Swanage Railway General Discussion

No, I joined the project to re instate services twix Swanage and Wareham. Never was the raisonne d'etre steam hauled.

 

I havr an old stock book published by the Railway in the early 80's and it talks about how suitable the recently arrived 6695 would be on Wareham services...

Now I know now we wouldn't consider 6695 suitable and she's even left the railway. But at least some people back then we're thinking about this then...

 

But of course Ady.
You refer to the 1980's Wasn't the Railways run by somebody called British Rail, Well I know full well it was, I used to work for them as a guard.
Look at the vast amount of steam Locos that were allowed to run and also various coaching stock. That was the 1980's when Network Rail, Office
of Road and rail (ORR) and Department for Transport (DfT) had not been invented. How Many of these are running on the main line today?
The additional TPWS OMTR equipment is far to costly to justify the expense so most are restricted to preserved lines as a result.
Fast forward to the 2020's and these people have a BIG say in what the Swanage Railway can and can not do regards to going into Wareham.
If you stand on Holme lane bridge and look towards Wareham, you will see a yellow aspect colour light signal, Beyond that it is Network Rail.
On January 2nd D6515 was supposed to go to Eastleigh Works and collect the three car class 117, This was cancelled at short notice by NR due to
a gauging issue , the result being they will have to be moved by road, this is the sort of thing that the SR is up against.
It should be pointed out that the running of a DMMU over network Rail will be unique, I still do not see any cause to shunt any trains at Wareham,
The DMMU only needs to run into the platform, Passengers get off and on, Driver changes ends and good to go.
If a down train is late, then the unit will be held at Worgret until the down line is clear, simple.

 

Indeed, many of those organisations had not been invented. But instead we had a Department of Transport, and a British Rail that was quite capable of using it's power to support or prevent the ambitions of such as Swanage - indeed, which barred "preserved" diesels outright throughout it's existence. And, thinking of TPWS and OTMR, let's bear in mind that it was the aftermath of some really nasty accidents that saw government impose new requirements.

 

If only it was as simple as that. The train from Swanage will have passengers probably wishing to travel onwards towards London so it needs to arrive before that main line train from Weymouth. Then it needs to wait for passengers arriving on the Down line train from London. Where does it wait? The options have already been mentioned before.

 

I sure your correct that its harder these days with NR, OOR, etc, and that it will be difficult to run-round with the present arrangements and it cost money to rework the down sidings.

But can we give the railway a chance please... The railway wants to try (once the diesel service is finally running) to attempt to run some steam services to Wareham, and seems to been something they wanted to do for years past. And has been given some* of the required money to do so. Its not some big scandal they want to do so. If it doesn't succeed then so be it. But at least they tried.

In railway preservation a lot has been achieved before that didn't seem likely...

(*I'm aware a lot more will be needed)

 

Hmm.... Your memories of the 1980's are at odds with mine. For a start a complete blanket ban on steam over any third rail lines (instituted I think after a "mass trespass" incident at an Eastleigh open day in the mid 70's), this was to last until the early 90's. "Open access" was not even a twinkle in anyone's eye and everything was controlled by one David Ward, BR Special Trains Manager. Routes over which steam could run were heavily restricted and there were other absurdities like refusal to use steam heat in winter leading to the awful "Ethel" train heat units. There were some great trips in the 80's, but for me (in the South anyway) the best times for steam were the 90's with the late lamented Daylight Railtours based on the MHR at Alton. By then they could go anywhere on the Southern and took full advantage.

 

Yes I know about the Southern Steam ban, I was generalising really. Southern Steam actually started between Salisbury and Yeovil in 1986 largely
thanks to Gerald Daniels the then Area Manager at Salisbury. It extended to Andover and Romsey in 1988 or 89.
Living at Romsey I was certainly privileged to stand at a foot crossing near Awbridge and photograph three steam trains one behind the other
34027 on a Exeter Eastleigh return excursion, 75069 on the last return Salisbury Eastleigh shuttle trip of the day and finally a certain M7 hauling two
Queen Mary brakevans towards Eastleigh, Pure Magic!
Hey thats really stirred a fond memory. I think 30053 was renumbered 30674 after a former Salisbury station pilot engine.

 

My daily trip to the Post Office luckily coincided (by chance as I had to take my wife to Corfe this morning) with the railways latest item of restored rolling stock being moved out of the Goods Shed. Super Turbot No DB978713

 

And T9 is in light steam being shunted around in a big rearranement of stock.

 

As is the U on the shed.

 

You're absolutely right about the Salisbury based trips - they were amazing. Highlights for me included a run though Dinton with City of Wells at a speed *ahem* marginally more than 75mph! I'd also completely forgotten about the M7 running on the main line. Happy days!

 

Ah Dinton, strange place, while waiting for Tangmere to pass a few years ago had a feeling I was being watched all the time, when I drove away I was followed by what look like an unmarked police car all the way back to the A303 Strange

 

Yeah, but that sort of behaviour west of Salisbury - you never know if it is the MoD or just the locals keeping an eye on "thems that don't look like our sorts of people ..." (Though we are positively normal in comparison to the wicker man residents of Somerset, who make the townspeople of Scarfolk look normal ...

Tom

 

No wonder you were followed after hanging around for a while.

 

errr Wasn't that the place where the 4TC was stored for a while, before moving to Butterly?

 

That's debatable.

 

I gather that showing an interest in the surviving section of the Stratford on Avon & Midland Junction railway in the late 70's could find you getting up close & personal with the Military Police

 

Videos [not my copyright] showing the M7 at Salisbury:
The two Queen Mary brake vans carried so many passengers over all three junctions outside Salisbury on 21st June 1992 that NSE added a BSK for trips on 28th June:
Happy days!

 

Wasn't there a run with Wells, a Crompton and the area managers saloon in the late 80's, The Crompton was tracking Wells, there were runpasts etc.
There was a plan for Wells to 'go for it' and the Crompton would give chase and pass it on the other line. I believe the quote from the Bullieds crew was, but you can only do 90!
I think it was a Railscene video in the day but cannot find it.