Swanage Railway General Discussion

Indeed, It's certainly clear it's had plenty of thought put into its appearance even though it is modern. Sadly all too often that isn't the case and, as you say, you end up with a glorified computer print out stuck with sellotape or blu tack (and if you're unlucky, whoever did it doesn't see anything wrong with it when you suggest a more presentable alternative!)

 

Trump the lot of you. Muffin the Mule

 

Hang on. Humphrey Lestocq, Mr Turnip and Whirligig!! and those two planters in the potting shed!!

 

And there was me thinking that Rainbow had a bizarre underlying raison d'etre!

 

The LSWR suburban stock must have been scrapped.

Checking back and this was recreated in 2014
https://www.swanagerailway.co.uk/ne...me-since-1966-thanks-to-22000-hours-of-work-2


Ideally if authentic running is important the Swanage Railway should just have M7s to recreate a branch feel. The Bulleid coaches look too good. Ideally should be weathered and seats perhaps sprinkled with flour to recreate dust?.
But looking at the railcam passenger numbers seem to be good this week and the small trains would not be able to cope. But hopefully will be recreated again if there there is another gala? Also the proposed Carriage shed will help protect them.
Wonder if this week's passengers noticed the new booking room displays?

 

Better than good; the first 2 down trains yesterday, and the first 3 down trains today, were full to the social distancing capacity. On normal operating days we're more likely to need longer trains, rather than shorter ones!

 

which was is "down" on the railway (do you stick to the general convention of London being up).

What are your traffic patterns? is it more people going out from Swanage for the day or people coming down from beyond the Isle of Purbeck?

 

We stick with the convention that it's Up to London, so trains leaving Swanage are Up trains.

The pattern used to be that far more traffic was generated at the Norden end of the line with visitors from outside Purbeck, however that seems to have evened off in recent years (obviously with the exception of 2020!). Indeed, since my earlier post the first 2 trains from Swanage today are now full to social distancing capacity as well.

 

I nipped into the station in Corfe today to take a look at the new train information screen. I think it’s been done very well indeed. Looks for all the world like a paper poster. I can’t see much to complain about. Apologies for the rather poor phone pic.

 

It does look like it's been sympathetically done, and at a casual glance, it probably does look enough like a paper poster so it probably won't be too intrusive on photographs etc. Still not sure I think it was 100% necessary in the first place, but oh well!

 

The screens will be more useful when/if the Corfe to Wareham shuttle starts and the timetable will be busier?.
Notice no coach A shown, which I guess normally would be the observation coach, still awaiting return from storage?

 

I am wondering if that was the reason that they have been installed.

 

I don’t think there is any intention to return the observation coach any time soon. It’s completely open interior along with only one door for people to get on and off isn’t great for social distancing.

 

Lack of A coach might be because the Std2 is running with 4 on instead of 5.
Although why A is left of and not E I can only assume is down to where the train stops on the platform?

 

Thanks

 

Pleased to hear it has gone well this week although on Wednesday morning (taking my first bus ride since 2019 up to Durlston) the queue seemed to think they had more right to the road than the bus, they all seemed very reluctant to get out of the way. I am all for social distancing but the new Durlston bus is quite large and the driver was quite determined. Still luckily you did not loose any of them!

 

My nightcap last night was watching the excellent presentation on 563. Begs the question is there a plan in the works for a loco shed..and has work restarted on the Herston Carriage Shed?
do we see a LSWR weekend over the horizon.?? Two Urie S15s close by;0298(2) and 0415 still extant!

 

Glad you enjoyed our presentation on 563; while it took a lot of work to draw together it was quite good fun, and hearing that people enjoyed it makes it worthwhile.

As for the carriage shed, others are better placed than me to comment but within the last week or two, surveying work has been taking place on the site of the carriage shed prior to ordering the steelwork (measure twice, cut once as they say!). It's an opportune moment though to say that our appeal to raise the £65k necessary to order this steelwork by the end of June remains open; while our supporters may have raised £42,457 since the appeal reopened in March, further donations are vital to enable us to order the steelwork for installation later this year.

Further information and ways of donating are available at:-

https://www.swanagerailwaytrust.org/carriage-shed-appeal

 

I most certainly enjoyed it immensely. A great and very informative presentaion folks.

Did I just miss it, or did talk of an Addams Adams Family reunion, somewhere down the line, neglect to mention the two surviving B4s? I do hope, if such an event does happen, consideration will be given to inviting the surviving T1 (or is it from an A12?) boiler. It'd be a shame not to capitalise on the kind of impetus such an event could impart to any putative schemes for overhauls / rebuilds / recreations.