Swanage Railway General Discussion

I wonder if the Swanage Railway DMMU service to Wareham will be able to run?

 

I’d imagine not. The railway will be concentrating on getting back on its feet for now, and I’d assume 2022 at earliest for Wareham services. Happy to be proved wrong!

SWR services would seem more likely for now, although by no means definite.

 

Taken by my dad later in the afternoon then when I went past just after lunchtime.

 

Will it go along as the other number for a while for something different and a trick for people to get back visiting?

 

Last time that boiler was in steam, the loco wore this number


Be careful what you wish for...

 

Not on the Swanage Railway, you wont!

 

That Bulleid isn’t the right colour for Sodor

 

Must the the last week in December since two locos were in steam at the same time.

 

Lovely having lunch and watching Dual numbered U-boat chugging up and down within Station Limits.

 

I would be very interested to see if crews find any discernible difference in how the U behaves with her new boiler (making allowance for the fact that she does have a newly overhauled boiler, that is) - will a different boiler likely make the loco behave in a different way, e.g. tolerance to different firing methods, or is that more likely to be affected by things like the draughting and bottom end?

 

Thanks just caught it on Railcam (Maybe sometime a 2nd camera will be added towards the loco shed?)
From the unofficial FB page someone has said it will go mainline in September with the Dorset Express!
https://www.railwaytouring.net/the-dorset-coast-express-3-21

 

Well it was in the RTC brochure for last year but of course those tours never happened. Would love to see it this year, as per your link it is in the brochure again for the DCE's.
But like all mainline steam tours only time will tell, and depends on so many issues, not least another mainline steam crew in addition to the two that were needed for recent DCE's.

 

I wonder why the Dorset Coast Express takes the mainline to Weymouth rather than the heritage line to Swanage?

 

It will be good to have it on the mainline. I like to see a black one. I don’t think they’d want to have a red one at swanage hopefully.

 

Could it be due to length of train and Weymouth has longer platforms than Swanage?
There have been charters to Swanage and last was the Union of South Africa (not sure how long it was, but was more than 6 carriages?), preceeded by the 4 carriage 4TC charters?

 

According to the Swanage Moguls website 31874 was "James the Red Engine" at Mid Hants line in 1998, then went to the Swanage line in red for storage awaiting overhaul. Will get back into steam eventually, depending on 31608's boiler overhaul?
The Swanage line does not do any "Thomas the tank" events.

 

Hi All,

We need your help to raise the final £65,000 required to complete the Herston Carriage Shed and turn our vision for secure undercover accommodation for our carriage fleet into a reality.

Our carriages are currently stored outside and exposed to the elements all year round. This new covered accommodation is urgently required to help protect some of the Swanage Railway's most historic and valuable carriages, the oldest of which is over 80 years old! The irreplaceable vehicles will significantly benefit from protection against the weather to increase the intervals between overhauls while also reducing the time and expense associated with their maintenance.
In early 2020 we launched an appeal which raised £30,000, alongside this we started foundation work on site. Fundraising was paused in March 2020 and our focus instead switched to the Save Our Service Appeal, launched to mitigate against the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic and ensure our railway survived through the winter.

We are now in a position to return to the Herston carriage shed project. Thanks to successful fund-raising efforts as well as generous legacies and bequests, we have already raised £177,000 towards the building costs.

We had hoped to secure a grant to part-fund the construction but owing to Covid-19 this was no longer available. Without the grant, because of the early closure of the original appeal and allowing for inflation, we need your help to raise the final £65,000 by the end of June. If we meet this target, the steel structure of the carriage shed can be manufactured and installed on the site in November, enabling us to complete the new shed in early 2022.

To kick start our appeal, we have been approached by a generous member who will match any donations made from now until the end of March, up to the value of £5,000. Any donations large or small are appreciated to help us reach this target and set our fundraising campaign into motion.

You can donate by visiting https://www.swanagerailwaytrust.org/carriage-shed-appeal for PayPal and details about bank transfers and cheques along with Gift Aid that can further boost your donation by 25%. Illustration by Kevin Williamson.
A Fundraising video with more details will follow shortly, but in the meantime, please consider donating as much as you can.

Thankyou.

 

Great to hear that attention is now returning to completing the carriage shed. I shall certainly be donating,

 

not quite right, 31874, was James 1st then 31625 Became James 2nd, 31874 Was repainted in Southern Black as 1874 31625 was the engine delivered in red,