckily this all coincided with the 14:50 departure. Eddystone with the uncommon use of lamps in daytime, leaves Swanage with its four coach train.

 

I promise this will be the last time I will go on about the Victorian Weekend because I'm getting bored of talking about it, but I cannot wait to see this and 65 operate in the same place.
I never thought I would be so happy to see "Running between Swanage and Norden" like the good old days of the Swanage events.

Now [frustratingly] waiting to see if the RMT union fancy another week off, especially if it's that week.

 

The RMT wont mess up your plans as they are not in dispute with the Rail companies at the moment,it's ASLEF you have to worry about as it's them thats in dispute.Fingers crossed it won't be around the Gala if they call their next action.

 

This is billed as the Pines Express Driver experience, S&D trains always carried lamps instead of discs for some reason.

 

Probably due to the Midland influence.

 

Pines was only the first two runs I understood Andy. My image was of the 14:50 departure billed on the website as the Bulleid Experience. Day before and yesterday same train had a disc headcode. Lamps may have stayed on all day Thursday of course, it was dark enough, but I was far too busy with shopping deliveries and getting a locksmith organised for a new front door lock for my Dad.

 

After an entire year or so. The Break TC carrage is back on its wheels and is in the bay platform at Swanage. Hopfuly we get more infomation about its return to service. Last months SwanningAround stated it should be back later this year but no other info.

This will finaly after many many years (maybe a decade) of hard work another era of clasic herritage traction will return to us. Providing us 33 bashers hopfuly more opportuniy to get behind the class 33.

Tho, like we stated above, what services it takes over is a question with it being only 3-car atm, and the Railway having both that and the DMUs for 2nd services (plus local hauled class 33s during the peak summer month compared to two steam we used to have)

 

Great the break (or should it be brake?) TC carriage is back on its wheels with 33111 in the platform, no doubt there is testing and other tasks left before all 3 TC carriages and 33111 can work together in push pull mode before the diesel gala, where it may be popular on 1970s era trips to Frome bridge, and the noise from the 33 will keep some visitors happy.

Looking at the Green timetable with 6 steam return runs and 4 diesel return runs, and the yellow timetable with 6 steam return runs and 5 diesel return runs, to save running costs the DMU with the panaramic views is the obvious choice to use rather than the 3TC and 33,
A return to a 2 steam run timetable might be better to attract visitors, but with the price of coal and if it does not actually attract the extra visitors (who will at least take one steam journey) can see the advantage of using the DMU.

The 33 and 3TC will be more expensive to run than the DMU.
Many visitors will however remember TC units running as expresses on the Weymouth line, and occasionally visiting Swanage, so possible the 33 and 3TC might occasionally replace the DMU in the timetables.
I notice the diesel turnaround time at Norton is 20 minutes, so no DMU trips to pick up passengers from SWR at Wareham this year.
It could be said a Thumper DEMU might be more historically accurate for the branch line, but only ran from 1964 to 1967.
Getting the 3TC working for the diesel gala will be a good step forward, and maybe in 2024 will be a 4TC or 5TC with catering facility.

 

Looking at the events and experiences Page, The Pines and Bulleid experiences are one and the same, except the Pines Experience at £955 per person and all sold out is 2 round trips, driving both ways on the first trip and firiing on the second, Whereas the bullied experience at £595 pp drive half a round trip and fire half a round trip, so not sure how that worked but there is still one more day on March 1st.which has just one vacancy, also the class 33111 and ballast train dvr exp sold out nearly before it was advertised and both the steam taster and 55028 dvr exp are sold out as well.

 

Sorry to dampen your hopes Tom02, but TBSK On the basis of your post, I took a look at the Swanage box camera and observed 70824 having been shunted to Platform 1 by 33111 to allow extraction of BSK 35059(?) from the goods shed. 70824 is now back in it's usual position and the jacks were being pushed back into place for lifting.
During the shunt move, it looked to me like 70824 was missing it's motor generator and or compressor unless someone can tell me different.
I guess the 3TC will be ready to enter service when it is ready.
Edit: at 1605 27/02/24, TBSK 70824 is in the process of being jacked up.

 

I think we are saying the same thing, the 09:10 and the 10:30 are the Pines trips (for rich folks) and the rest are the Bulleid Experience (for the slightly less rich folks).
Of course with the Honorable Member for Grantham focusing on misleading advertising on another thread (and forum) maybe the Pines advert would not meet his approval with a disc rather than a lamp