Swanage Railway General Discussion

looking forward to images of the stanchions going in at HCS in November!!

 

We hope so, but the world may be a very different place by then.

 

Well I think we all are. Again, your worthless comments and opinions will have absolutely no bearing on whether this happens or not. Unlike the water tower, this project is essential and the trust chairman has confirmed its high priority.

If Swanage annoys you so much, go and "support "another railway and bash them into submission too.

 

Get a life.

 

Perhaps a Committee to oversee "Appeals" might be in order ,therefore preventing "over ambition and fallacies" leading to situations as described above. I have been supporting the SR since the late 1970s and donated to all three of the current major appeals. In fact in the mid 1980s once again over ambition nearly cost us the Railway and, once again it was the trusty donors who came to the rescue! don't want a repeat of that but would like to see a timely application of funds toward the purpose for which they were solicited.

 

That committee you talk of is called the Fundraising committee. It is however not their job to decide if a project is physically too ambitious to achieve or is perhaps harder to achieve than imagined. Perhaps you should email your suggestion to the SRT Chair?
It’s good to know you have contributed to the appeals but perhaps you might cut those who are trying to move these projects forward a little slack? All projects are volunteer lead.

The 563 group may appear separate from the appeals process recently but it is a 100% SRT body and will achieve its aim by hook or by crook in 2023.
It unlike other groups have held it together and expanded its reach.
The other projects you list have been victims of the times we live in. You can’t blame the railway for that. Like I have said before, I have absolutely no doubt that, sometime in the mid term, the water tower, the carriage shed and perhaps even the turntable will be delivered.

 

Possibly not connected, but wasn’t there a metro-camm Pullman dining car at Swanage in the early 2000s that ended up in West Coast Railways maroon as part of their mainline fleet? Seem to recall it had a number rather than a name.


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Mk2 Pullmans 347-353 + 354 "The Hadrian Bar originally formed the Steam Locomotive operators association in the early 1980's, Subsequently disbanded.
At least one and possibly two came to the Swanage railway but I cannot remember which one(s) ?

 

If your recent comments are part of your support for the Swanage Railway, I hate to think what comments you would offer a railway that you did not support.

 

347 was bought by Swanage in 2004. It stayed for a few years, and I think was used in the Wessex Belle, before being sold to WCRC.

 

Exactly. To put it another way, If this is Oliver's Best, I dread to think what Oliver's Worst is like

 

You will just have to accept that Oliver Knows Best (sic)

 

The website has still not been updated.
I can see Oliver's point about the variable amount of information from the SR to supporters who have given to a project and don't get the email.

 

From http://www.cs.rhrp.org.uk/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=2296
"Swanage by 03/04: Rampart Engineering for attention till 09/04. To Swanage for 'Wessex Belle'. From Swanage to Carnforth 01/10. By 10/12: painted in West Coast Railway Company (WCRC) maroon livery. By 02/18: back at Swanage Railway for 'Wessex Belle' / 'Royal Wessex Dining Trains'. By 05/19: with WCRC for excursion trains."
It's not clear if ownership was with the SR or a private person before being sold to WCRC?
Ideally the SR would have liked to have kept it, but without cover a 1950's Pullman would be a high maintenance cost and (before COVID) excursion trains would bring in more money?

 

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_stock_of_the_Swanage_Railway#Pullman_cars
says Bertha, Isle of Thanet (and maybe Lydia) "Stored away from the Railway at a private location"
so although the private owners had intentions of them being used at Swanage, they may not have made it to the railway.
The Pullman cars might be part of the Swanage Belle excursion train in September?.

There is a photo of one of the Brighton Belle Pullman cars at Swanage, now the 5 car unit is almost completed it looks like will be based at Eastleigh, so maybe one day it could do a Southampton, Bournemouth, Swanage excursion (with the last leg pulled by 33012?), but seat prices are likely to be initally high?
edit after a google search, not the photo of car 288 at Swanage I was thinking of, but a good photo by Clive G in mid 80s, maybe will be there again one day?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/50576141@N03/5317314961

 

I have no recollection (or image for that matter) of a maroon coach in the dining set in 2018, or actually at any time since I moved to Swanage in December 2014.
The dining set looked like this all year in 2018 (the motive power may have been different to this normally though!)

 

I’d agree with you. Once it left the railway I think it was gone for good, although it’s a quite possible it’s visited as part of an excursion.
It was certainly in the consist of a Weymouth to London steam special I took about 8 years ago


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It's possible the Railway Heritage Register had made a mistake and it just visited as part of an excursion?
it could also have been part of the maroon WCR carriages rented for the 2017 Wareham service for a short while before being replaced by the LU 4TC?

 

I suspect it was as part of an excursion as you say.
I don’t recall a Pullman being part of the initial Wareham set.


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No, definitely no Pullmans in the initial WCRC Wareham set.