Swanage Railway General Discussion

This is the actual site of the new Herston Carriage shed, As you can see, this illustrates that there will be very limited space, which is the main problem for the whole railway.
I really do not understand where the oil sidings at Furzbrook fit into the picture, they have nothing to do and are not even connected to the Swanage Railway.
The only suitable location for bringing in excursion or ECS traffic as occurred recently, is the Road rail interchange at Arne.

 

..... and, of course, connecting trackwork would need re-instatement and some form of S&T installation would be required to ensure safe 'isolation' from the main branch line services.
No little cost and some time needed to schedule all this work amongst all the regular on-going maintenance work, etc.

 

A long siding was installed years ago at Harmans Cross which, in emergency I suspect, could accommodate excursion trains but it is not equipped to 'tank' coaches (water pressure too low?) and has no road access.

 

Although we has the stock tanked at Yeovil yesterday (by the centre staff) not sure I can ever remember a DCE being tanked in Jersey Sidings. In fact in the modern broken up railway Carlisle seems to be one of the few stations I can remember that will do it.

 

Looking at the July timetable, why is the service on most weekends one train compared with two during the week?

 

Timetables has been one train on a Sunday for some time and has been one steam one diesel for quite a few weekends now. I think one train service for this Saturday was a recent change as it was the two train green service when I last screenshot the calendar page.
Sunday's do seem quieter in the town than Saturday's it seems based on the car park and numbers (or lack of them) walking back and forth past the house.

 

there images on Social Media of the U Boats tender being shunted around. Have they swapped the tenders again?

 

I have just looked at the website and it shows a blue timetable,this must be an error as it's a green timetable this saturday the 16th.

 

This weekend's service has been changed to blue timetable as they are cancelling steam - fire risk and steam crew working conditions. It is being monitored for future dates.

 

Cheers for the update I have now seen it for myself for the change this weekend.

 

Why cant they run two diesel trains?

 

you can't get much more esoteric than a discussion about freight on a non operating branch line. Priority Number ONE
Carriage Shed(much promised!! ) and delayed....and delayed
Priority Number TWO
The Trials(much promised!!) and delayed.....and delayed
2023 is the Year!

 

WHAT FREIGHT?

 

Please, can you not just give it a rest. Your constant rants and digs at the railway is simply uncalled for. We are in uncertain times just be thankful the railway has weathered the storm through covid. I’m sure the trails will happen to Wareham at some point but constantly bleeting on about them isn’t going to do the railway any favours. Just hold tight and see what happens and be thankful we still have a service operating at all.

Matt

 

Why are you people still bothering to respond?

 

I seem to remember that siding was built specifically to accommodate excursion trains, and keep them out of the way of normal SR services.

 

Sir, please consider my advice to activate the ignore button for that user. Trolls thrive on attention!

 

Sad for visitors expecting a steam train, but understandable considering the weather. Hope the 2 train steam timetable goes well later in July and August to help the SR finances with many happy visitors.
I expect this weekend will be the shiny 33012 with the DMU as backup?

I see 33111, with its weathered look, has gone to the Mid Hants Diesel gala, maybe to work push pull with the LU 4TC unit.

 

If a British summer is a couple of sunny days followed by a thunderstorm, it's going to be the mother of all downpours next week. Any of our number with property prone to flooding perhaps ought to be digging out the sandbags.

 

Have you seen two steam for August published then? The website shows one steam service and another as yet unspecified method of traction.