Swanage Railway General Discussion

Wot, heritage railway in the South West works constructively with local council freeholder to agree a new long-term lease? Whatever next! I demand a council investigation into the relevant people to stamp out this shocking outbreak of competency

Tom (with apologies...)

 

Well done to all at the Swanage, you SHOULD be proud. Looking forward to visiting more often to get my Southern Mogul fix!

 

More details on the lease signing with pictures are on our website: http://www.swanagerailway.co.uk/new...linking-swanage-and-corfe-castle-with-wareham

Don't forget, as Nick highlights, there is still lots to do... please consider becoming a volunteer - there are opportunities to help out as part of our friendly team in all manner of areas (both on getting to Wareham, keeping the heritage trains running or back-room tasks like marketing and admin), or sponsoring a sleeper: http://www.swanagerailwaytrust.org.uk/index.php/appeals

Thanks, Simon

 

An immediate result of the newly signed lease agreement and transfer of the northern section of the Swanage branch from Network Rail to the Swanage Railway Company was the disconnection of the Motala trap points and the removal of the STOP boards and the speed restrictions. Photographs show work underway to lift the STOP boards and to disconnect the Motala ground frame and to clip the points into the straight through position.
The Motala boundary with Network Rail was installed in the summer of 2006 and was used for the first time for bringing in locomotives from the main line for the diesel gala in 2007 and for a visiting steam locomotive in the summer of 2007.
In April and May, 2009, Motala was used when the first diesel and steam trains from London to Swanage ran for the first time since 1972 and 1967 respectively.

 

First use of the main line signalling today:
5Z12 10+13 Swanage - Eastleigh Works
33012 + DMU's 117 +121
0Z12 15+46 Eastleigh Works - Swanage
Also
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/Q48512/2014/09/18/advanced
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/Q48513/2014/09/18/advanced

 

Strange that they are using Motala as our boundary and not Worgret.

 

I think that's because of how it is set up in Network Rail's computers. There's quite a few places where old, out of date names are used for locations because it's easier than changing them.

 

One for the ever reliable Rumpole.
I'm down Dorset way next week, what chance 'Manston' in action?
Regards,

Paul

 

Planned to be 31806 next week; it is lined up to be 31806 and 34070 this weekend, but 34070 is getting pretty close to being due a washout.

 

Another significant step on the 'extension' occurred today, with the first Swanage Railway-operated vehicles (as opposed to RRV movements or trains operated by mainline TOC's) onto the former Network Rail section since the takeover of the remainder of the branch. These moves comprised one of the SR's 08 shunters taking a SR van to Furzebrook and putting it in the loop there for use by the S&T team installing the ground frames and locking in this area. To the best that we can work out, these are the first vehicles (again other than RRV's) to go into the loop at Furzebrook since the gas trains ceased in the early 2000's.

The area here has been heavily affected by clay run-off, and it took a good hour or so to even get the hand point moving, let alone the road across!

 

Nick...we should stop putting this positive news up.....

 

Is there a long-term plan for Furzebrook for the Swanage Railway? Could it be used for either storage space, or as an engineering base for restorations / maintenance?

Tom

 

It is very much a stated aspiration of the Swanage Railway to gain access to Furzebrook, however negotiations, as they say, are ongoing...

 

Understandably all efforts seem to be going into getting the Wareham DMU service up and running at the moment.

Are there any plans in future to extend steam services further up the line? I know it's unlikely they will run to Wareham on a regular basis, but will a new station be built somewhere to give them a longer run?

 

Had a little trip on the cushions on Friday. Very nice and super friendly staff.

 

Any steam hauled service to Wareham would need both loco and stock to be plated to run over NR metails, so unless they happen to have a couple of mainline registered locos its got to be a very rare occation that a Swanage train turns up at Wareham behind a steam loco, is there room to build a platform and loop at Ferzebrook? to enable steam to run round?
For the Wareham to Swanage service, its a pity that they did not think about the 4 tc unit and a 33/1 once thats done, now that would be very good way to arrive, get off a SWT train at the Stn, cross over to the bay, get on the TC, 1960's coaches, etc, and if you really want to cause sticky trouser syndrome, why not get the M7 passed and the push pull unit , and have that and the 4 tc taking care of the wareham link on special days .

 

There has been talk in the past that the 4TC might get used on the Swanage to Wareham trains one day, but I'm not sure how serious that was.

The main problem would be getting around the 'Mk1 ban'. Something that doesn't apply to the 117 and bubble car.

 

There are a number of ideas that have been floated for developing what many see to be the 'core business' of the steam service, and among these is a desire of many people to see this service extended 'over the road', however these are essentially ideas at the moment. I can't say too much at this stage though, lest anyone take any examples as gospel!

 

33 012 returning from Eastleigh works after delivering 121+117 DMUs for mainline overhaul. The 158 was on its return leg of a special charter to Swanage.
Wonder when the last time 2 Swanage trains weree together at Bournemouth?

 

When you get out onto the big railway as a TOC, how about some excursions to the NYMR and Whitby? We could reciprocate and have lodging turns. Quite fancy the idea of occasional trips to the south coast.
Well, everyone is entitled to dream......