Swanage Railway General Discussion

I picked up my oldest son from Wareham station & we headed off to the 10.30 DMU from Norden and a very warm welcome from the staff.

Arriving a Swanage we headed to the pier where my son gave his grandparents plaque a polish.

Then a shared bag of cheesy chips from The Palace (Lunch for two £3.50) and a walk along the sea front.

The presence of temporary sea defences due to ore frequent over topping of the sea wall is rather worrying.

Then Hot Chocolate (Me) and Cola & Cake (son) from Chococo and the heavens opened as we headed from the 13.30

Many thanks to the second woman who wiped the front windows of the DMU so we could enjoy the view as we travelled back to Norden.

A good start to 2022, thank yiou to all those on duty.

 

And here is the 117 DMU leaving Norden with the return working at 14.00 - just after the heavy rain!

 

If anyone is interested I have recently added four galleries of the last two years on the railway to my Smugmug site. (Well really finally completed the captions).
These are 2020 and 2021 and the two respective Christmas seasons found under Swanage Railway of course from the link below.
These are just my random views of the railway in the two years of Covid, and are in no way meant to represent a definitive view of happenings on the railway. It is more of a record of that time rather than an attempt to show just the best image of a train or loco. There is much I have missed, and the railway of course has Andrew P.M.Wright as an official photographer to compile a proper historical record of events. But feel free to look if you want.

https://garypacker.smugmug.com/

 

Some interesting photos in there, I rather like your signal box photo gallery btw

 

May I join you with an OJ [promise not to get citrified] thinking about all those demanding but successful years of effort.
Yes, it's great to reminisce but sobering to note all those from 1972 and earlier who never lived to see today's railway achievements.
Nevertheless, best wishes to you both. May 2022 be Happier and Healthier for one and all.

 

Someone seemed to forget their high viz today!

 

What does the SMS have to say about this particular situation?

 

His name is Basil (obviously). He lives in the bank to his left.
He isn’t at all fazed but people or trains. But careful enough to not get too close.

 

I take it his Vixen is Sybil?

 

I think you've come to a fawlty conclusion. You need to brush up on your foxes. Boom Boom.

Sorry. I promise not to post things like this, again. For a couple of days, anyhow.

 

Would the chap striding purposefully behind be a Fox-Walker?

Tom

 

That's as bad as mine but at least it has a railway connection.

 

I think i have asked this question for at least five years. Having had a major appeal to rescue and restore the former Salisbury LSWR water tank is there any current time frame for when this valuable and visible artifact will be in actual SR use??

 

,,,anf of course the next PERennial question. Perenco sidings??

 

Which side of the SR/NR boundary are the points to those?

 

About 2 Miles, the Swanage side of the boundary.

 

When the branch was curtailed Oil Trains used the stub to access tankers from the Wytch Farm operation.

 

The issue has been that the sidings are within a SSSI and the AONB. As I understand it Perenco as the landowners self evidently are very concerned about the repercussions of any contamination. Hence negotiations are ongoing between Perenco, Dorset Council and SRT/ SRC.

 

Very looooooooooong discussions are they not???,been ongoing for at least four or five years!!
One has to ask . Was there any contamination at this site before it was used to store oil tankers.Of course not!! Why do corporations hate the thought of cleaning up after themselves? North America particularly is littered with mines and oil drillings where companies conveniently declare bankruptcy and walk away

 

An unfair comparison. If Perenco are liable for the site, and it’s currently clean, it’s totally reasonable for them to want to be sure that their liabilities won’t be triggered by someone else.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk