Swanage Railway General Discussion

Untill the Titanic dock carriages and the Swanage 6 wheelers are ready, how many LSWR Salmon pink & Chocolate carriages are working, there are 2 at Bluebell and NRM, is there more?.

Have the Drummond society confirmed it's colour after overhaul, LWSR green will be good, but 53 in black does also represent when the M7 class ran push pull on the last days of steam on the Swanage branch.

 

Only one at the Bluebell - 1520, the brake third. It’s a beautifully restored carriage but doesn’t get a lot of usage because it doesn’t match any other set, and is rather low seating capacity given half the space is luggage compartment.

Tom

 

One at the Bluebell as Tom says. I wouldn’t call the one at the NRM ‘working’. It might look presentable but I believe is in poor structural condition, so it would never be allowed to run without major restoration work.

There is also the Royal saloon at Embsay that people always seem to forget about:

http://www.cs.rhrp.org.uk/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=305

I don’t think the intended livery of the M7 has been revealed. However history shows that the Drummond group do seem to be afflicted by ‘paint it BR black’ way of thinking.

 

Also worth noting that while the livery of the “Titanic”(sic) carriages isn’t yet stated, they were extensively modified in the 1930s so should either have SR livery; or will require massive amounts of structural work to backdate them to LSWR condition.

There are three other LSWR carriages at the Bluebell, but only two - No. 25, the six wheel family saloon and 494, a corridor third - can legitimately take salmon and brown livery. No. 320 is a SR conversion of two Victorian carriages onto a lengthened underframe with new centre section, so can only really have SR livery. I don’t think any of them is seen as a restoration priority.

Tom

 

I don't think you will get an operator to move stuff about on the mainline for free these days.
However it really seems like LSWR locomotives are really going to come into the limelight in the coming years. As far as I know, 30053 is coming out in Black as is correct for the branch line.
563 will stand out as a beautiful jewel in the Swanage Crown and we are all really looking forward to it coming out. I wouldn't expect it to go off to other railways immediately, as Swanage will want to sweat the asset first. But its always been said it will go elsewhere for visits and be a ambassador for the SRT.

 

I believe the intention has been stated to restore them to as built condition.

 

There is also the fear that an outside operator may be imposed by DC onto SR to run the service

 

Those are not LSW lamp brackets, but SR/BR era lamp irons. In effect the LSW arrangement was in reverse, with the socket attached to the engine and the 'iron' on the lamp or disc (which were 16" dia, not the LBSC 15").
It partly raises an interesting point about restoration, and / or curatorial practice. When built the rivetting on the smokebox would have been countersunk, the buffer beams likewise. Would anyone have them re-rivetted for appearances sake? Highly unlikely, I imagine. So we end up with an anachronistic exhibit, albeit with the best of intentions.
It looks to me that the paint job is as good as the Litchurch Lane apprentices turned out in the 1980's, which was damaged by a rough shunt at Bescot during its trip down to Alton. There was a noticeable crack between the cab and tanks when it arrived.
Pat

 

I see what you mean about lamp brackets as opposed to irons.

I did not know about the Bescot Shunt. I did wonder why the loco was repainted again following the excellent job done by the Derby Apprentices, althoughI much prefer the current livery to the "Derby" one. Time for a few more pictures.

The first shows the loco awaiting unloading at York Carriage Works on its return from Derby by road in June '83.


Next we see the loco on the NRM's wheeldrop in May '88, being prepaired for its journey to Alton by rail


Finally we see it leaving York a few day later in company with Lord Nelson and a 6 COR driving trailer (known as a Blind Nelson) heading for the shunt at Bescot.


I guess that this livery could also be carried by 563 but I know which I would prefer.

Hope this is of interest

Peter

 

Really?

 

Great photos. Thanks for sharing.
"After the passing of time it can probably be told department": 245 arrived at Alton (Platform 2) hauled by a Class 73 with 3 VB wagons as trailing brake force. The loco vacuum brake was connected and working, although it leaked off quite rapidly. To save work the driver (who also just happened to drive on the MHR) said that we should leave the BF wagons in Platform 2, draw forward of the crossover (worked by GSP) and run round the BF wagons, with me riding in 245 to mind the hand brake! This we did, recoupled to the BF, set back on to MHR metals, deposited 245 in Platform 3, and, thus the return working was marshalled. So I got to have a brief cab ride over a live railway in 245.
Pat

 

Tis what the chairman wrote in his musings

 

When DCC agreed to put £3M into the Worgret re signalling, it was done so on condition that if SR were unable to run the service itself, it had to allow another operator access to it’s tracks to do so.

Whether DCC ever choose to go down that route, or if there is another operator willing to do so, remains to be seen.

 

Is there a link please?

 

Do you have the actual wording of the condition?

 

I suspect the only thing really stopping them is that another operator would probably want a subsidy. So as long as the issue does not become political locally, I suspect DCC will wait, until they can get a government subsidy to set up the service (which might not be impossible) or SR deliver.

 

You could ask the council and they would probably have to tell you, but is that a can of worms you want to kick over?

 

There are forum members who relish opening cans of worms.

 

Possibly wrong to like, but I most definitely agree with.