Swanage Railway General Discussion

Paul, what you continually fail to understand is that heritage railways are are in the entertainment industry. Big locos draw in the crowds and keep the tills ringing.

It’s not about running an A to B public service with a sensible size loco, like it was in BR days. It’s about giving the public what they want to see.

 

Returning to Swanage... It was perfectly possible to see light pacifics doing one of the jobs they were built for (or at least which was among their regular duties) in South Dorset - hauling trains of 3-7 coaches on stopping and semi-fast trains. The economical nature of their coal and water consumption means that, in the hands of competent and conscientious crews, there need not be a huge difference in variable costs between a class 2 (which in BR days would normally have hauled 2-3 coaches) working hard and a light pacific hauling 4-5 coach trains (in the mid-range of their BR loadings). It seems demonstrable that the operation at Swanage is almost always using appropriate power for similar loads to BR practice on the branch (class 2 for 2-3 coach and larger locos for 4-5+ loads), and is about as prototypical and economical as is possible.

 

Couldn't agree more with this point. You only have to look over to the Spa Valley Railway to see the clear benefits to having a 'big chuffer', with business and overall interest in the railway itself having been going through something of a boom since 'Sir Keith Park' arrived.

Recently they held an event whereby SKP was simply renamed temporary for the weekend into 'Brentor', and even that has proven to be a great success for the railway.

Big Chuffers draw in the crowds, and bring in the big money in turn. Simple as.

 

This could be put down also to how the light pacifics were designed though could it not? As it always seemed like to me that Bulleid essentially conceived them a bit like the LMS with the Black 5s, whereby they can do virtually anything required of them no matter how big or indeed small the job, and do so as efficiently as possible.

Indeed from what I hear on a few occasion from people in the know how, because of how good a steamer the Bullied boilers are, economically wise they can (with the right handling and know how) be operated with roughly the same amount of coal as a rather smaller sized engine.

 

And the prize for most predictable post of the week goes to… (drum roll please)

 

:How easy it is for gricers to be affronted. The truth is most passengers won't be able to tell one locomotive type from another but they are well able to recognise holes in lino or ingrained dirt. Sadly, according to an active volunteer known to me, who has visited several lines in the past few days quality control seems a real problem. In other words forget big chuffers and extensions and keep what you have clean and in good condition

 

Well, they do have 3.......


But given the nature of Paul's argument they might as well not overhaul any ofnthe other locos that are kicking about and just turn out the DMU.

In fact, get some pacers, they are cheap nobody will be able to tell.

Chris

 

It's an odd argument to sustain that "the truth is most passengers won't be able to tell one locomotive type from another" but they can apparently pick up quite subtle distinctions between 1950s carriages and others.

Tom

 

It depends on who is in charge of the day out, if its the wife, her priorities will be is it clean, are their toilets, will the children be kept entertained, if its the Husband, its going to be how big is the engine, Boy's and their toys, etc, if its husband and Son only, then i doubt if the carriage will get a second look, as long as its clean, and clouds of dust don't rise up when they sit down, women always have a different way of looking at things, but in 9 out of ten cases its the female in the party who will make or break it, you ignore them at your peril, I can remember one day at Tenterden i was working in C&W, we had a fault with a door on a carriage in service that day, and i had to go out and secure it out of use, So i walked into the carriage in my overalls, and this women stared at me and said, Would you please take those dirty overalls off, i don't want you spreading dirt on our table, needless i explained that i had to fix a fault, and that if i didnt, they would not be going anywhere, i know its a bit off subject, but it shows what the public, who do pay for our hobbys, can be like,

 

Well absolutely but first everything has to be safe. Everything working, staff trained in their roles, lineside clear? Etc, etc.

Sadly there’s only a finite pool of volunteer hours to deploy around the line. (In addition to some paid hours clearly.) I think part of the trick is to pay close attention to those volunteers. Really make them feel valued and give them the experience they are looking for. Listen to them as individuals, develop their talent. I get the impression it can be, “bung them in a department and look for some more”.

 

Has it occurred to you that people on NP are so easily 'affronted' because they are so tired of you banging the same old drum in such a blunt manner?

 

A large percentage of the passengers traveling from Norden are mainly interested in the beach and the train is a bonus. Most wouldn't have a clue what engine was pulling them. They are watching the views and are happy to have eliminated the "Corfe Queue".

 

Whatever the percentage for whom that applies, there are also some who do take an interest in having a steam engine pulling the train but don't know or care exactly which one. And then there are those who do care which one. Does it not make sense to try to keep all of them happy?

 

Had a good visit to Swanage last week and also to the Purbeck mining museum to see the narrow gauge loco running.
2 questions from posts I saw on the Swanage Railway Unofficial Facebook Group.
1. noticed the Victorian carriage body was not in Swanage. There is a photo of what looks like it on a flat wagon being moved passed Corfe. Will be it be protected for future restoration?.
2. Tornado and the Bournemouth Belle will visit without passengers. Will Tornado (uncoupled from its tender) use the turntable to face back to London?

 

I visited the Swanage Railway yesterday (3.7) with my two oldest sons (19 & 12)

Booking on line was fairly straightforward, I had some issues trying to get seats for the return leg but wondered if someone else had been after the same seats as I was trying to book them.

While it isnt directly a Swanage Railway issue both ticket machines in the car park at Norden were out of use so we had to pay by phone which was annoying for both us and some other visitors.

We were on the second train of the day, I gather that some 'walk up' passengers had to be turned away from the first train. There was a friendly greeting, ticketing was efficient and it was nice to be able to stand by the bridge over the track at the end of the station and watch 'Eddystone' come in.

Sadly this was the one point in the day it decided to rain so we ended up carrying our coats round town on an otherwise dry day.

The partitions fitted in the carriages were reasonably unobtrusive, BUT I suggest that as has been mentioned on other threads coach interiors are an area many railways could do work on.

There was some sort of regatta going on in the bay with something smaller than a Gig but bigger than a river racing boat being raced.

After eating our picnic it was off to Chococo - The iced coffee was out of this world, dived into the bookshop on the high street for one very competitively priced book and one that looked like a good read. I was also tempted by a proper steel watering can hanging outside 'Bobs Bits' (Edit, whoops, Burts Bits) but thats an 'I love me' present for another day.

On the return at 2.15 Eddystone was clearly in good form, and it was nice to see two of the vehicles from the 4TC in their gleaming new paintwork. I did see the display screen in the booking office and it looked fine to me.

My sons watched Eddystone run round while I returned to the car with bags and coats, I was also able to donate my bag of rags that had been in the boot for several weeks and was amused to see it being loaded onto Eddystones footplate just before she left to return to Swanage.

I suspect that when things get back to normal my Heritage Railway Season Ticket will be at Swanage not the WSR

 

Indeed, What may have started off from Ilfracombe as 3 coaches behind an West Country, would by the time it reached Exeter, could have had additional coaches added along the route, so putting it beyond the capacity of any smaller engines, It needed an engine of that size to cope with the additional portions that would have been added At Exeter restaurant coaches would be added, as well as other coaches from Plymouth As well as more coaches along the route at Seaton, etc by the time this train reached Basingstoke, the 4 coach train, would by now be 12-14 coaches ,

 

(Sorry Martin )

 

I would not expect any mainline to be loco split anywhere mid tour due to the need to retest all the safety equipment for TPWS etc.
The tour reverses on the way back at Millbrook so there will be a diesel involved.

 

Thanks, from reading earlier posts a larger turntable is a low priority for the SR. Managed to see Tornado in Surrey, slightly early, on its way to Bournemouth and Swanage.