Swanage Railway General Discussion

Steam and Classic car gala this Friday/Saturday/Sunday, hope steam on both diagrams as timetable suggests, not overly happy if both turn out to be diesel after travelling all the way down (part of holiday!).

 

Edited - I understand it will be 33 again tomorrow (Tuesday).

 

I went on Sunday and there were several burnt patches by the line so I understand why diesels are being used

 

I would imagine that it is fire risk. There is a wide-spread fallacy that rainfall immediately removes the risk of lineside fires. The problem with this is that, even with heavy rain, it does not take very long for bright sun to dry out vegetation - especially if it is no longer alive.

On top of that, I suspect that some railways will find that their local fire services will be beginning to charge for call-outs - which is not a cheap cost to cover. In the past, the discussion over starting to pay call-out charges normally began after about the third call-out within a four-week period, or after a multi-engine call-out involving the cascade of engines from non-local stations - and I suspect that the generosity of local fire services has not increased over the last decade or so!

By way of empirical illustration from personal experience, I remember a few years ago lifting a steam ban (with fire service agreement) following a couple of days of pretty good rainfall - only to end that day with a significant bill from the fire service and a compensation claim for half a field of hay. That day resulted in a five-figure loss - something that I suspect few railways could contemplate easily at the moment.

 

If it becomes a paraffin can fest, I presume it will be the two class 33's, there is little else listed on the website?
Plenty of rain forecast, depends if it actually falls and how much. My father-in-law always said he wouldn't pay the weather people with holes in brass washers!

 

Not mentioning any names but there is YouTube footage showing lines with excessively ''shaggy'” undergrowth

 

Not sure if any rain fell overnight in Swanage area but we certainly had a couple of showers earlier today thus getting soil ready for later downpours to soak in.
It's been torrential rain, with added lightning, for some time now so hope most of it soaks through and doesn't just run off into ditches and then streams out to sea.
More needed however, over the next few days, to ensure ground water starts being topped up properly.
Think The Swanage Belle on Thursday should be OK - assuming at least some of these downpours have been sprinkling en-route from London.

 

According to the Railway's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/swanagerailway

Tickets go on sale tomorrow (Tuesday 6th) at 10am for our Flying Scotsman running days in October. These tickets are expected to sell out quickly, so be sure to get them whilst you can.
Flying Scotsman will be running across 5 days from October 22nd to October 26th, but will also be available for footplate visits on Thursday 20th and Friday 21st October as well as from Thursday 27th to Sunday 6th November.
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to see this world famous locomotive just before it’s 100th birthday!
Ticket information regarding this exciting event will be found at our website - https://www.swanagerailway.co.uk/events/view/flying-scotsman and the National Railway Museums dedicated page for Flying Scotsman - https://www.railwaymuseum.org.uk/.../scotsman-on-the-tracks, or call our reservations team on 01929 475207 to book.

 

its been throwing it down for the last few hours and more to come, fingers crossed for a steamy weekend

 

TBH given the lack of significant rainfall in the area over the past fortnight or so I was somewhat surprised that steam traction had been reinstated. I had assumed that the fire risk had been reassessed only for the announcement to be made on Sunday that from Monday onwards it was back to diesel.

Does any one know at what point Dorset and Wiltshire Fire Brigade start charging "customers"?

 

It has rained most of the night following yesterdays downpour and is forecast to rain all day today from about 10 am. I think we are going to get very wet photing Waverley and hopefully Swanage steam today

 

See the update from @Rumpole above

 

Yes D6515 again. Now abandoned rainy Swanage and moved to sunny Sherborne. Fire risk? You must be joking.

 

Don, over here in Cambridge we’ve had a fair bit of rain then the suns come out and burnt it off again, I’ve no idea what it’s been like in Dorset but could it be the same?
I do recall you on another thread saying about how you couldn’t afford to make mistakes in one of your previous jobs, much as it might pain you, maybe perhaps someone at Swanage cannot afford to make a mistake?

 

I think that this highlights the misunderstanding about how quickly dead and dry undergrowth and vegetation recovers from rain after a prolonged dry spell. Please see the example I cited above of an example when running steam too quickly was a costly mistake...

I can remember vividly the circumstances alluded to above, where after a long dry spell (but nowhere near as long or hot as we have experienced this year), a couple of days of rain gave both railway and fire service some confidence that steam could resume. The day that steam resumed saw heavy rain in the morning. However, this cleared mid-morning, and by lunchtime the railway was closed for the rest of the day (for access to the site by the fire service) and, in addition to lost revenue, the railway had incurred a substantial cost in call-out fees and compensation to landowners (the latter fortunately covered by insurance as a result of the fire service not objecting to the resumption of steam haulage).
(Fortunately, this did not affect one of the areas of SSSI. If it had then there may have been fines environmental fines - though in that case mitigated by the passive advice received from the fire service).

Given the location (within the Purbeck peninsula, and in close proximity to Wareham Forest) - and the heightened local sensitivity to heathland fires following the problems there have been across the heaths on Purbeck and in Wareham Forest over recent weeks - I can only imagine that the fire service will not be that ready to provide the railway with the sort of passive advice that would help mitigate any liabilities. I would assume (though having no direct knowledge in this case) that, given the number of instances of lineside fires that have resulted in callouts this year, the fire service will be seeking to recover costs - and I imagine that the railway is not in a position to incur the sort of loss that might arise. Sadly, it is no joke!!

 

Just look at what's going on in the Harz in Germany. Steam banned on the climb from Schierke to the Brocken a couple of weeks ago due to fire risk, then after a few days rain steam was allowed up again last week. No idea what caused it, but a fire started on Saturday afternoon on the mountain and is still burning now, five days later. Several fire engines, two tank wagons full of water, seven helicopters, and now two aircraft from Italy are helping to try and get the fire under control. At least one injured firefighter as well.

 

I would expect that damage from lineside fires will be covered by the railway’s public liability insurance but fir that the be valid they would have to show that they had taken all possible measures to mitigate the risk. I think the Dorset is still officially a drought area so the railway management would have to remain cautious

 

Anyway, it's 31806 in action today according to the Swanage Railway webcam.

 

The PL will cover it this time, but after renewal...?

 

Either premium hike, excess, restrictions to cover or a combination of all three. If they were foolhardy enough to run steam when advised not to there would be no cover. It’s the same with any insurance, if your car’s nicked because you left the keys in it don’t expect the insurance company to pay up