Swanage Railway General Discussion

Bulleid 4365 and Maunsell 1381 are also operational, with Maunsell 1346 not too far off completion.

They do seem to get used as integral parts of the normal fleet, often appearing in the service sets, rather than being reserved for special occasion use.

 

Isn't this the case for a lot of former branch lines that have now morphed into Top Level Heritage Railways. would you describe unlocking the Perenco sidings as the most pressing issue?

 

Not for me to say, but afaik given their location they can only be used for storage and nothing else ie no restoration, no maintenance. Given the nature of the site I suspect that access will only be available by rail ie no car / van access by crews through the oil terminal.

 

Which sacred cows would those be?

 

It's not for me, as an 'umble volunteer, to say what those sacred cows should be, unless it's face to face with a pint in my hand and good friends for company. All I say is that the railway is forced into spreading its facilities across the railway by a lack of space in key locations to carry out both storage and maintenance, coupled with a desire/pressure to operate a wide variety of services.

For example, the ideal location for the DMU depot would be in No.2 siding at Swanage. It's at the railway's main maintenance centre, and takes advantage of the facilities already there. However, that is currently occupied by the dining train; and with that in No.2 siding, you can't use No.1 siding for the DMU, as that would leave Swanage without any sidings for storage. The dining train can't be moved, as deliveries of stock through either the coal yard or the school at Corfe are a non-starter. You don't want to be moving out-of-steam locos between stations every time you want to work on them, as you have nowhere to store them at your main running shed, so hence the only option is a new facility (aka a Portakabin and a hole in the ground) at Corfe Castle instead.

 

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I have no idea what the operational reasons for its non participation are, but if it is a crew shortage that is a WCRC issue, nothing to do with Swanage.

 

As you imply you have to decide what your priorities are, which activities are core to running the railway as a whole and which are peripheral.

The issues I perceive about the Perenco sidings are the issues about accessibility and if stock is needed to go to / from there, that takes quite a bit of resource (traction and crew) to make the move. Obviously if the move is a once a fortnight or once a month issue then it would not appear to be a big deal but if it is quite a frequent occurence then that must surely impact on available resources.

Potentially Swanage Railway has three big commitments - 1) the core Swanage <> Norden service 2) the Wessex Belle Dining Train 3) the Wareham DMU service. Is this one commitment too many given the available resources SR has?

 

According to real time trains, the railtour to Weymouth is still running.
However the steam tour yesterday with 61306 was cancelled last Wednesday due apparently to staff having to self isolate. So this may be an issue again on Thursday, If you are traveling on this tour, you may want to contact the tour operator.

 

The Co-Op & the Bus Station?

 

Sorry, But where on earth did you get the idea of a Norden interchange from? You can not have two trains in the same section at the same time.
AFAIK, The Wareham service will operate to/from Corfe Castle and perhaps beyond?

 

You can within station limits, ie outside of a single line section. The station is not itself a section.

 

There are no station limits at Norden. Norden Gates is only a crossing cabin, not a signal box.

Norden would need a large amount of developments, including complete redesign of the track layout and a full resignalling, to use it as an interchange in that sense. It has been talked about in a fairly loose sense, but so have a lot of things.

 

It was from Biggles2000 posting 5516 which talked about adding an additional platform at Norden to enable interchange.

 

Ok, thanks for the clarification.

 

I've herd that also. Caused by the current 'pingdemic' I believe.

 

It needs to be remembered that unlike many other Heritage Railways, Swanage did not inherit the goods yards and are thus confined to the running lines and any sidings that can be created in the narrow formation. A lot of these sidings don't even have road access. The carriage shed is on a piece of land that had to be excavated out of a small hill. There simply isn't the room to consolidate facilities in one location.

Furzebrook would provide enough space to do this but despite many years of trying the railway has been unable to gain access. When / if it is obtained planning permission will be required and the investment required to centralize facilities there would be huge.

As @Rumpole says it's certainly not by choice.

 

I expect Swanage would love to allocate some of their endless supply of volunteers to car park duties.
I also suspect that not many volunteers would continue to volunteer if that was the role they were regularly being asked to do.

 

Yes. This at one time was the excuse for delaying the rebuilding Skew Bridge to allow the Museum to Access the Clay pit to the south of the line. The building of another platform has probably been shelved. Who knows?

 

If Swanage Railway has been anything in the last fifty or so years, it’s ambitious. It’s been a strategy that’s paid off wonderfully. Can’t help thinking now is not the time to change.

 

At galas where there has been running to Frome bridge, there has been a token exchange at Norden Gates. The token for the Corfe <> Norden section (which unlocks the Norden ground frames) has been surrendered in exchange for one for the next section of single track. This has allowed a following service to run to Norden, run round and return to Corfe whilst the previous service runs to Frome bridge and back again.